The human brain has the capacity to integrate various sources of information
and continuously adapts our behavior according to situational needs in order
to allow a healthy functioning. Emotion–cognition interactions are a key
example for such integrative processing. However, the neuronal correlates
investigating the effects of emotion on cognition remain to be explored and
replication studies are needed. Previous neuroimaging studies have indicated
an involvement of emotion and cognition related brain structures including
parietal and prefrontal cortices and limbic brain regions. Here, we employed
whole brain event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during
an affective number Stroop task and aimed at replicating previous findings
using an adaptation of an existing task design in 30 healthy young adults. The
Stroop task is an indicator of cognitive control and enables the
quantification of interference in relation to variations in cognitive load. By
the use of emotional primes (negative/neutral) prior to Stroop task
performance, an emotional variation is added as well. Behavioral in-scanner
data showed that negative primes delayed and disrupted cognitive processing.
Trials with high cognitive demand furthermore negatively influenced cognitive
control mechanisms. Neuronally, the emotional primes consistently activated
emotion-related brain regions (e.g., amygdala, insula, and prefrontal brain
regions) while Stroop task performance lead to activations in cognition
networks of the brain (prefrontal cortices, superior temporal lobe, and
insula). When assessing the effect of emotion on cognition, increased
cognitive demand led to decreases in neural activation in response to
emotional stimuli (negative > neutral) within prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and
insular cortex. Overall, these results suggest that emotional primes
significantly impact cognitive performance and increasing cognitive demand
leads to reduced neuronal activation in emotion related brain regions, and
therefore support previous findings investigating emotion–cognition
interaction in healthy adults. Moreover, emotion and cognition seem to be
tightly related to each other, as indicated by shared neural networks involved
in both of these processes. Emotion processing, cognitive control, and their
interaction are crucial for healthy functioning and a lack thereof is related
to psychiatric disorders such as, disruptive behavior disorders. Future
studies may investigate the neural characteristics of children and adolescents
with disruptive behavior disorders