NEURAL BASIS OF EMOTIONAL MODULATION OF SIMULATED DRIVING PERFORMANCE: AN fMRI MULTITASKING STUDY Li Hsieh 1 , Sean Seaman 1 , Quan Jiang 2 , Susan Bowyer 2 , John Moran 2 , Richard Young 3 1 Wayne State University, 2 Henry Ford Hospital, 3 School of Medicine, Wayne State University This fMRI study investigated the role of emotion in multitasking using a multi-modal task designed to assess the effect of emotional speech on visual event detection during simulated driving. Ten participants were asked to respond to visual stimuli in a go/no go design while covertly answering spoken questions. Behavioral results showed longer visual reaction times during a concurrent speech task than with no speech; however this effect was moderated by presenting speech questions in an angry voice. fMRI analysis indicated increased activations (t > 3.2; p < 0.0014) associated with both neutral and angry speech tasks, compared to no speech, in the bilateral temporal lobes, the left inferior frontal gyrus, and the left middle frontal gyrus; and decreased activations in the right inferior parietal lobe and the right cuneus. Direct comparisons between angry and neutral speech tasks showed increased activations (t > 2.8; p < 0.0051) in the right prefrontal gyrus, the right middle frontal gyrus (BA10), the right insular, the right superior temporal gyrus, the right paracentral lobule (BA5), the right claustrum, and the right inferior parietal lobe (BA40). Decreased activations were found in the left frontal operculum, the left lingual gyrus (BA18), and the left parahippocamal gyrus (BA28). These results suggest that speech compared to no speech causes slightly longer behavioral reaction times and increased brain activation in language areas. Moreover, an angry emotional tone improves behavioral reaction time performance compared to a neutral tone, while eliciting the right frontoparietal networks and dampening the left frontal activity. Seaman, S., Hsieh, L., Wu, L., & Young, R. (2010). Neural basis of emotional modulation while multitasking: ERP analysis. Poster at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 4/19/10.