Seminar Senne Braem, Ghent University
Date and time: April 1st at 12:00
Place: Sala de Grados, Facultad de Psicología
Title: The affective evaluation of cognitive control
Abstract: We often get the advice to either "use our brain" or "follow our heart": This distinction between cognition and emotion is widely embedded in our everyday lives and popular culture, and has inspired many philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists alike. In this talk, I will present work inspired by reinforcement learning frameworks that emphasize shared, rather than separate or interacting, (neural) mechanisms of cognition and emotion, and focus on the affective signatures of cognitive control. Using behavioral, fMRI, EEG, and pupilometry measures, I will present different studies that show how effortful cognitive control processes are often evaluated as aversive (e.g., "thinking hurts"), but also that successfully overcoming these aversive cognitive obstacles can generate an inherent feeling of reward, and help us reappraise these negative feelings associated with cognitive control.