Reward driven proactive control of emotional conflict

703 

Abstract Submission 

Sukalyan Deb¹, Srikanth Padmala²

¹Indian institute Of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka, ²Indian Institute Of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka

Sukalyan Deb  
Indian institute Of Science
Bangalore, Karnataka

Srikanth Padmala  
Indian Institute Of Science
Bangalore, Karnataka

Deficits in the cognitive control of salient emotional distractions have been implicated in several mental health disorders (Etkin et al., 2007). However, the majority of the past work has focused on the cognitive control of non-emotional distractors. For instance, it has been reported that the enhancement of proactive control in the presence of reward incentives resulted in the reduction of non-emotional conflict both at the level of brain and behavior (Padmala & Pessoa, 2011; Soutschek et al., 2015). Very little is known regarding whether and how reward motivation can modulate emotional conflict, which involves competition between salient task-relevant vs. task-irrelevant affective information (Etkin et al., 2006). This is important to study as resolving emotional (compared to non-emotional) conflict might involve distinct neural substrates involving the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and the amygdala (Egner et al., 2008). To address this gap, we employed functional MRI to investigate the effects of reward motivation on emotional conflict processing in the human brain.

In a 3T MRI scanner, healthy adult human volunteers (N=39; 15 males) performed an emotional face-word conflict task (Etkin et al., 2006). To manipulate motivation, each trial started with the presentation of a reward or no-reward cue, signaling an opportunity to win a performance-based bonus monetary reward or not (Fig. 1). After a variable interval, an emotional face-plus-word display was shown during the task phase. Participants were instructed to categorize the facial emotion expression while ignoring the overlaid word, which was emotionally congruent or incongruent with the facial expression (Fig. 1). In the reward cue condition, participants received a bonus reward of Rs 2 per trial for every fast and accurate response. In the no-reward cue condition, participants did not receive any bonus reward. Our paradigm resulted in a 2 Reward (reward, no-reward) x 2 Congruency (congruent, incongruent) within-subject factorial design at the task phase.

The 2x2 rmANOVA on the behavioral accuracy data revealed the main effects of Reward and Congruency along with a significant Reward x Congruency interaction. Specifically, the emotional conflict effect (i.e., incongruent vs. congruent) was reduced in the reward relative to the no-reward condition. The rmANOVA on the Reaction time data revealed only the main effects of Reward and Congruency without a significant interaction. In the fMRI data, we found increased activation during the processing of reward (vs. no-reward) cues in the ventral striatum and attentional regions, such as the intra-parietal sulcus (IPS). During the emotional conflict task phase, paralleling the behavioral interaction pattern, fMRI responses exhibited a significant Reward x Congruency interaction in the Amygdala (detected in the ROI analysis) and the Supplementary motor area (Figure 2). Finally, reward (vs. no-reward) cue-related activation across participants in the IPS predicted the behavioral accuracy interaction scores at the subsequent task phase.

The results so far suggest that a network of brain regions, including sub-cortical reward-related and cortical attentional regions, were recruited during reward anticipation, suggesting enhancement of preparatory control mechanisms. The enhanced reward-driven preparatory control helped to deal better with the emotional conflict at the subsequent task phase, reflected in the interaction patterns observed in the behavioral accuracy and amygdala responses. Notably, the enhanced preparatory activity during the processing of reward (vs. no-reward) cues predicted the behavioral interaction pattern at the subsequent task phase. Overall, these findings advance our understanding of how reward motivation influences emotional conflict processing in the healthy human brain, with implications for mental health disorders, including anxiety.

Reward and Punishment ²

Emotion and Motivation Other ¹

Executive Function, Cognitive Control and Decision Making

Activation (eg. BOLD task-fMRI)

BOLD fMRI

Cognition

Emotions

FUNCTIONAL MRI

NORMAL HUMAN

Univariate

Other - Reward processing