Characterizing the anomalous cognition-emotion interactions in externalizing. Biol Psychol 2012 Sep;91(1):48-58
Date
05/15/2012Pubmed ID
22579718Pubmed Central ID
PMC3407296DOI
10.1016/j.biopsycho.2012.05.001Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84862331244 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 23 CitationsAbstract
Externalizing traits are characterized by exaggerated emotional (e.g., frustration, anger) and behavioral (e.g., drug seeking, reactive aggression) reactions to motivationally significant stimuli. Explanations for this exaggerated reactivity emphasize attention, executive function, and affective processes, but the associations among these processes are rarely investigated. To examine these interactions, we measure fear potentiated startle (FPS; Experiment 1) and neural activation (Experiment 2) in an instructed fear paradigm that manipulates attentional focus, demands on executive functioning, and emotion. In both studies, exaggerated emotional reactivity associated with externalizing was specific to conditions that focused attention on threat information and placed minimal demands on executive functioning. Results suggest that a crucial cognition-emotion interaction affecting externalizing is the over-prioritization and over-allocation of attention to motivationally significant information, which in turn, may impair executive functions and affective regulation.
Author List
Baskin-Sommers AR, Curtin JJ, Larson CL, Stout D, Kiehl KA, Newman JPAuthor
Christine Larson PhD Associate Professor in the Psychology department at University of Wisconsin - MilwaukeeMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdultAttention
Brain
Brain Mapping
Cognition
Emotions
Executive Function
Fear
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Neuropsychological Tests
Reflex, Startle
