The Influence of Emotion on Inhibition Control: An ERP Study

Previous research has shown that emotions have influence on personal information processing ability. As the core of executive function, inhibition control is the most important cognitive ability to ensure the processing of information effectively, which refers to the individual's ability to suppress irrelevant stimuli. The neural mechanism of emotional influence on inhibition control is unclear. This study attempts to investigate whether three kinds of emotional stimuli have an effect on the inhibition control, and further investigate the neural mechanism behind it by ERP technology. The experiment was carried out using the emotional Simon paradigm. Emotional stimulation includes three conditions: positive, neutral, and negative. Task types include two conditions: congruent and incongruent. The experimental results show that positive emotions increase the speed of individuals' perception of conflicts, but also increase the consumption of cognitive resources during the inhibition control. This also provides evidence to support the importance of emotional regulation, which can improve the ability of information processing in educational practice.