The Effects of Emotion on Attention

    Emotions are a daily part of our lives and as such, our emotions can change many times a day. Individuals who are neurotypical may have an easier time regulating emotions compared to those who are neurodivergent. Specifically, individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) typically have difficulties with regulating their emotions, as well as issues with attention.

    In the study, "Top-down Attention Modulates Auditory-Evoked Neural Responses in Neurotypical, but not ADHD, Young Adults" by Dr. Kwasa and colleagues, they investigated top-down attentional control in regard to auditory tasks in individuals with ADHD and neurotypical individuals. Participants were tasked with listening to a stream of speech and were then visually cued to continue listening to the stream or to listen to an interrupting sound.  Although there was no difference in behavioral performance, their subjects with ADHD "exhibited weaker top-down attentional modulation of neural responses" (Kwasa et al.). The study also mentioned that " Listeners who perform best are those who more strongly suppress neural responses to an event when it is task irrelevant compared to when it is task relevant" (Kwasa et al.). However, this study did not take into account the emotions of the participants, which could have affected their ability to suppress neural responses.

    Similarly, in the study, “The Effects of Low and High Levels of Sadness on Scope of Attention: An ERP Study,” Zhang and colleagues research the effects of negative emotions on attentional scope. In their study, they induced sadness in their participants by introducing them to various images like people crying. To measure the scope of attention after the induction of sadness, they conducted the Navon global-local letter task. They used event related potential (ERP) and electroencephalogram (EEG) which allowed them to analyze the amplitudes for P1, N2, and P3 components. The researchers found that higher levels of sadness correlate with a narrow scope of attention and that “…higher sadness impaired the decision-making process in participants with local bias (narrow scope of attention)” (Zhang et al.). The study suggests that higher levels of negative emotion affect attention negatively. It would be interesting to see a new study on how emotion may affect attentional filtering in individuals with ADHD versus those who are neurotypical. It would also help to further understand if emotional regulation can modulate attentional filtering in individuals with ADHD.

References

Kwasa, Jasmine A., et al. “Top-down Attention Modulates Auditory-Evoked Neural Responses in Neurotypical, but Not ADHD, Young Adults.” 2021, https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.11.430824.

 

Zhang, Qin, et al. “The Effects of Low and High Levels of Sadness on Scope of Attention: An ERP Study.” 2018,  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02397.