Single-trial EEG-informed fMRI analysis of emotional decision problems in hot executive function.

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Abstract

Executive function refers to conscious control in psychological process which relates to thinking and action. Emotional decision is a part of hot executive function and contains emotion and logic elements. As a kind of important social adaptation ability, more and more attention has been paid in recent years.

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Different contributions of the human amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex to decision-making.

Antoine Bechara, Hanna Damasio, Antonio R. Damasio … (1999)

The somatic marker hypothesis proposes that decision-making is a process that depends on emotion. Studies have shown that damage of the ventromedial prefrontal (VMF) cortex precludes the ability to use somatic (emotional) signals that are necessary for guiding decisions in the advantageous direction. However, given the role of the amygdala in emotional processing, we asked whether amygdala damage also would interfere with decision-making. Furthermore, we asked whether there might be a difference between the roles that the amygdala and VMF cortex play in decision-making. To address these two questions, we studied a group of patients with bilateral amygdala, but not VMF, damage and a group of patients with bilateral VMF, but not amygdala, damage. We used the "gambling task" to measure decision-making performance and electrodermal activity (skin conductance responses, SCR) as an index of somatic state activation. All patients, those with amygdala damage as well as those with VMF damage, were (1) impaired on the gambling task and (2) unable to develop anticipatory SCRs while they pondered risky choices. However, VMF patients were able to generate SCRs when they received a reward or a punishment (play money), whereas amygdala patients failed to do so. In a Pavlovian conditioning experiment the VMF patients acquired a conditioned SCR to visual stimuli paired with an aversive loud sound, whereas amygdala patients failed to do so. The results suggest that amygdala damage is associated with impairment in decision-making and that the roles played by the amygdala and VMF in decision-making are different.

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A method to standardize a reference of scalp EEG recordings to a point at infinity.

D. Yao (2001)

The effect of an active reference in EEG recording is one of the oldest technical problems in EEG practice. In this paper, a method is proposed to approximately standardize the reference of scalp EEG recordings to a point at infinity. This method is based on the fact that the use of scalp potentials to determine the neural electrical activities or their equivalent sources does not depend on the reference, so we may approximately reconstruct the equivalent sources from scalp EEG recordings with a scalp point or average reference. Then the potentials referenced at infinity are approximately reconstructed from the equivalent sources. As a point at infinity is far from all the possible neural sources, this method may be considered as a reference electrode standardization technique (REST). The simulation studies performed with assumed neural sources included effects of electrode number, volume conductor model and noise on the performance of REST, and the significance of REST in EEG temporal analysis. The results showed that REST is potentially very effective for the most important superficial cortical region and the standardization could be especially important in recovering the temporal information of EEG recordings.

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The effects of acute stress on core executive functions: A meta-analysis and comparison with cortisol.

Grant Shields, Matthew Sazma, Andrew Yonelinas (2016)

Core executive functions such as working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility are integral to daily life. A growing body of research has suggested that acute stress may impair core executive functions. However, there are a number of inconsistencies in the literature, leading to uncertainty about how or even if acute stress influences core executive functions. We addressed this by conducting a meta-analysis of acute stress effects on working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility. We found that stress impaired working memory and cognitive flexibility, whereas it had nuanced effects on inhibition. Many of these effects were moderated by other variables, such as sex. In addition, we compared effects of acute stress on core executive functions to effects of cortisol administration and found some striking differences. Our findings indicate that stress works through mechanisms aside from or in addition to cortisol to produce a state characterized by more reactive processing of salient stimuli but greater control over actions. We conclude by highlighting some important future directions for stress and executive function research.