Journal
TRENDS IN COGNITIVE SCIENCES
Volume 19, Issue 3, Pages 126-132Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE LONDON
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2015.01.004
Keywords
cognitive control; emotion; anterior cingulate cortex; anxiety; motivation
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [R21 AA017282]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Often seen as the paragon of higher cognition, here we suggest that cognitive control is dependent on emotion. Rather than asking whether control is influenced by emotion, we ask whether control itself can be understood as an emotional process. Reviewing converging evidence from cybernetics, animal research, cognitive neuroscience, and social and personality psychology, we suggest that cognitive control is initiated when goal conflicts evoke phasic changes to emotional primitives that both focus attention on the presence of goal conflicts and energize conflict resolution to support goal-directed behavior. Critically, we propose that emotion is not an inert byproduct of conflict but is instrumental in recruiting control. Appreciating the emotional foundations of control leads to testable predictions that can spur future research.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available