Decoding the Interaction between Emotional and Cognitive Processes with Functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy

We investigated brain activation patterns of emotional speech distraction (negative and positive emotion) and task-induced cognitive load (low and high load) combining functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) with a multivariate decoding approach. The four experimental conditions could be predicted from the brain signals above-chance level. The weight maps derived from the decoding models indicated that the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was involved in decoding the valence of emotional speech, while the right inferior frontal gyrus was predictive of the current cognitive load level.

fNIRS 2024 Conference – Society for Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy