Neural correlates of emotion-attention interactions: From perception, learning, and memory to social cognition, individual differences, and training interventions

Dolcos, Florin; Katsumi, Yuta; Moore, Matthew; Berggren, Nick; de Gelder, Beatrice; Derakshan, Nazanin; Hamm, Alfons O; Koster, Ernst HW; Ladouceur, Cecile D; Okon-Singer, Hadas; Pegna, Alan J; Richter, Thalia; Schweizer, Susanne; Van den Stock, Jan; Ventura-Bort, Carlos; Weymar, Mathias; Dolcos, Sanda

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.08.017

Neural correlates of emotion-attention interactions: From perception, learning, and memory to social cognition, individual differences, and training interventions

Author:

Dolcos, Florin

Katsumi, Yuta ; Moore, Matthew ; Berggren, Nick ; de Gelder, Beatrice ; Derakshan, Nazanin ; Hamm, Alfons O ; Koster, Ernst HW ; Ladouceur, Cecile D ; Okon-Singer, Hadas ; Pegna, Alan J ; Richter, Thalia ; Schweizer, Susanne ; Van den Stock, Jan ; Ventura-Bort, Carlos ; Weymar, Mathias ; Dolcos, Sanda

Keywords:

Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Behavioral Sciences, Neurosciences, Neurosciences & Neurology, Emotion, Attention, Perception, Learning and memory, Individual differences, Training interventions, Psychophysiology, Neuroimaging, Affective neuroscience, Health and well-being, Linguistics, POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER, EVENT-RELATED FMRI, MEDIAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX, TRANSCRANIAL MAGNETIC STIMULATION, EPISODIC-SPECIFICITY INDUCTION, REMITTED DEPRESSED-PATIENTS, SKIN-CONDUCTANCE RESPONSES, REGULATORY BRAIN-FUNCTION, NON-CONSCIOUS RECOGNITION, CEREBRAL-BLOOD-FLOW, Affective Symptoms, Emotions, Humans, Individuality, Learning, Mood Disorders, Psychotherapy, Social Cognition, Affective Neuroscience, Health and Well-being, Individual Differences, Learning and Memory, Training Interventions, 11 Medical and Health Sciences, 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, Behavioral Science & Comparative Psychology, 32 Biomedical and clinical sciences, 42 Health sciences

Abstract:

Due to their ability to capture attention, emotional stimuli tend to benefit from enhanced perceptual processing, which can be helpful when such stimuli are task-relevant but hindering when they are task-irrelevant. Altered emotion-attention interactions have been associated with symptoms of affective disturbances, and emerging research focuses on improving emotion-attention interactions to prevent or treat affective disorders. In line with the Human Affectome Project's emphasis on linguistic components, we also analyzed the language used to describe attention-related aspects of emotion, and highlighted terms related to domains such as conscious awareness, motivational effects of attention, social attention, and emotion regulation. These terms were discussed within a broader review of available evidence regarding the neural correlates of (1) Emotion-Attention Interactions in Perception, (2) Emotion-Attention Interactions in Learning and Memory, (3) Individual Differences in Emotion-Attention Interactions, and (4) Training and Interventions to Optimize Emotion-Attention Interactions. This comprehensive approach enabled an integrative overview of the current knowledge regarding the mechanisms of emotion-attention interactions at multiple levels of analysis, and identification of emerging directions for future investigations.