Asymmetric contributions of the fronto-parietal network to emotional conflict in the word–face interference task

Francesca De Luca; Manuel Petrucci; Bianca Monachesi; Michal Lavidor; Anna Pecchinenda

doi:10.3390/sym12101701

Asymmetric contributions of the fronto-parietal network to emotional conflict in the word–face interference task

Francesca De Luca, Manuel Petrucci, Bianca Monachesi, Michal Lavidor, Anna Pecchinenda

Department of Psychology

University of Rome La Sapienza

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The fronto-parietal network is involved in top-down and bottom-up processes necessary to achieve cognitive control. We investigated the role of asymmetric enhancement of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC) and right posterior parietal cortex (rPPC) in cognitive control under conditions of emotional conflict arising from emotional distractors. The effects of anodal tDCS over the lDLPFC/cathodal over the rPPC and the effects of anodal tDCS over the rPPC/cathodal over the lDLPFC were compared to sham tDCS in a double-blind design. The findings showed that anodal stimulation over the lDLPFC reduced interference from emotional distractors, but only when participants had already gained experience with the task. In contrast, having already performed the task only eliminated facilitation effects for positive stimuli. Importantly, anodal stimulation of the rPPC did not affect distractors’ interference. Therefore, the present findings indicate that the lDLPFC plays a crucial role in implementing top-down control to resolve emotional conflict, but that experience with the task is necessary to reveal this role.

Original language	English
Article number	1701
Pages (from-to)	1-18
Number of pages	18
Journal	Symmetry
Volume	12
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/sym12101701
State	Published - Oct 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Funding

Funding: AP is funded by the Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Universitá e della Ricerca (M.I.U.R.) grant #RM118164322A5BDE; ML was funded by a visiting professorship from Sapienza University of Rome, grant # C26V18S4ZF; FDL is funded by a PhD studentship in Behavioural Neuroscience from the Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Universitá e della Ricerca (M.I.U.R.).

Funders	Funder number
Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Universitá e della Ricerca	118164322A5BDE
Sapienza Università di Roma

Keywords

Emotional conflict
Fronto-parietal network
Left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Right posterior parietal cortex
Stimulus valence
TDCS
Word–face interference

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10.3390/sym12101701

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title = "Asymmetric contributions of the fronto-parietal network to emotional conflict in the word–face interference task",

abstract = "The fronto-parietal network is involved in top-down and bottom-up processes necessary to achieve cognitive control. We investigated the role of asymmetric enhancement of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC) and right posterior parietal cortex (rPPC) in cognitive control under conditions of emotional conflict arising from emotional distractors. The effects of anodal tDCS over the lDLPFC/cathodal over the rPPC and the effects of anodal tDCS over the rPPC/cathodal over the lDLPFC were compared to sham tDCS in a double-blind design. The findings showed that anodal stimulation over the lDLPFC reduced interference from emotional distractors, but only when participants had already gained experience with the task. In contrast, having already performed the task only eliminated facilitation effects for positive stimuli. Importantly, anodal stimulation of the rPPC did not affect distractors{\textquoteright} interference. Therefore, the present findings indicate that the lDLPFC plays a crucial role in implementing top-down control to resolve emotional conflict, but that experience with the task is necessary to reveal this role.",

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author = "{De Luca}, Francesca and Manuel Petrucci and Bianca Monachesi and Michal Lavidor and Anna Pecchinenda",

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Asymmetric contributions of the fronto-parietal network to emotional conflict in the word–face interference task

Abstract

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Keywords

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