van Steenbergen, H. , Band, G. P. , Hommel, B. , Rombouts, S. A. & Nieuwenhuis, S.
Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition & Leiden University Institute of Psychology, Leiden, The Netherlands
Positive emotional states are known to reduce the impact of cognitive demands and information-processing conflict on human behavior, but the underlying neural mechanism of this modulation is unknown. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine how pleasure induced by funny cartoons regulates behavioral control and neural adaptations to cognitive conflict. Humor activated hedonic hotspots in the basal ganglia, which attenuated the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) response to conflict. This reduced subsequent conflict adaptation as observed in behavior and monitoring-related dorsal ACC activation. Our observations reveal the neural mechanism by which positive emotions regulate adaptive goal-directed behavior.