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Irrelevant angry, but not happy, faces facilitate response inhibition in mindfulness meditators

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Surabhi Lodha at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Surabhi Lodha
Rashmi Gupta at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Rashmi Gupta
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Mindfulness enhances executive control and regulates emotion, but the role of mindfulness in response inhibition in emotional contexts remains unclear. The present study used a stop-signal task to investigate the interactive effect of mindfulness, response inhibition, and emotions. Individuals with prior experience in mindfulness meditation and no meditation experience participated in the study. In the stop-signal task, participants responded to the target stimulus using keypress on go trials and inhibited the response on stop trials. On each trial, an emotional face (prime; angry, happy, or neutral) preceded the target stimulus, but they were instructed to ignore the face. After the task, participants filled out self-report scales associated with attention and awareness, affect, mood, and impulsivity. No group differences were found on any self-report measure. The task results showed that happy face primes enhanced response inhibition in non-meditators, whereas angry face primes enhanced response inhibition in mindfulness meditators. The results are explained through functional perspectives of how mindfulness influences attentional resource deployment to emotional stimuli, affecting response processes over time. The study demonstrates the existence of emotional asymmetry in the inhibitory process arising from mindfulness practice. The findings contribute to understanding the temporally dynamic patterns through which mindfulness modulates the attention-emotion interface to promote meaning in the face of difficulty.
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Current Psychology (2024) 43:811–826
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04384-9
Irrelevant angry, butnothappy, faces facilitate response inhibition
inmindfulness meditators
SurabhiLodha1· RashmiGupta1
Accepted: 6 February 2023 / Published online: 13 February 2023
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
Abstract
Mindfulness enhances executive control and regulates emotion, but the role of mindfulness in response inhibition in emo-
tional contexts remains unclear. The present study used a stop-signal task to investigate the interactive effect of mindfulness,
response inhibition, and emotions. Individuals with prior experience in mindfulness meditation and no meditation experience
participated in the study. In the stop-signal task, participants responded to the target stimulus using keypress on go trials and
inhibited the response on stop trials. On each trial, an emotional face (prime; angry, happy, or neutral) preceded the target
stimulus, but they were instructed to ignore the face. After the task, participants filled out self-report scales associated with
attention and awareness, affect, mood, and impulsivity. No group differences were found on any self-report measure. The
task results showed that happy face primes enhanced response inhibition in non-meditators, whereas angry face primes
enhanced response inhibition in mindfulness meditators. The results are explained through functional perspectives of how
mindfulness influences attentional resource deployment to emotional stimuli, affecting response processes over time. The
study demonstrates the existence of emotional asymmetry in the inhibitory process arising from mindfulness practice. The
findings contribute to understanding the temporally dynamic patterns through which mindfulness modulates the attention-
emotion interface to promote meaning in the face of difficulty.
Introduction
Attention is vital in prioritizing and focusing on the cur-
rent task goals but is often biased towards emotional stim-
uli. Emotional stimuli are salient and attention-grabbing;
emotional information often captures our attention and
distracts us from the primary task, commonlytermed emo-
tional interference (Gupta etal., 2016; Gupta & Deák,
2015; Okon-Singer etal., 2007). Despite our attentional
bias toward emotional information, we might be able to
ignore emotional distractions. Usually, a succession of
control processes collectively called cognitive control
(Cohen, 2017; Gratton etal., 2018; Gupta etal., 2011;
Miller, 2007) shifts the attention to the main task. For
example, when attentional resources are consumed by a
difficult task (Gupta, 2011, 2012, 2016; Gupta etal., 2019;
Okon-Singer etal., 2007) or when distractors frequently
occur (Grimshaw etal., 2018).
According to the seminal model of attention (Posner
& Petersen, 1990), it consists of an executive control
network, which is involved in high-order information
processing and guides the response-level decision-mak-
ing (Corbetta & Shulman, 2002). The executive control
network is associated with resolving conflicts between
competing tasks and planning the execution of correct
responses. The response inhibition component of the
executive control network (Miyake etal., 2000) inhibits
prepotent responses and suppresses irrelevant informa-
tion, thought, or action, which is considered essential for
adaptive everyday functioning (Gupta & Srinivasan, 2009;
Van Veen & Carter, 2006; Verbruggen & Logan, 2008).
Impairments in response inhibition have been implicated
in various psychopathological conditions like attention-
deficit hyperactivity disorder (Alvarez & Emory, 2006;
Gupta & Kar, 2010; Gupta etal., 2006, 2011; Verbruggen
& Logan, 2008; Walcott & Landau, 2004) and depression
(Gotlib & Joormann, 2010; Gupta, 2007).
* Rashmi Gupta
rash_cogsci@yahoo.com
1 Cognitive andBehavioural Neuroscience Laboratory,
Department ofHumanities andSocial Sciences, Indian
Institute ofTechnology Bombay, First Floor, Mumbai,
Maharashtra400076, India
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Notably, previous studies did not explore how positive emotions affect response conflict when they are task-irrelevant. Lodha and Gupta (2023a) investigated the interactive effects of mindfulness and emotion on response inhibition, finding that positive emotions improved response inhibition in nonmeditators, while negative emotions improved it in mindfulness meditators. This emotion-specific effect, coupled with the ability of mindfulness to filter distractions, suggests that understanding how mindfulness relates to response inhibition and conflict resolution separately would be worthwhile (Friedman & Miyake, 2004). ...
... Furthermore, Kanske (2012) noted that response conflict from irrelevant emotional information differs when the emotional system is engaged prior to a primary task versus simultaneous engagement. This would indicate that the timing of when the executive control is required can significantly affect attention demands (Lodha & Gupta, 2023a). Therefore, evaluating how emotional and executive systems engage differently over time would offer vital insights into the temporal dynamics between mindfulness and conflict resolution. ...
... The current results also support the hypothesis that emotional effects on response inhibition and response conflict differ between mindfulness meditators and non-meditators (Lodha & Gupta, 2023a), likely because of the distinct mechanisms underlying these functions (Friedman & Miyake, 2004). Although more diverse samples, different methodologies, and alternative paradigms are required to expand on these results, the current findings offer a necessary starting point for understanding the unique aspects of these executive functions. ...
Irrelevant Emotional Information Does Not Modulate Response Conflict in Mindfulness Meditators
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2023
  • Mindfulness
Objectives Although mindfulness improves executive control and emotional processing, its impact on conflict resolution—an essential executive function—in emotionally irrelevant contexts is unclear. The present study investigated the interactive role of mindfulness and task-irrelevant emotional information in conflict resolution. Method In total, 48 participants were categorized as mindfulness meditators and non-meditators based on prior meditation experience. Data were collected from two flanker tasks. On each trial, an emotional face distractor (neutral, happy, or angry) either preceded the target stimulus (Task 1) or appeared with it (Task 2). The flanker interference effect reflected the magnitude of conflict. Self-reports of emotional states, affectivity, and trait mindfulness were also collected. Results Non-meditators displayed a lower interference effect for happy face distractors in both tasks. The interference effect was higher for angry than happy face distractors in Task 1 (p = 0.02, d = 0.73) and higher for angry than happy (p < 0.01, d = 1.01) and neutral face distractors (p = 0.01, d = 0.61) in Task 2. In mindfulness meditators, similar interference effects were observed for all face distractors in Task 1 (p > 0.292) and Task 2 (p > 0.540). Mindfulness meditators’ self-reports on emotional states indicated lesser depressive symptoms than non-meditators (p = 0.01). Conclusions The findings suggest that conflict resolution is influenced by the valence of emotionally irrelevant information in non-meditators but not in mindfulness meditators. The study specifically demonstrates how mindfulness can act as a buffer against the disruptive effects of emotional distractions on conflict resolution. Preregistration This study is not preregistered.
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... Based on different conceptualizations, Buddhist and Western mindfulness approaches emphasize training attention (Bodhi, 2011;Lin et al., 2022;Lutz et al., 2008). The consequent changes in attentional processes eventually alter other cognitive systems (Chiesa et al., 2011;Lodha & Gupta, 2020, 2023Verdonk et al., 2020) and lead to positive emotional reactions (Chiesa et al., 2013;Guendelman et al., 2017;Wadlinger & Isaacowitz, 2011). ...
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  • Mar 2023
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To be angry or happy? Anything works. The interaction of emotional information and scope of attention during inhibitory control
Article
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  • Dec 2024
  • MOTIV EMOTION
Inhibitory control refers to the ability to suppress a pre-potent response. Studies investigating the role of emotional information in inhibitory control have yielded conflicting results. Some studies have shown that positive emotion, compared to negative, facilitates inhibitory control, while other studies have shown opposite effects. We propose a resolution to this debate by positing that the scope of attention with which emotional information is processed could elucidate these mixed outcomes. A larger scope of attention (global scope of attention) has been linked to positive emotions, and a narrow scope of attention (local scope of attention) has been linked to negative emotions. We combined a stop-signal task with a global–local Navon task. Participants were tasked with detecting a target presented within either a global or local scope of attention (letters H, S, and T). Occasionally, they encountered a stop-signal with irrelevant angry, happy, or neutral facial expressions. Results showed that under a global scope of attention, happy facial expressions impaired inhibitory control compared to angry expressions; conversely, under a local scope of attention, happy faces facilitated inhibitory control relative to angry faces. Notably, predisposition toward a local or global attentional scope, as measured by a separate global–local disposition task, did not modulate these effects. We replicated our results in Experiment 2 using hierarchical stimuli made up of digits (6, 9, and 8) and controlling for other task-specific variables. Collectively, our findings emphasize the pivotal role of scope of attention in determining the impact of emotional information on cognitive processes, specifically inhibitory control.
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Irrelevant angry, but not happy, faces interfere with conscious perception under high perceptual load: The role of trait impulsivity
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2024
  • CURR PSYCHOL
Recent studies suggest that attentional bias towards emotional distractors depends on a task’s perceptual load. The specifics of the interaction of perceptual load in the context of conscious perception and the role of personality traits (i.e., anxiety and impulsivity) in this interaction have not been thoroughly explored. In the present study, we aimed to identify how personality traits affect the allocation of attention to irrelevant angry and happy emotional face stimuli under different attention conditions, which may affect perception. Participants performed a letter-search task, in which they searched for a target (X or N) in a low (circular non-target letters) or high (angular non-target letters) perceptual load condition in the presence of irrelevant emotional faces (happy or angry). Furthermore, in 25% of trials, a meaningless squiggle was presented in the periphery, and participants were required to detect the squiggle. The conscious perception of the squiggle was calculated using the d prime. We measured trait impulsivity with the UPPS-P Impulsive Behaviour scale and trait anxiety with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Results showed that in highly impulsive participants, irrelevant angry faces presented during the high load condition significantly reduced their sensitivity to detecting the squiggle, compared with happy and neutral faces. The findings have theoretical implications for our understanding of the role of personality traits in the interaction between attention and emotions in shaping conscious perception.
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Mindfulness, Attentional Networks, and Executive Functioning: a Review of Interventions and Long-Term Meditation Practice
Article
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The booming research into mindfulness and associated practices have facilitated our understanding of its components, mechanisms, and outcomes. This review re-examines the current evidence regarding the effects of mindfulness on cognitive functions, especially attention and executive functions, in healthy individuals. Forty-three intervention studies and twelve studies of long-term meditation practice of mindfulness that measured the three attentional networks (alerting, orienting, executive control) and three executive functions (inhibition, updating, and shifting) were included. According to the findings, mindfulness interventions and long-term meditation practices lead to substantial improvements in the inhibition facet of executive functioning. The findings for the three attentional networks and other executive functions are limited and inconsistent. Long-term experience in meditation does not offer additional gains in any function than the relatively shorter mindfulness interventions. The review assisted in establishing the specific effects of mindfulness on the attentional networks and executive functioning and determining the impact of duration of training and practice in mindfulness on these functions. Based on the findings, the implications of mindfulness for non-clinical populations are discussed, and recommendations for future research in this domain of active investigation are provided.
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Irrelevant angry faces impair response inhibition, and the go and stop processes share attentional resources
Article
Full-text available
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Full-text available
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Only irrelevant angry, but not happy, expressions facilitate the response inhibition
Article
  • Nov 2020
It has been debated that arousal rather than valence modulates the response-inhibition process. The processing of irrelevant information of happy and angry faces interacts with attention differently. In the present study, arousal-matched irrelevant happy and angry faces were used as stop-signals in the stop-signal paradigm. Participants were required to respond to go-signals (discriminate between X or O). Occasionally, a stop-signal was presented where participants were required to withhold their motor response. Results indicate a significant effect of emotion on response inhibition, which suggests that valence of a stop-signal modulates inhibitory control. More specifically, we found that only irrelevant angry, but not happy, expressions facilitate the response inhibition process. These results have theoretical implications for understanding the nature of emotions and its interaction with cognitive control functions.
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