An ERP Study Of The Effect Of Self-conscious Emotion On Executive Function

The effect of emotion on executive function has always been one of the focuses of researchers.Studies have found that emotional processing exerts a strong influence over different types of cognitive performance.It is shown that emotion has significant influence on executive functions such as attention,refresh,problem solving and behavior control.The related studies on the influence of emotion on executive functions are divided into two categories: one is to explore the influence of positive emotion on executive functions,the other is to explore the influence of negative emotion on executive functions.Whether it is positive or negative emotions,previous studies mainly discuss its influence on executive functions from the basic emotions,but for higher levels of self-conscious emotions are rarely studied.Self-conscious emotions are a very important kind of social emotions,that are indispensable in our lives.In addition,a large amount of evidence shows that emotions such as pleasure and sadness are different from the neutral emotion group in the executive functions of inhibition control and working memory,but few researchers systematically explore the cognitive neural mechanism of self-conscious emotion on executive functions.How do self-conscious emotion affect each component of executive functions?Therefore,there are three experiments to explore the influence of self-conscious emotions on each component of executive functions and its neural basis.Experiment 1 used the digit value(more vs.less than 5)and digit parity(odd vs.even)task-switching paradigm to investigate the behavioral and EEG characteristics of the effects of different self-conscious emotions on cognitive flexibility.The mixed design of 3(Self-conscious emotional type:pride,neutral,shame)× 2(task difficulty:repeat,switch)was adopted.The behavioral results show that switching tasks have longer RTs and lower accuracy rate than repeated tasks.Moreover,the switch costs under conditions of pride and shame is greater.ERP results showed larger P3 amplitude for switching task than repeated task,indicating that the task induced significant switch effect.Additionally,there was smaller P3 difference amplitudes for shame and pride compared to neutral,however,no significant differences were between three groups in the N2 difference amplitudes.Experiment 2 used the N-back paradigm to investigate the behavioral and EEG characteristics of the effects of different self-conscious emotions on working memory updaing.The mixed design of 3(Self-conscious emotional type: pride,neutral,shame)× 2(cognitive load:1-back、2-back)was adopted.The behavioral results show that under the condition of pride and shame,the response time of high cognitive load was longer and the correct rate was lower than that of low cognitive load.Moreover,regardless of the cognitive load condition,the RTs of pride and shame emotion was significantly longer,while the accuracy rate was significantly different only under high cognitive load condition.ERP results showed larger N1 amplitude and lower P2 difference amplitudes for pride compared to neutral.Experiment 3 used the double choice oddball paradigm to investigate the behavioral and EEG characteristics of the effects of different self-conscious emotions on inhibitory control.The mixed design of 3(Self-conscious emotional type: pride,neutral,shame)× 2(stimulus task: standard stimulus、deviant stimulus)was adopted.The behavioral results show that deviant stimulus have longer RTs and lower accuracy rate than standard stimulus.Moreover,there were significant emotional effects on inhibitory control tasks,the pride and shame was significantly longer RTs and lower accuracy rate than neutral emotion.ERP results showed larger N2 and P3 amplitudes for deviant stimulus compared to standard stimulus,the show that the deviant stimulus can induce significant behavioral inhibition effect.Additionally,there was smaller N2 amplitudes for shame compared to pride and neutral,however,no significant differences were between pride and neutral.Lastly,there was larger P3 difference amplitudes for shame and pride compared to neutral.To sum up,this study draws the following conclusions:(1)Simple task paradigm can effectively induce self-conscious emotion;(2)In experiment 1,the behavior and ERP results showed that pride and shame inhibited cognitive flexibility,and the inhibitory effects were consistent,mainly manifested in the middle and late stages and may be related to decision-making tasks;(3)In experiment 2,the effect of self-conscious emotion on updaing function was not synchronized with ERP.The behavior results showed that pride and shame impaired refresh function,while ERP showed that pride had an effect on updaing function,mainly manifested in the early stage,which may be related to selective attention;(4)In experiment 3,the behavior and EEG results showed that pride and shame affect inhibition control,and the interference effects were inconsistent.The interference effect of shame is mainly reflected in the early、middle and late stages,which may be related to reactive conflict and inhibitory control,while the interference effect of pride is only reflected in the middle and late stages,which may be related to inhibitory control;(5)Combined with the above three experiments,the results show that the influence of self-conscious emotion on executive function is not a general mode,but only on specific components.