Trends in Cognitive Sciences
OpinionEmotional foundations of cognitive control
Section snippets
Does cognitive control depend on emotion?
Cognitive control refers to mental processes that allow behavior to vary adaptively depending on current goals. It is multifaceted, with one of its core functions being to override, restrain, or inhibit unwanted yet dominant response tendencies [1]. Cognitive control is recruited during low-level reaction time tasks, but also during complex self-regulatory behaviors [2]. For example, cognitive control could involve inhibiting habitual reading responses on the Stroop task (see Glossary) [3],
Emotion–cognition interactions
Historically, emotion has been cast as an enemy of cognitive control, undermining any attempts to exercise restraint [11]. However, most contemporary theorists view emotion and cognition as fully integrated, only minimally decomposable, and without clear demarcation in the human brain 12, 13.
To be sure, there is a rich tradition of research on the topic of emotion–cognition interactions [14], with specific research on the impact of emotion on control [15]. However, unlike past treatments, which
What is emotion?
According to a poll of 35 distinguished emotion researchers [21], emotion can be described as consisting of ‘neural circuits (that are at least partially dedicated), response systems, and a feeling state/process that motivates and organizes cognition and action’ (p. 367). This description maps onto the common view that emotion is characterized by an organic mix of subjective experience, changes in physiological arousal, and behavioral expression [22]. It also maps onto the view that emotion
Cognitive control begins with conflict
Converging evidence suggests that cognitive conflict instigates control efforts. We define conflict as any disagreement or discrepancy between mental representations, response tendencies, or actual behavior. Cybernetic models, based on simple feedback loops, have been very successful in modeling control 25, 26, 27, identifying three main components: (i) goals/set points that act as desired standards with motivational value (Box 1); (ii) comparators/monitors that scan the current state of the
Conflict is aversive
Conflict is thus at the heart of control. Conflict, however, is not affectively neutral. According to some cybernetic theorists, the detection of conflict is accompanied by various affective states, including negative affect when the rate of conflict reduction is too slow 27, 41. According to revised reinforcement sensitivity theory [28], the system that detects conflict not only inhibits ongoing behavior and enhances risk assessment but also produces feelings of worry, caution, and uncertainty
Variation in conflict-related emotion predicts variation in control
Considerable evidence indicates that the experience of conflict is aversive 54, 58, 68, and that conflict instigates control 36, 73. Does this mean that the affective quality of conflict impels control? Or, is negative affect merely epiphenomenal – a mechanistically inert byproduct of the neural activities that control behavior [74]?
There are many reasons why emotion would play an important role in the engagement of cognitive and behavioral resources to resolve conflicts. Most notably, emotion
Emotion is necessary but not sufficient for recruiting control
It is important to note that although conflict-related emotion may be a necessary precursor for control, it is likely to be not sufficient. People high in trait anxiety (Box 2), for example, respond to conflict with heightened emotion but may ruminate and worry about the significance of that emotion instead of using it to motivate corrective behavior 70, 88. There are a variety of ways to regulate affective states, only some of which focus on the source of the emotion, with other solutions
Concluding remarks
Interest in cognitive control has blossomed in the past decade, perhaps unsurprisingly given that it is predictive of so many important life outcomes [6]. Despite this interest, however, answers to basic questions of what control is and how it is initiated remain elusive. The main contribution of this opinion article is to suggest that cognitive control can be understood as an emotional process; emotion, in our view, is an essential component of control, alerting organisms to its need and
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation to M.I., and by grant R21 AA017282 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to B.D.B. We thank Blair Saunders, Elliot Berkman, Greg Hajcak Proudfit, Nathaniel Elkins-Brown, Elizabeth Page-Gould, William Cunningham, Rimma Teper, and Naomi Sarah Ball for valuable insights and help along the way.
Glossary
- Affect
- is an umbrella term for psychological states that involve valuation, or a ‘good-for-me’ versus ‘bad-for-me’ judgment. Affective states include transient states, full-blown emotional states with clear instigators, and more diffuse mood states where the instigator in unclear.
- Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)
- is a thick belt of cortex that surrounds the corpus callosum. Although early research segregated functions of the ACC into a more emotional rostral part and a more cognitive dorsal part,
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