Affective modulation of cognitive flexibility: a behavioural and electrophysiological study (Modulación afectiva de la flexibilidad cognitiva: un estudio conductual y electrofisiológico)

ABSTRACT Executive functions (EF) correspond to a general construct of high-order cognitive skills aimed at optimizing problem solving. The study of EF categorizes it into three sub-processes; of these three, cognitive flexibility (CF) stands out because of its later development and because it requires a greater amount of neurocognitive resources. In developing an affective understanding of EFs, recent research has outlined the existence of hot EFs, referring to processing skills used in situations that are motivationally and emotionally charged, contrasting with cold EFs, which refer to skills we use in abstract situations and when the affective component is minimal. The purpose of this research study is to explore how different levels of affective salience can modulate performance and processing through the application of a standard CF task. At the behavioural level, participants presented lower reaction times, and the accuracy of their responses was unaffected, under conditions of low affective salience. At the level of brain activity, they presented latencies related to early attention processing and greater occipital activation under conditions of high affective salience.