| Interaction between cognitive control and affective processing play a crucial role in behavioral regulation. Affective information is an important guide for behavior, but in some situations, affective information is irrelevant or even contrary to the appropriate action. Therefore, it is necessary to be able to override the influence of affective information in order to perform the required behavior. Behavioral investigations have shown that adolescents and children are more susceptible to interfering information than adults. Studies examining the neural systems involved in both cognitive control and emotion processing have shown a differential pattern of development with the maturation of subcortical emotion processing regions preceding that of prefrontal regions involved in regulating behavior. Using behavioral and neuroimaging techniques, it was found that immaturity of prefrontal control systems was associated with greater sensitivity to competing information. This sensitivity was exaggerated in the presence of affectively valenced interference, particularly during adolescence when emotion processing systems were most reactive. Further, individual differences in sustained reactivity to emotional information were related to trait anxiety in all ages. The combination of enhanced initial activity and individual differences in the persistence of emotional reactivity may explain why adolescence is a period of greater vulnerability to pathological processes leading to affective disorders and substance abuse. |
