Högskolan i Skövde

Emotional intelligence (EI) lies at the intersection of emotion and cognition and is seen as beneficial to our relationships and well-being. Yet, there is a gap in knowledge regarding the neural correlates of EI. There are three prevailing models defining the psychological construct of EI, the trait model, the ability model, and the mixed model. According to the ability model, EI consists of two facets - experiential and strategic EI. Experiential EI refers to abilities of perceiving and using emotions to facilitate thoughts, whereas strategic EI refers to abilities of understanding and managing emotions. This systematic review aims to investigate whether, and to what extent, the neural correlates of experiential and strategic EI rely on similar or different neural substrates. Five peer-reviewed studies met the inclusion criteria and were included. All the studies used Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test to measure EI. The brain imaging techniques used included structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging. The findings of the review suggest that experiential and strategic EI rely partly on distinct and partly on common neural circuitry. Neural correlates associated primarily with strategic EI were gray matter volumes of ventromedial and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior and posterior insula. Both strategic and experiential EI were found to correlate with the rostral anterior cingulate cortex gray matter activation, and the effective connectivity of the anterior prefrontal cortex. Further research and development of measurement methodology are needed to deepen the understanding of strategic and experiential EI and their neural correlates.