Work in my laboratory focuses on emotion and cognitive / executive control, and how they interact. I am particularly interested in a) the effects of induced emotional states on higher cognitive functions, such as working memory and attentional systems; and b) individual differences, both cognitive and affective. The goal of my research program is to achieve a theoretical and mechanistic understanding of emotion-cognition interactions across levels of analysis: neural, behavioral, cognitive, and whole-person.

Emotion and cognition can be viewed as distinct but interacting control systems, each useful for solving different kinds of problems in the regulation of behavior. In my emerging model, different emotional states are associated with different modes of information processing, including high-level, self-regulatory control functions. The efficiency of specific functions is held to depend upon the particular state or mode. Emotional states are held to transiently enhance or impair some functions but not others, doing so relatively rapidly, flexibly, and reversibly. In this way, they could adaptively bias the overall control of behavior to meet situational demands more effectively.

For theoretical reasons, I have focused on approach- and withdrawal-motivated emotional states. Because these emotions are strongly goal-directed, they are likely to influence the cognitive and neural mechanisms that support goal-directed behavior (cognitive control, lateral prefrontal cortex). Moreover, two dimensions of normal personality, namely behavioral activation sensitivity (BAS, akin to reward sensitivity) and behavioral inhibition sensitivity (BIS, akin to threat sensitivity), are related to emotion and cognitive control.

A lofty, distant goal is that understanding emotion-cognition interactions may provide deeper insight into self-regulation and human abilities and expertise more broadly.

Gray, Jeremy R., & Thompson, Paul M. (2004). Neurobiology of intelligence: Science and ethics. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 5, 471-482.

Gray, Jeremy R. (2004). Integration of emotion and cognitive control. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 13, 46-48.

Gray, J. R., Chabris, C. F, & Braver, T. S. (2003). Neural mechanisms of general fluid intelligence. Nature Neuroscience, 6, 316 - 322.

Gray, J. R., Braver, T. S., & Raichle, M. E. (2002). Integration of emotion and cognition in the lateral prefrontal cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 99, 4115 - 4120.