Juan, C. . 1, 2 , Yu, J. 1, 2, 3 , Tseng, L. 1, 2, 3 , Muggleton, N. 1, 2, 4 , Tzeng, O. J. 1, 2, 3 & Hung, D. 1, 2, 3
1 Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, National Central University, Jhongli, Taiwan
2 Laboratories for Cognitive Neuroscience, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
3 Institute of Neuroscience, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
4 Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK
The executive control of voluntary action involves not only choosing from a range of possible actions but also the inhibition of responses as circumstances demand. Think of driving toward a crossroads (the light is amber), do you brake or continue to accelerate? A rapid decision which may have severe consequences is required. A recent study has shown that emotional stimuli can effectively alter inhibitory control. However, whether gender may play an important role on modulating the effects of emotional stimuli in inhibitory control is unclear. The present study employed the stop signal paradigm with presentation of erotic pictures to investigate how gender differences modulate the effects of emotion on inhibitory control. Twenty-eight subjects participated in the study and the pattern of results demonstrated that only males’ inhibitory control was deteriorated by the erotic pictures by increasing their stop signal reaction times. In contrast, the erotic pictures did not affect females’ performance on the task. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate how erotic pictures affect inhibitory control and to examine the differences of the effects between genders. This study highlights the specificity of the effects of emotional stimuli in the modulation of inhibitory control.