A series of behavioral, event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and patient studies are proposed to investigate the functional neural mechanisms integrating emotion and cognition in working memory with a special emphasis on inhibitory control as an executive function. The proposed project will accomplish its goals by combining event-related fMRI, with patient studies of frontal lobe lesion patients to determine 1) the necessity of particular brain regions for inhibitory control of emotional information, as well as 2) if any differential valence and arousal effects vary with lesion location. This combination of research techniques will be used to accomplish four objectives that include: One, to characterize emotional valence and arousal enhancement effects on inhibitory processing in working memory. Two, to identify neural systems in the PFC responsible for integrating emotional stimuli for inhibitory processing enhancement in working memory. Three, to identify regions of the PFC critical for enhancing the inhibitory processing of emotional stimuli. And four, to determine any modulatory role of the amygdala for emotional enhancement of inhibitory processing in the PFC.
