How does higher level cognition affect emotion? Neurophysiological and behavioral investigations

情感和认知以重要的方式相互作用。我之前的很多研究都证明了情绪会影响推理。我们对另一个方向的关系知之甚少：更高层次的认知过程如何影响情感。这就是我在这个研究项目中要研究的，特别是研究抽象思维是如何塑造情绪反应的。******根据认知双过程模型，类型2，即更高层次的认知过程，允许抽象和非情境化思维；他们是灵活的，目标导向的，他们依赖于工作记忆。我的项目的总体目标是直接地，实验性地，操纵2型加工的优势来检验它对情绪反应的因果影响。******我们将尝试使用不同的技术来增加或减少类型2处理的程度：强迫快速反应，语义或抽象推理启动，抽象或具体类比启动。我们还将使用重复经颅磁刺激（rTMS）来改变某些大脑结构的活动，这些结构对工作记忆和抽象思维至关重要。跨文化研究将使我们能够检验学习和文化对情绪反应的影响。******我们将比较推理任务（演绎推理）和注意力任务（视觉搜索；情感Stroop）中的情绪刺激和中性刺激。我们将测量情绪反应的不同维度：认知、自我报告和心理生理。交感神经觉醒将通过心率变异性和皮肤电导进行索引。我们将使用事件相关电位来测量早期视觉加工（P1）和后期更复杂的认知反应（P300, N400）。******我们将研究的主要假设是，当类型2过程被启动/可用/开发时，这放大了某些情绪反应的振幅：情绪对推理的影响，情绪刺激的视觉处理（P1），在检测威胁刺激（在视觉搜索任务中）方面的优势，甚至对情绪刺激的生理反应。******这项被提议的研究将在研究高层次的认知过程如何影响情绪方面是新颖的。先前的研究表明，特定的语义内容（启动精确的想法或概念）可以影响情绪。这项工作在研究抽象思维本身是否会影响情绪方面是新颖的。这项研究的结果可能会改变人们普遍认为情绪是自动的和反射性的观点；它可以说明智力，复杂的认知过程，实际上如何有助于人类情感的构建。

Emotion and cognition interact in important ways. Much of my previous research has documented that emotions affect reasoning. We know very little about the relation in the other direction: how higher-level cognitive processes contribute to emotion. This is what I will examine in this program of research, examining in particular how abstract thinking may shape emotional responses.******According to dual-process models of cognition, Type 2, higher-level cognitive processes, allow for abstract and decontextualized thinking; they are flexible and goal-directed and they rely on working memory. The general aim of my program is to directly, experimentally, manipulate the preponderance of Type 2 processing to examine it's causal impact on emotional responses. ******We will try to increase or decrease the extent of Type 2 processing using different techniques: forced rapid responses, priming with semantic or abstract reasoning, and priming with abstract or concrete analogies. We will also use repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) to alter the activity of certain brain structure that are key in working memory and abstract thinking. Cross-cultural studies will allow us to examine the impact of learning and culture on emotional responses. ******We will compare emotional and neutral stimuli in reasoning tasks (deductive reasoning) and attentional tasks (visual search; emotional Stroop). We will measure different dimensions of the emotional response: cognitive, self-report, and psychophysiological. Sympathetic arousal will be indexed using heart rate variability and skin conductance. We will use event-related potentials to measure early visual processing (P1) and later, more cognitively complex responses (P300, N400). ******The main hypothesis we will examine is that when Type 2 processes are primed/available/developed, this magnifies the amplitude of certain emotional responses: the effect of emotion on reasoning, the visual processing of emotional stimuli (P1), the advantage in detecting threatening stimuli (in the visual search task), even physiological responses to emotional stimuli.******The proposed research will be novel in examining how higher-level cognitive processes affect emotions. Previous work has shown that specific semantic contents (priming precise thoughts or concepts) can affect emotion. The proposed work is novel in examining whether the process of abstract thinking itself affects emotion. Results of this research could nuance the widespread view that emotions are automatic and reflexive; it could illustrate how intelligence, complex cognitive processes, actually contribute to the construction of human emotion.