The authors have no acknowledgements.

The protocol follows the guidelines of Tel-Aviv University Helsinki human research ethics committee.
1. Word Selection and Matching 
<ol>
	<li>Create lists of words for each word category of interest. For example, make lists of generally emotional words (e.g., HATE, POX), concern relevance words (e.g., RAPE, VICTIM), and neutral words that are preferably orthographic neighbors21 of the emotional/concern relevant words (e.g., GATE, BOX). Create lists with as many words as possible as not all of these words will be used; a smaller subset of matched words will later be selected.&#160;
	<ol>
		<li>When deemed necessary, verify the valence/emotionality/arousal of the words by a questionnaire rating the words on a rating scale (e.g., from 1 to 7). Attempt to select words that are at the extreme end of the scale. If comparing emotional words with positive words, attempt to include words that are matched on (absolute) emotionality and arousal scores.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Write for each word on the lists, its length in characters as well as its estimated frequency in the appropriate language (for English words, use log hyperspace analogue to language (HAL) frequency22) in order to match the word lists on lexical factors. 
	NOTE: This is important as these variables can also affect color naming latency (e.g., 21, 23). Arguably, the most important lexical attributes to control are word frequency, length, and if possible orthographic neighborhood (which naturally intersect with length).
	<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
		<tbody>
			<tr>
				<td></td>
				<td>Emotional&#160;</td>
				<td></td>
				<td></td>
				<td>Neutral</td>
				<td></td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td>Word</td>
				<td>Length</td>
				<td>Frequency</td>
				<td>Word</td>
				<td>Length</td>
				<td>Frequency</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td>hate</td>
				<td>4</td>
				<td>10.7</td>
				<td>gate</td>
				<td>4</td>
				<td>9.7</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td>dead</td>
				<td>4</td>
				<td>11.2</td>
				<td>dear</td>
				<td>4</td>
				<td>10.29</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td>poor</td>
				<td>4</td>
				<td>10.9</td>
				<td>pool</td>
				<td>4</td>
				<td>9.7</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td>snake</td>
				<td>5</td>
				<td>8.6</td>
				<td>shake</td>
				<td>5</td>
				<td>8.6</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td>gloom</td>
				<td>5</td>
				<td>8.1</td>
				<td>bloom</td>
				<td>5</td>
				<td>8.2</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td>bomb</td>
				<td>4</td>
				<td>9.64</td>
				<td>comb</td>
				<td>4</td>
				<td>7.39</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td>pox</td>
				<td>3</td>
				<td>7.1</td>
				<td>box</td>
				<td>3</td>
				<td>12.1</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td></td>
				<td></td>
				<td></td>
				<td></td>
				<td></td>
				<td></td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td>Average</td>
				<td>4.1</td>
				<td>9.4</td>
				<td>Average</td>
				<td>4.1</td>
				<td>9.4</td>
			</tr>
		</tbody>
	</table>
	Table1: Example of a List of Words Matched on Length, Orthographic Neighborhood, and Average Frequency.</li>
	<li>Select words by adding pairs each time that match in length and frequency, and that are orthographic neighbors of one another (for example replace one of the emotional word letters with another to form a neutral orthographic neighbor, (see Table 1).
	<ol>
		<li>If a complete match is not possible, balance the bias of frequency in the subsequent pairs of words by adding a pair of words with a small gap in frequency in the opposite direction of the gap formed by the previous pair of words. Ensure that the final lists of matched words contain 20 - 50 words in each word category in order to have a minimum of 20 trials in a block to collect sufficient data and avoid repetition of words and hence habituation3. 
		NOTE: If many words are difficult to obtain, it is possible to introduce some repetition of words. However try to keep repetitions to a minimum as it may dilute the ESE due to habituation3.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Check that the final list is matched as much as possible on all lexical variables (e.g., word frequency, word length). Perform a statistical validation (student&#39;s t-test) to confirm that the final lists do not differ significantly from each other on frequency.</li>
</ol>
2. Preparation of Experimental Design
<ol>
	<li>Select the design: Blocked (the stimuli are presented in separate blocks of trials defined by word valence) or mixed (the stimuli are presented in one block in which emotion and neutral words are intermixed in the same list).
	<ol>
		<li>Choose a blocked design if seeking to test global effects at the level of the word category. 
		NOTE: Effect sizes are usually higher in a blocked design than in a mixed presentation4, 5. Therefore, blocked design is often the favored method of presentation.</li>
		<li>Choose a mixed design if seeking to decompose the ESE at the individual word level and for &#34;fast&#34; and &#34;slow&#34; effects, as a negative item can affect not only its own naming (the ESE) but also that of the immediately following item. Consequently, the former is dubbed &#39;fast effect,&#39; the latter &#39;slow effect&#39;24, 25.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>In a blocked experimental design, select a fixed or counterbalanced/randomized order of blocks.
	<ol>
		<li>For a counterbalanced order present the two possible order of blocks to different groups of participants: 
		Group A: Neutral Block - Emotional Block 
		Group B: Emotional Block - Neutral Block 
		NOTE: In this balanced design, an ESE is expected to emerge only in the group performing in the first order due to sustained effects in the group performing in the second order (see Figure 4)3. We therefore suggest using a fixed presentation of blocks.</li>
		<li>For a fixed order of blocks present first the neutral block then the emotional block, and if desired present an additional new neutral block flowing the emotional block in order to examine sustained effects: Neutral Block 1 - Emotional Block - Neutral Block 2. 
		NOTE: In this setup, two effects can be observed. The first is the canonical ESE, calculated as the difference in performance between the emotional block and the first neutral block. A second is a sustained effect, obtained by subtracting the mean latency of the second neutral block from that of the first neutral block. A positive difference indicates the presence of sustained effects brought about by the emotional block.
		<ol>
			<li>In order to rule out confounding through training or fatigue, advisably perform an auxiliary experiment with several blocks of neutral items only. 
			NOTE: With three blocks of 40 neutral words, no residual fatigue is expected (see Figure 3)3. If there are more than 40 words per block, or more experimental blocks, it may be necessary to control for effects of fatigue by counterbalancing block order (but check for order-of-blocks effects in the statistical analysis).</li>
		</ol>
		</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
</ol>
3. Experimental Programing and Randomization
<ol>
	<li>Choose a computer software or programing language to serve as a vehicle to present the stimuli and measure the participant&#39;s responses.
	<ol>
		<li>Optionally, use the commercially available DirectRT software which is relatively easy to deploy and reliable. See Supplemental Code File for a DirectRT executable excel file as an example for a typical programed ESE experiment. Some additional software packages are SuperLab and E-prime, which are also suitable alternatives for governing the experiment.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Select the method of responding: manual or oral. Both types of responding are appropriate.
	<ol>
		<li>For keyboard activated responding, use a longer training session in order for the participant to learn the mapping of keys onto the ink colors (of about 20 - 40 trials).</li>
		<li>For vocal responding use a shorter training session (of 4 - 8 trials). Set the reaction time to be measured from the outset of the stimulus to the first phoneme said. 
		NOTE: Vocal responses pose difficulties at the stage of deciphering the responses (one must listen to the recordings and classify errors). However, a new algorithm that mechanically classifies the vocal recordings can render actual human classification gratuitous26. An advantage of oral responses is that the resulting auditory files can be further analyzed (via other dedicated programs) for vocal parameters associated with emotion3.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Choose the ink-colors to be assigned to the words (e.g., the colors blue, green, red, and purple). Use easily discriminable colors against a well contrasted background (e.g., white or grey). If key-press responding is used, use no more than 4 colors, so that the mapping of colors to the keys is easily mastered. 
	NOTE: If vocal responding is used, it is possible to use many more colors. Recall though that with a computer algorithm to classify the data, voice-identification errors increase with the number of colors (= responses).</li>
	<li>Use an easily legible font, and size for the words.</li>
	<li>Since the preferred approach is to use no repetition of words, assign to each word a single color randomly by the computer program for every participant.</li>
	<li>Present each word singly around the middle of the computer screen. Optionally, introduce a small amount of spatial uncertainty, so that each word is presented in a random different position approximately 50 pixels around the center (e.g., see Supplemental Code File). This is done in order to discourage participants focusing on a small section of the word (thus circumventing reading).</li>
	<li>Prepare a short training block to familiarize the participant with the task and the stimuli. For vocal responding, a few trials using the word &#39;example&#39; in each of the experimental colors may suffice (with computerized identification of data, a whole session is needed to train the voice-identification algorithm); for key-press responding, as many as 20 - 40 trials may be necessary to master the mapping of the colors.</li>
	<li>Following training, present the experimental blocks (e.g., three blocks of neutral-emotional and neutral words). Introduce short breaks between successive blocks of trials (of say, 30-60 seconds each). Do not allow the next block to begin before the designated interval for the break has elapsed as participants tend to rush through the experiment in order to finish it quickly.</li>
	<li>Prepare the task instructions. At the start of each block, present the following instruction &#39;Respond to the ink color of the word as quickly and accurately as possible.&#39; Avoid mentioning word reading, or that the word should be ignored as this request may artificially augment reading the words (see ironic process theory, e.g., 27).</li>
	<li>Specify the inter-trial or inter-stimulus interval (ISI) between experimental trials of a stimulus and the successive stimulus. Typically use an ISI of 500 msec (in blocked presentation). 
	NOTE: Short ISI may promote shorter responses than longer ISI and carry over-effects with emotion items have been reported for ISI up to 1,000 msec24.</li>
	<li>Optional: Add an anxiety questionnaire at the end of the experiment or in a separate session. This provides for a baseline measure of the participant&#39;s anxiety, such as the state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI)28.</li>
</ol>
4. Subject Selection and Preparation
<ol>
	<li>Once programing is completed, recruit participants preferably from the same age-group and background. Participants can enroll for course credit, for pay, or on a voluntary basis.</li>
	<li>Make sure participants are native speakers of the language used in the study, and do not have any attention deficits or color blindness.</li>
	<li>Guide the participant to a quiet room in front of a computer. Explain the task instructions and ask the participant to read additional instructions written on the computer screen.</li>
</ol>
5. Data and Statistical Analysis
<ol>
	<li>As a rule, perform reaction time analyses with respect to correct responses only. Also, exclude extreme responses.
	<ol>
		<li>Typically, exclude responses faster or smaller than 2.5 SD around the mean. Nevertheless, be careful not to discard more than 5% of the data. Error rates are typically small, but it is still advisable to compare them across conditions and rule out a speed-accuracy tradeoff.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>With a fixed presentation order, perform planned comparisons (or a student&#39;s t-test, if only two blocks are administered) with a designated statistical software such as SPSS or STATISTICA (here instructions are given for STATISTICA). For testing of the ESE, compare the emotion block with the first neutral block. For sustained effects compare the second neutral block (which followed the emotional block) with the first neutral block.
	<ol>
		<li>Perform planned comparisons by choosing -Statistics-&#62;Advanced Linear/Non-Linear Models-&#62;General Linear Models-&#62;More results -&#62; Planed comps.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>When the order of blocks is counterbalanced across participants, perform an ANOVA with Block Valence as a within-subject factor and Order of Blocks as a between-subject factor.
	<ol>
		<li>Perform ANOVA by choosing -Statistics-&#62;Advanced Linear/Non-Linear Models-&#62;General Linear Models.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
</ol>

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<li>Kendall, P. C., Finch, A. J., Auerbach, S. M., Hooke, J. F., Mikulka, P. J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=((State-Trait+Anxiety+Inventory+-+Systematic+Evaluation%5BTitle%5D)+AND+%22J.Consult.Clin.Psychol%22%5BJournal%5D)">State-Trait Anxiety Inventory - Systematic Evaluation.</a> J.Consult.Clin.Psychol. 44 (3), 406-412 (1976).</li>
<li>Dresler, T., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=((Reliability+of+the+emotional+Stroop+task%3A+An+investigation+of+patients+with+panic+disorder%5BTitle%5D)+AND+%22J.Psychiatr.Res%22%5BJournal%5D)">Reliability of the emotional Stroop task: An investigation of patients with panic disorder.</a> J.Psychiatr.Res. 46 (9), 1243-1248 (2012).</li>
<li>Eide, P., Kemp, A., Silberstein, R. B., Nathan, P. J., Stough, C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=((Test-retest+reliability+of+the+emotional+stroop+task%3A+Examining+the+paradox+of+measurement+change%5BTitle%5D)+AND+%22J.Psychol%22%5BJournal%5D)">Test-retest reliability of the emotional stroop task: Examining the paradox of measurement change.</a> J.Psychol. 136 (5), 514-520 (2002).</li>
<li>Macleod, C., Mathews, A., Tata, P. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=((Attentional+Bias+in+Emotional+Disorders%5BTitle%5D)+AND+%22J.Abnorm.Psychol%22%5BJournal%5D)">Attentional Bias in Emotional Disorders.</a> J.Abnorm.Psychol. 95 (1), 15-20 (1986).</li>
</ol>

The authors have nothing to disclose.

The ESE comprises a very simple task: The participant names the ink color of singly presented words. This simple task yields results of both pragmatic and theoretical consequence. The ESE documents the fact that people are sensitive to the emotional valence entailed in stimuli although this feature is completely irrelevant to the task at hand.
The ESE has evolved into an immensely popular method for probing emotion and anxiety with both patient and non-patient populations1, 74<...

Modern life is replete with emotion and stress. Who has avoided the emergency room or (witnessing) a traffic accident? In order to perform efficiently under such stressful situations, it is important to preserve one's composure by focusing on the relevant stimuli. However, research has shown that the emotional valence of the stimulus can affect attention, in particular modulate the speed of processing. In the laboratory, one of the most popular paradigms to study the effect of negative stimuli on performance is the emotional Stroop task. The typical finding is that it takes people longer to name the ink color of emotion words than that of neutral words, the Emotional Stroop Effect (ESE). There are several accounts that attempt to explain the observed slowdown attributing attention3, freezing2, or mood3, however it is still a matter of current debate.
The experimental setup of the emotional Stroop task is well known. Words in color are presented singly for view and the participant's task is to name the ink color of each word as quickly and accurately as possible. The words come from two categories of different valence. The first category includes negative words (e.g., DEATH) or words related to a specific psychopathology (e.g., GERMS with obsessive-compulsive patients or BATTLE with post-traumatic stress disorder patients). The second category includes neutral words (e.g., CHAIR). The ESE is the difference in color-naming latency between the emotional and the neutral words. The stimuli can be presented in a single block with emotion and neutral words intermixed in a random fashion or in two separate blocks defined by word category. The slowdown with emotion words is usually more pronounced when the ESE is derived in the blocked design4, 5. Therefore, the block design has become the method of choice for researches of the ESE and it is the method applied in this protocol too (see Figure 1 for an illustration of the emotional Stroop experimental setup).
<img alt="Neutral vs. emotional word categorization diagram; showcases time-sequential alignment." src="/files/ftp_upload/53720/53720fig1.jpg" data-altupdatedat="1747911167000" data-alt="Figure 1"> 
Figure 1: The Experimental Array in the Emotional Stroop Task: The participant's task is to name color in which the word appears. <a href="https://www.jove.com/files/ftp_upload/53720/53720fig1large.jpg" target="_blank">Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.</a>
It is important to distinguish the ESE from its older namesake, the classic Stroop effect (SE)6. In the classic Stroop task, color words such as RED or GREEN are presented in various ink colors and the participant's task is to name the ink color of the words. Despite the shared task — to identify the ink color of words — the SE and the ESE differ. Because the words are color words, the stimuli in the classic Stroop task divide into congruent (the word naming its ink color) and incongruent (word and color conflict) categories. The SE is defined as the difference in color naming performance between congruent and incongruent stimuli. Because the quality of congruity does not apply to stimuli in the ESE — the word CANCER in blue is neither more nor less congruent than the word LECTURE in brown — the SE is not defined in the environment of the ESE. The ESE documents the effect of the emotional valence of the stimuli on performance.
The ESE, just like the SE, has generated voluminous research. In fact, the ESE rivals its namesake in sheer output of experimental studies with both patient and non-patient populations (for a review, see1, 7). The task has been employed with a gamut of pathologies from generalized anxiety (e.g., 8, 9) to trait anxiety (e.g., 10, 11) to obsessive-compulsive disorders (e.g., 12, 13) to depression9, 14 to social phobia15, 16 to post-traumatic stress disorders (e.g., 17, 18). The ESE has also been studied with unselected populations (e.g., 2, 3, 19, 20), although the effects in heathy participants are not always observed and are often less pronounced. At least a portion of ESE's popularity is attributable to its objective nature as it is not based on self-report and is not intrusive. Furthermore, the emotion words can be selected to tap the specific pathology or current concern of the patient.
Below, we portray the steps required to design and perform an emotional Stroop experiment. Our purpose in this report is to describe in detail an ESE experiment with needed controls. The most important feature of this design is the control it provides against various threats to validity. The main threat treated in this design is that of habituation. Adopting these procedures renders the ESE a valid and reliable means of assessing attention under emotion.

<table><tbody><tr><td>DirectRT software</td><td>Empirisoft</td><td>http://www.empirisoft.com/directrt.aspx</td><td>Software allows easy programing of a custom experiment in a spreadsheet application (&lt;em&gt;e.g.,&lt;/em&gt; Excel)</td></tr><tr><td>Personal computer</td><td>Any</td><td>https://www.office.com/</td><td>At least 256 mb of memory, a graphics card with at least 16 mb of video memory and a processor speed of at least 500 mhz.</td></tr><tr><td>A spreadsheet application (&lt;em&gt;e.g.,&lt;/em&gt; Excel)</td><td>Microsoft</td><td>Any version</td><td>A spreadsheet application capable of editing CSV files</td></tr><tr><td>SPSS/STATISTICA software</td><td>IBM/Statsoft</td><td>http://www-01.ibm.com/software/analytics/spss/&amp;nbsp; http://www.statsoft.com/</td><td>Statistical software</td></tr></tbody></table>

the emotional stroop task: assessing cognitive performance under exposure to emotional content

The emotional Stroop effect (ESE) is the result of longer naming latencies to ink colors of emotion words than to ink colors of neutral words. The difference shows that people are affected by the emotional content conveyed by the carrier words even though they are irrelevant to the color-naming task at hand. The ESE has been widely deployed with patient populations, as well as with non-selected populations, because the emotion words can be selected to match the tested pathology. The ESE is a powerful tool, yet it is vulnerable to various threats to its validity. This report refers to potential sources of confounding and includes a modal experiment that provides the means to control for them. The most prevalent threat to the validity of existing ESE studies is sustained effects and habituation wrought about by repeated exposure to emotion stimuli. Consequently, the order of exposure to emotion and neutral stimuli is of utmost importance. We show that in the standard design, only one specific order produces the ESE.

When blocks follow the neutral-emotion-neutral sequence (e.g., 3), a large ESE of 34 msec is observed via slower responses in the emotion block (mean of 791 msec) than in the first neutral block (mean of 757 msec; see Figure 2). The same group of participants was also fairly sluggish to name the ink color in the second set of (other) neutral words (mean of 778 msec). The 21 msec difference in performance between the two blocks with neutral items docume...

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The Emotional Stroop Task: Assessing Cognitive Performance under Exposure to Emotional Content

The emotional Stroop effect (ESE) is the result of longer naming latencies to ink colors of emotion words than those of neutral words. This report refers to potential sources of confounding and includes a modal experiment that provides the means to control for them.

The emotional Stroop effect (ESE) is the result of longer naming latencies to ink colors of emotion words than to ink colors of neutral words. The ...

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38.4K Views.  Tel-Aviv University. The emotional Stroop effect (ESE) is the result of longer naming latencies to ink colors of emotion words than those of neutral words. This report refers to potential sources of confounding and includes a modal experiment that provides the means to control for them.

Video: The Emotional Stroop Task: Assessing Cognitive Performance under Exposure to Emotional Content

Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color

Synesthesia is a rare condition in which a stimulus from one modality automatically and consistently triggers unusual sensations in the same and/or other modalities. A relatively common and well-studied type is grapheme-color synesthesia, defined as the consistent experience of color when viewing, hearing and thinking about letters, words and numbers. We describe our method for investigating to what extent synesthetic associations between letters and colors can be learned by reading in color in nonsynesthetes. Reading in color is a special method for training associations in the sense that the associations are learned implicitly while the reader reads text as he or she normally would and it does not require explicit computer-directed training methods. In this protocol, participants are given specially prepared books to read in which four high-frequency letters are paired with four high-frequency colors. Participants receive unique sets of letter-color pairs based on their pre-existing preferences for colored letters. A modified Stroop task is administered before and after reading in order to test for learned letter-color associations and changes in brain activation. In addition to objective testing, a reading experience questionnaire is administered that is designed to probe for differences in subjective experience. A subset of questions may predict how well an individual learned the associations from reading in color. Importantly, we are not claiming that this method will cause each individual to develop grapheme-color synesthesia, only that it is possible for certain individuals to form letter-color associations by reading in color and these associations are similar in some aspects to those seen in developmental grapheme-color synesthetes. The method is quite flexible and can be used to investigate different aspects and outcomes of training synesthetic associations, including learning-induced changes in brain function and structure.

Reading in color is a new method for training letter-color associations that are typically found only in grapheme-color synesthetes. It involves an implicit form of training that has potential for long-term associative training methods&#160;because the training is a byproduct of reading and any text can be colored.

Synesthesia is a rare condition in which a stimulus from one modality automatically and consistently triggers unusual sensations in the same and/or other ...

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotion Regulation

The ability to control/regulate emotions is an important coping mechanism in the face of emotionally stressful situations. Although significant progress has been made in understanding conscious/deliberate emotion regulation (ER), less is known about non-conscious/automatic ER and the associated neural correlates. This is in part due to the problems inherent in the unitary concepts of automatic and conscious processing1. Here, we present a protocol that allows investigation of the neural correlates of both deliberate and automatic ER using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This protocol allows new avenues of inquiry into various aspects of ER. For instance, the experimental design allows manipulation of the goal to regulate emotion (conscious vs. non-conscious), as well as the intensity of the emotional challenge (high vs. low). Moreover, it allows investigation of both immediate (emotion perception) and long-term effects (emotional memory) of ER strategies on emotion processing. Therefore, this protocol may contribute to better understanding of the neural mechanisms of emotion regulation in healthy behaviour, and to gaining insight into possible causes of deficits in depression and anxiety disorders in which emotion dysregulation is often among the core debilitating features.

We present a protocol that allows investigation of the neural correlates of deliberate and automatic emotion regulation, using functional magnetic resonance imaging. This protocol can be used in healthy participants, both young and older, as well as in clinical patients.

The ability to control/regulate emotions is an important coping mechanism in the face of emotionally stressful situations. Although significant progress ...

Neuroscience

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Memory-Enhancing Effect of Emotion

Emotional events tend to be better remembered than non-emotional events1,2. One goal of cognitive and affective neuroscientists is 
to understand the neural mechanisms underlying this enhancing effect of emotion on memory. A method that has proven particularly influential in the 
investigation of the memory-enhancing effect of emotion is the so-called subsequent memory paradigm (SMP). This method was originally used to investigate the 
neural correlates of non-emotional memories3, and more recently we and others also applied it successfully to studies of emotional memory (reviewed in4, 5-7). 
Here, we describe a protocol that allows investigation of the neural correlates of the memory-enhancing effect of emotion using the SMP in conjunction with 
event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). An important feature of the SMP is that it allows separation of brain activity specifically 
associated with memory from more general activity associated with perception. Moreover, in the context of investigating the impact of emotional stimuli, 
SMP allows identification of brain regions whose activity is susceptible to emotional modulation of both general/perceptual and memory-specific processing. 
This protocol can be used in healthy subjects8-15, as well as in clinical patients where there are alterations in the neural correlates of emotion perception 
and biases in remembering emotional events, such as those suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)16, 17.

We present a protocol that uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the neural correlates of the memory-enhancing effect of emotion. This protocol allows identification of brain activity specifically linked to memory-related processing, contrary to more general perceptual processing, and can be used with healthy and clinical populations.

Emotional events tend to be better remembered than non-emotional events1,2. One goal of cognitive and affective neuroscientists is 
to understand the ...

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Impairing Effect of Emotion on Cognition

Emotions can impact cognition by exerting both enhancing (e.g., better memory for emotional events) and impairing (e.g., increased emotional distractibility) effects (reviewed in 1). Complementing our recent protocol 2 describing a method that allows investigation of the neural correlates of the memory-enhancing effect of emotion (see also 1, 3-5), here we present a protocol that allows investigation of the neural correlates of the detrimental impact of emotion on cognition. The main feature of this method is that it allows identification of reciprocal modulations between activity in a ventral neural system, involved in 'hot' emotion processing (HotEmo system), and a dorsal system, involved in higher-level 'cold' cognitive/executive processing (ColdEx system), which are linked to cognitive performance and to individual variations in behavior (reviewed in 1). Since its initial introduction 6, this design has proven particularly versatile and influential in the elucidation of various aspects concerning the neural correlates of the detrimental impact of emotional distraction on cognition, with a focus on working memory (WM), and of coping with such distraction 7,11, in both healthy 8-11 and clinical participants 12-14.

We present a protocol that allows investigation of the neural mechanisms mediating the detrimental impact of emotion on cognition, using functional magnetic resonance imaging. This protocol can be used with both healthy and clinical participants.

Emotions can impact cognition by exerting both enhancing (e.g., better memory for emotional events) and impairing (e.g., increased emotional ...

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome

Several neuroimaging studies have suggested that the low spatial frequency content in an emotional face mainly activates the amygdala, pulvinar, and superior colliculus especially with fearful faces1-3. These regions constitute the limbic structure in non-conscious perception of emotions and modulate cortical activity either directly or indirectly2. In contrast, the conscious representation of emotions is more pronounced in the anterior cingulate, prefrontal cortex, and somatosensory cortex for directing voluntary attention to details in faces3,4. Asperger&#39;s syndrome (AS)5,6 represents an atypical mental disturbance that affects sensory, affective and communicative abilities, without interfering with normal linguistic skills and intellectual ability. Several studies have found that functional deficits in the neural circuitry important for facial emotion recognition can partly explain social communication failure in patients with AS7-9. In order to clarify the interplay between conscious and non-conscious representations of emotional faces in AS, an EEG experimental protocol is designed with two tasks involving emotionality evaluation of either photograph or line-drawing faces. A pilot study is introduced for selecting face stimuli that minimize the differences in reaction times and scores assigned to facial emotions between the pretested patients with AS and IQ/gender-matched healthy controls. Information from the pretested patients was used to develop the scoring system used for the emotionality evaluation. Research into facial emotions and visual stimuli with different spatial frequency contents has reached discrepant findings depending on the demographic characteristics of participants and task demands2. The experimental protocol is intended to clarify deficits in patients with AS in processing emotional faces when compared with healthy controls by controlling for factors unrelated to recognition of facial emotions, such as task difficulty, IQ and gender.

An EEG experimental protocol is designed to clarify the interplay between conscious and non-conscious representations of emotional faces in patients with Asperger&#39;s syndrome. The technique suggests that patients with Asperger&#39;s syndrome have deficits in non-conscious representation of emotional faces, but have comparable performance in conscious representation with healthy controls.

Several neuroimaging studies have suggested that the low spatial frequency content in an emotional face mainly activates the amygdala, pulvinar, and ...

Correlating Behavioral Responses to fMRI Signals from Human Prefrontal Cortex: Examining Cognitive Processes Using Task Analysis

The aim of this methods paper is to describe how to implement a neuroimaging technique to examine complementary brain processes engaged by two similar tasks. Participants' behavior during task performance in an fMRI scanner can then be correlated to the brain activity using the blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal. We measure behavior to be able to sort correct trials, where the subject performed the task correctly and then be able to examine the brain signals related to correct performance. Conversely, if subjects do not perform the task correctly, and these trials are included in the same analysis with the correct trials we would introduce trials that were not only for correct performance. Thus, in many cases these errors can be used themselves to then correlate brain activity to them. We describe two complementary tasks that are used in our lab to examine the brain during suppression of an automatic responses: the stroop1 and anti-saccade tasks. The emotional stroop paradigm instructs participants to either report the superimposed emotional 'word' across the affective faces or the facial 'expressions' of the face stimuli1,2. When the word and the facial expression refer to different emotions, a conflict between what must be said and what is automatically read occurs. The participant has to resolve the conflict between two simultaneously competing processes of word reading and facial expression. Our urge to read out a word leads to strong 'stimulus-response (SR)' associations; hence inhibiting these strong SR's is difficult and participants are prone to making errors. Overcoming this conflict and directing attention away from the face or the word requires the subject to inhibit bottom up processes which typically directs attention to the more salient stimulus. Similarly, in the anti-saccade task3,4,5,6, where an instruction cue is used to direct only attention to a peripheral stimulus location but then the eye movement is made to the mirror opposite position. Yet again we measure behavior by recording the eye movements of participants which allows for the sorting of the behavioral responses into correct and error trials7 which then can be correlated to brain activity. Neuroimaging now allows researchers to measure different behaviors of correct and error trials that are indicative of different cognitive processes and pinpoint the different neural networks involved.

The goal of our research is to correlate behavior to brain activity. Accurate behavioral measures and imaging techniques allow us to elucidate brain-behavior relationships.

The aim of this methods paper is to describe how to implement a neuroimaging technique to examine complementary brain processes engaged by two similar ...

Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing

As life expectancy increases, aging has become a major health challenge, resulting in a huge effort to better discriminate between normal and pathological cognitive decline. It is thus essential that cognitive tests and their administration are as fair as possible. However, an important source of bias during cognitive testing comes from negative aging stereotypes that can impair the memory performance of older adults and inflate age differences on cognitive tasks. The fear of confirming negative aging stereotypes creates an extra pressure among older adults which interferes with their intellectual functioning and leads them to perform below their true abilities. Here, we present a protocol that highlights simple but efficient interventions to alleviate this age-based stereotype threat effect. The first study showed that simply informing older participants about the presence of younger participants (threat condition) led older adults to underperform on a standardized memory test compared with younger participants, and that this performance difference was eliminated when the test was presented as age-fair (reduced-threat condition). The second study replicated these findings on short cognitive tests used to screen for predementia in clinical settings and showed that teaching older adults about stereotype threat inoculated them against its effects. These results provide useful recommendations about how to improve older adults' memory assessment both in Iab studies and in clinical settings.

Here, we present a protocol designed to show how negative aging stereotypes can impair memory performance of older adults during cognitive testing and how to reduce this deleterious effect. This method can help older people to perform at an optimal level during testing in both lab studies and clinical settings.

As life expectancy increases, aging has become a major health challenge, resulting in a huge effort to better discriminate between normal and pathological ...

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

The Stroop task in its many variations has been used in fields such as psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience to examine questions regarding the automaticity of reading, language processing, and cognitive control, among others. When looking at bilingual individuals, this task can be used to obtain measures of language interference and control in both a bilingual&#39;s first language (L1) and second language (L2), as well as for testing the bilingual advantage hypothesis. The Stroop task presents participants with color terms written in congruent colors (e.g., the word RED written in red font), incongruent colors (e.g., the word RED written in green font), in addition to noncolor terms for control (e.g., the word TREE presented in any color), and uses the reaction times from the different conditions to assess the degree of interference and facilitation. In the covert version of the Stroop bilingual task (i.e., participants respond by pressing a button rather than naming aloud), stimuli in the L1 and the L2 are typically presented in separate blocks. While this allows for a simple, yet effective assessment of processing and cognitive control in each language, it fails to capture any potential differences in processing and control within bilingual young adult groups. The present task combines single-language blocks with a novel mixed-language block to increase the level of difficulty of the task, thus making it suitable for testing cognitive control in young adults. Representative results showing differences between performance in the single-language vs. mixed-language blocks are presented, and the benefits of a mixed-language block are discussed.

This bilingual Stroop task uses Congruent, Incongruent, and Neutral stimuli presented in blocks in the first language (L1) only, the second language (L2) only, and a combination of L1 and L2. This task allows for an examination of language processing and cognitive control in both L1 and L2.

The Stroop task in its many variations has been used in fields such as psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience to examine questions regarding the ...

Disruption of Frontal Lobe Neural Synchrony During Cognitive Control by Alcohol Intoxication

Decision making relies on dynamic interactions of distributed, primarily frontal brain regions. Extensive evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies indicates that the anterior cingulate (ACC) and the lateral prefrontal cortices (latPFC) are essential nodes subserving cognitive control. However, because of its limited temporal resolution, fMRI cannot accurately reflect the timing and nature of their presumed interplay. The present study combines distributed source modeling of the temporally precise magnetoencephalography (MEG) signal with structural MRI in the form of &#34;brain movies&#34; to: (1) estimate the cortical areas involved in cognitive control (&#34;where&#34;), (2) characterize their temporal sequence (&#34;when&#34;), and (3) quantify the oscillatory dynamics of their neural interactions in real time. Stroop interference was associated with greater event-related theta (4 - 7 Hz) power in the ACC during conflict detection followed by sustained sensitivity to cognitive demands in the ACC and latPFC during integration and response preparation. A phase-locking analysis revealed co-oscillatory interactions between these areas indicating their increased neural synchrony in theta band during conflict-inducing incongruous trials. These results confirm that theta oscillations are fundamental to long-range synchronization needed for integrating top-down influences during cognitive control. MEG reflects neural activity directly, which makes it suitable for pharmacological manipulations in contrast to fMRI that is sensitive to vasoactive confounds. In the present study, healthy social drinkers were given a moderate alcohol dose and placebo in a within-subject design. Acute intoxication attenuated theta power to Stroop conflict and dysregulated co-oscillations between the ACC and latPFC, confirming that alcohol is detrimental to neural synchrony subserving cognitive control. It interferes with goal-directed behavior that may result in deficient self-control, contributing to compulsive drinking. In sum, this method can provide insight into real-time interactions during cognitive processing and can characterize the selective sensitivity to pharmacological challenge across relevant neural networks.

This experiment uses an anatomically-constrained magnetoencephalography (aMEG) method to examine brain oscillatory dynamics and long-range functional synchrony during engagement of cognitive control as a function of acute alcohol intoxication.

Decision making relies on dynamic interactions of distributed, primarily frontal brain regions. Extensive evidence from functional magnetic resonance ...

Dual-Task Stroop Paradigm for Detecting Cognitive Deficits in High-Functioning Stroke Patients

General clinical cognitive assessment scales are not sensitive enough to cognitive impairment in high-functioning stroke patients. The dual-task assessment has advantages for identifying cognitive deficits in high-functioning stroke patients and has been gradually applied in clinical assessment and cognitive training. Moreover, the Stroop paradigm has higher sensitivity and specificity for attentional assessment than conventional clinical cognitive assessment scales. Therefore, this study presents the dual-task assessment based on the Stroop paradigm to identify cognitive deficits in high-functioning stroke patients. This study demonstrates a single- and dual-task evaluation based on the Stroop paradigm and confirms its feasibility through case experiments and synchronized functional near-infrared spectroscopy evaluation. The Stroop reaction time and correct rate are used as the main indicators to evaluate the cognitive level of the subjects. This study protocol aims to provide new ideas to figure out the ceiling effect in general clinical assessment failure for high-functioning stroke patients.

Clinical assessment scales are notsensitive enough to cognitive dysfunction in high-functioning stroke patients. The dual-task paradigm presents advantages and potential in the assessment and cognitive training of cognitive dysfunction. The study here proposes a dual-task Stroop paradigm to identify cognitive dysfunction in high-functioning stroke patients.

The Emotional Stroop Task: Assessing Cognitive Performance under Exposure to Emotional Content

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