The relationship between attenti on and emotion: evidence from multimodal imaging in youth and adults with a nd without mental health concerns.
There is clear evidence suggesting that attention and emotion interactio ns are associated with specific responses in major brain networks and syste ms. For example\, research has shown that dorsal structures in the brain su ch as lateral parietal and dorsal lateral prefrontal regions play a signifi cant role in the control of attention\, whereas ventral structures includin g the amygdala\, ventral medial prefrontal\, and ventral lateral regions ar e associated with emotion processing. In some disorders such as depression\ , there is evidence that there may be dysregulation of function in the same neural circuits. Using a multimodal brain imaging approach\, our research team has further examined the nature of attention and emotion interactions in youth suffering from mental health disorders\, as well as in healthy you th and adults. In this talk I will show data from four recent experiments u sing fMRI\, DTI\, EEG/ERP\, and simultaneously recorded fMRI-EEG/ERP. In tw o of our studies we employed an emotional oddball paradigm that consisted o f interleaved emotional distractors and non-emotional target stimuli. This task permitted us to examine emotional responses\, non-emotional responses\ , and the effects that one type of response has on the other. Two other stu dies examined neuroanatomical differences in patient populations compared t o healthy participants\, along with markers of resting state as a function of individual differences. Taken together\, our results show temporal and s patial dynamics of attention and emotion interactions in the brain\, as wel l as functional and anatomical evidence of attentional and affective dysfun ction related to emotional reactivity and cognition.