Abstract
Abstract The complexity of human sociocognitive architecture makes the distinction between what is the appropriate action and what is not a rather subtle task of its own. Emotions contribute significantly to this fuzziness and often play a causal role in undermining our best judgement. Yet, the neurobehavioral mechanisms that interface action control and emotional processing are largely unknown and represent a modern scientific challenge. This project will attack this problem from a series of complementary but highly interconnected perspectives. Tight integration is fostered via the sharing of a new version of a widely-used task (with preliminary data here) and of the same overarching research question: How does emotion stimuli affect action inhibition processes? Complementarity derives from the specific expertise each of the Research Unit has developed on non-invasive brain stimulation, clinical and forensic psychology. A mixture of expertise that will converge towards one integrated goal: Characterizing the functional brain pathways allowing the effective integration of motor- and emotion-related processing. To this aim, the Stop Signal Task (SST) [1] employed here introduces emotional stimuli (facial expressions) as a stop signal. Preliminary data show that emotional negative stimuli facilitates action control performance. The project is organized around 4 work packages (WPs). WP1 will explain the role of unconscious visual processing and will map behavioral performance to individual measures of cortical excitation/inhibition balance. Preliminary data show that the observation of unconscious negative stimuli impact the corticospinal excitability. WP2 will describe the impact of emotional stimuli on action inhibition in atypical development. WP3 will disclose the neural bases of the interface between action control and emotion and will empower the connectivity between crucial nodes. WP4 will explore the potential translational applications in the psychiatric domain. Disentangling how action control interfaces with emotion processing would open a whole new window upon the pathophysiology of a series of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders as well as socially inadequate behaviors (i.e., criminals). Importantly, the project is aimed at identifying objective biomarkers of maladaptive action-emotion integration and at devising novel rehabilitation programs, based on non-invasive brain stimulation, to induce short-term plastic changes of the key neural pathways. This project, by providing a proof of concept that inhibitory action control can be enhanced, would have important translational implications for the promotion of innovative, targeted and non- pharmacological therapeutic interventions in the psychiatric domain. Results The project involved an active collaboration between the University of Bologna, represented by Professor Sara Borgomaneri, and the University of Padua, represented by Professor Cristina Scarpazza. The University of Bologna investigated the neural mechanisms underlying the interaction between emotions and actions in healthy participants through the use of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques. The University of Padua examined the same interaction in clinical populations characterized by neurodevelopmental or psychiatric conditions, including individuals with Asperger syndrome, borderline personality disorder and men who had committed crimes of intimate partner violence (IPV). Overall, the project successfully achieved its main objective of characterizing the functional brain pathways that enable the effective integration of motor and emotion-related processes. The findings highlight the significant influence of emotional processes on action control, suggesting the involvement of partially distinct neural mechanisms when actions are regulated in emotional versus non-emotional contexts. Moreover, these mechanisms appear to be modifiable through non-invasive brain stimulation, indicating potential avenues for future clinical applications. Overall, the results suggest that alterations in emotional processing and inhibitory control may affect the interaction between emotion and action regulation in different ways. Individuals with difficulties in emotion recognition appear to show a reduced modulation of inhibitory processes by emotional stimuli, whereas individuals with inhibitory control deficits may exhibit a different pattern of response when emotions are involved. These observations point to a complex relationship between emotional and cognitive mechanisms underlying action control across different clinical and non-clinical populations. The project outcomes were widely disseminated. The research team participated in three national and four international conferences and published a total of six articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Danilo Carrozzino
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento di Psicologia "Renzo Canestrari"
Coordinatore:
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - Università di Bologna(Italy)
Contributo totale di progetto: Euro (EUR) 212.500,00
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 112.500,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 24
Data di inizio
05/10/2023
Data di fine:
05/10/2025
