ERP Study On The Effect Of Emotions On Cognitive Control Of University Students

Cognitive control refers to the control of distracting or conflicting information when people are faced with target information processing.Dual cognitive control theory suggests the existence of two types of cognitive control: active and reactive control.As an important cognitive ability,the development of cognitive control and emotion are integrated,and emotional states can regulate the neural mechanisms of cognitive control.At present,there is a divergence between facilitating and inhibiting the effect of emotion on cognitive control.To address the issue of the effect of emotion on dual cognitive control,this study was conducted to examine the effect of emotion on cognitive control of college students based on dual cognitive control theory,selecting college students as experimental subjects,and using event-related potential technique and AX continuous-type task paradigm to induce the corresponding emotions of the subjects by watching video clips.Study 1 used an emotion version of the AX-continuous performance task and recorded both behavioral data and EEG activity to explore the effects of positive and negative emotions on dual cognitive control in college students.Results found that positive emotions promoted reactive control and negative emotions promoted both reactive and proactive control,but neither positive nor negative emotions altered cognitive control strategies.The response times for trial type AY were significantly longer than those for trial type BX in both the positive mood condition and the negative mood condition,indicating that subjects adopted proactive control strategies and that maintenance of the target stimulus representation produced strong cognitive conflict with the subsequent appearance of the nontarget stimulus.Compared to the control condition,positive mood states and negative mood states showed more negative N2 wave amplitudes and shorter reaction times on AY,indicating that both positive and negative moods improved conflict detection and facilitated reactive control.Compared to the control condition,the negative mood state exhibited greater P3 b wave amplitude and more negative CNV wave amplitude,indicating that negative mood enhanced attentional processing of cued stimuli and that the target stimulus initiated strong response preparation,promoting proactive control.Furthermore,emotions can influence cognitive control not only directly,but also through the mediating role of heart rate.Study 2 used a negative emotion version of the AX-continuous performance task to explore the effects of sadness and anger emotions on dual cognitive control in college students using behavioral data and EEG data.Results revealed that sad mood promoted proactive control and angry mood promoted proactive and reactive control,but proactive control strategies did not change between sad mood and angry mood states.The reaction time of AY was significantly longer than that of BX in the sad mood state and the angry mood state,indicating that the subjects adopted proactive control strategies.Compared with neutral mood,sad mood states showed greater P3 b amplitude and more negative CNV amplitude,indicating that more cognitive resources were devoted to attentional processing and response preparation to cued stimuli in sad mood,facilitating proactive control.Compared to neutral mood,angry mood states exhibited more negative CNV and N2 wave amplitudes,enhancing response preparation and conflict detection,and promoting proactive and reactive control.