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Mohamed Aly L, Masi M, Montanaro M, Ricciardelli P. The effect of negative emotion processing on spatial navigation: an experimental study using virtual reality. Front Psychol 2024; 14:1301981. [PMID: 38274671 PMCID: PMC10808736 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1301981] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2023] [Accepted: 12/11/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Finding one's way in unfamiliar environments is an essential ability. When navigating, people are overwhelmed with an enormous amount of information. However, some information might be more relevant than others. Despite the mounting knowledge about the mechanisms underlying orientational skills, and the notable effects of facial emotions on human behavior, little is known about emotions' effects on spatial navigation. Hereby, this study aimed to explore how exposure to others' negative emotional facial expressions affects wayfinding performances. Moreover, gender differences that characterize both processes were considered. Fifty-five participants (31 females) entered twice in three realistic virtual reality environments: the first time, to encode a route to find an object and then to recall the learned path to reach the same object again. In between the two explorations of the virtual environment, participants were asked to undergo a gender categorization task during which they were exposed to sixty faces showing either neutral, fearful, or angry expressions. Results showed a significant interaction between emotions, time, and gender. In particular, the exposition to fearful faces, but not angry and neutral ones, decreased males' wayfinding performances (i.e., travel times and distance travelled), while females' performances were unaffected. Possible explanations for such gender and emotional dissimilarities are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linda Mohamed Aly
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom
- MiBTec, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Matteo Masi
- Department of Psychology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | | | - Paola Ricciardelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- MiBTec, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- NeuroMI, Milan Center for Neuroscience, Milan, Italy
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Yao J, Song B, Shi J, Yin K, Du W. Effects of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation at the Cerebellum on Working Memory. Brain Sci 2023; 13:1158. [PMID: 37626514 PMCID: PMC10452734 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13081158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2023] [Revised: 07/30/2023] [Accepted: 07/31/2023] [Indexed: 08/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a widely used brain intervention technique in clinical settings. In recent years, the role of the cerebellum in learning and memory has become one of the hotspots in the field of cognitive neuroscience. In this study, we recruited 36 healthy college or graduate students as subjects and divided them into groups, with 10 to 14 subjects in each group. We performed 5 Hz and 20 Hz repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation and sham stimulation on the Crus II subregion of the cerebellum in different groups, then let them complete the 2-back working memory task before and after the stimulation. We simultaneously recorded the electroencephalogram in the experiment and analyzed the data. We found that after repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation of the cerebellum at 5 Hz and 20 Hz, the N170 and P300 event-related potential components in the prefrontal cortex showed significant differences compared to those in the sham stimulation group. Using phase-locked values to construct brain networks and conduct further analysis, we discovered that stimulation frequencies of 5 Hz and 20 Hz had significant effects on the local and global efficiency of brain networks in comparison to the sham stimulation group. The results showed that repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation on cerebellar targets can effectively affect the subjects' working memory tasks. Repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation at 5 Hz and 20 Hz could enhance the excitatory responses of the frontal lobes. After stimulation at 5 Hz and 20 Hz, the efficiency of the brain network significantly improved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiangnan Yao
- Nanjing Research Institute of Electronic Technology, Nanjing 210019, China
| | - Bo Song
- Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China
| | - Jingping Shi
- Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China
| | - Kuiying Yin
- Nanjing Research Institute of Electronic Technology, Nanjing 210019, China
| | - Wentao Du
- Nanjing Research Institute of Electronic Technology, Nanjing 210019, China
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Cianfanelli B, Esposito A, Spataro P, Santirocchi A, Cestari V, Rossi-Arnaud C, Costanzi M. The binding of negative emotional stimuli with spatial information in working memory: A possible role for the episodic buffer. Front Neurosci 2023; 17:1112805. [PMID: 37034170 PMCID: PMC10073470 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1112805] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2022] [Accepted: 03/06/2023] [Indexed: 04/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Remembering where negative events occur has undeniable adaptive value, however, how these memories are formed remains elusive. We investigated the role of working memory subcomponents in binding emotional and visuo-spatial information using an emotional version of the object relocation task (EORT). Methods After displaying black rectangles simultaneously, emotional pictures (from the International Affective Pictures System) appeared sequentially over each rectangle. Participants repositioned the rectangles as accurately as possible after all stimuli had disappeared. During the EORT encoding phase, a verbal trail task was administered concurrently to selectively interfere with the central executive (CE). The immediate post-encoding administration of an object feature-report task was used to interfere with the episodic buffer (EB). Results Only the EB-interfering task prevented the emotion-enhancing effect of negative pictures. The latter effect was not observed with a concurrent executive task. Discussion Overall, our findings suggest that pre-attentive automatic processes are primarily involved in binding emotional and visuo-spatial information in the EB.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Pietro Spataro
- Department of Economy, Universitas Mercatorum, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Vincenzo Cestari
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Marco Costanzi
- Department of Human Sciences, LUMSA University, Rome, Italy
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Sommer A, Ecker L, Plewnia C. Neural Signatures of Performance Feedback in the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT): An ERP Study. Front Hum Neurosci 2021; 15:630468. [PMID: 33679350 PMCID: PMC7930379 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.630468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2020] [Accepted: 01/27/2021] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Research on cognitive control has sparked increasing interest in recent years, as it is an important prerequisite for goal oriented human behavior. The paced auditory serial addition task (PASAT) has been used to test and train cognitive control functions. This adaptive, challenging task includes continuous performance feedback. Therefore, additional cognitive control capacities are required to process this information along with the already high task-load. The underlying neural mechanisms, however, are still unclear. To explore the neural signatures of the PASAT and particularly the processing of distractive feedback information, feedback locked event-related potentials were derived from 24 healthy participants during an adaptive 2-back version of the PASAT. Larger neural activation after negative feedback was found for feedback related negativity (FRN), P300, and late positive potential (LPP). In early stages of feedback processing (i.e., FRN), a larger difference between positive and negative feedback responses was associated with poorer overall performance. This association was inverted in later stages (i.e., P300 and LPP). Together, our findings indicate stage-dependent associations between neural activation after negative information and cognitive functioning. Conceivably, increased early responses to negative feedback signify distraction, whereas higher activity at later stages reflects cognitive control processes to preserve ongoing performance.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Christian Plewnia
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Neurophysiology & Interventional Neuropsychiatry, University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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Neural correlates of emotion-attention interactions: From perception, learning, and memory to social cognition, individual differences, and training interventions. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2020; 108:559-601. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.08.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/01/2019] [Revised: 07/02/2019] [Accepted: 08/21/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
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Costanzi M, Cianfanelli B, Saraulli D, Lasaponara S, Doricchi F, Cestari V, Rossi-Arnaud C. The Effect of Emotional Valence and Arousal on Visuo-Spatial Working Memory: Incidental Emotional Learning and Memory for Object-Location. Front Psychol 2019; 10:2587. [PMID: 31803120 PMCID: PMC6877739 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02587] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2019] [Accepted: 10/31/2019] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Remembering places in which emotional events occur is essential for individual's survival. However, the mechanisms through which emotions modulate information processing in working memory, especially in the visuo-spatial domain, is little understood and controversial. The present research was aimed at investigating the effect of incidentally learned emotional stimuli on visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) performance by using a modified version of the object-location task. Eight black rectangles appeared simultaneously on a computer screen; this was immediately followed by the sequential presentation of eight pictures (selected from IAPS) superimposed onto each rectangle. Pictures were selected considering the two main dimensions of emotions: valence and arousal. Immediately after presentation, participants had to relocate the rectangles in the original position as accurately as possible. In the first experiment arousal and valence were manipulated either as between-subject (Experiment 1A) or as within-subject factors (Experiment 1B and 1C). Results showed that negative pictures enhanced memory for object location only when they were presented with neutral ones within the same encoding trial. This enhancing effect of emotion on memory for object location was replicated also with positive pictures. In Experiment 2 the arousal level of negative pictures was manipulated between-subjects (high vs. low) while maintaining valence as a within-subject factor (negative vs. neutral). Objects associated with negative pictures were better relocated, independently of arousal. In Experiment 3 the role of emotional valence was further ascertained by manipulating valence as a within-subject factor (neutral vs. negative in Experiment 3A; neutral vs. positive in Experiment 3B) and maintaining similar levels of arousal among pictures. A significant effect of valence on memory for location was observed in both experiments. Finally, in Experiment 4, when positive and negative pictures were encoded in the same trial, no significant effect of valence on memory for object location was observed. Taken together results suggest that emotions enhance spatial memory performance when neutral and emotional stimuli compete with one another for access into the working memory system. In this competitive mechanism, an interplay between valence and arousal seems to be at work.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Costanzi
- Department of Human Sciences, LUMSA University, Rome, Italy
| | | | | | - Stefano Lasaponara
- Department of Human Sciences, LUMSA University, Rome, Italy
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy
| | - Fabrizio Doricchi
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy
- Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, Rome, Italy
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Alvarado-Rodríguez FJ, Romo-Vázquez R, Gallardo-Moreno GB, Vélez-Pérez H, González-Garrido AA. Type-1 diabetes shapes working memory processing strategies. Neurophysiol Clin 2019; 49:347-357. [PMID: 31711750 DOI: 10.1016/j.neucli.2019.09.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2019] [Revised: 09/30/2019] [Accepted: 09/30/2019] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a metabolic disorder characterized by recurrent hypo- and hyperglycemic episodes, whose clinical development has been associated with cognitive and working memory (WM) deficits. OBJECTIVE To contrast quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) measures between young patients with T1D and healthy controls while performing a visuospatial WM task with two memory load levels and facial emotional stimuli. METHODS Four or five neutral or happy faces were sequentially and pseudo-randomly presented in different spatial locations, followed by subsequent sequences displaying the reversed spatial order or any other. Participants were instructed to discriminate between these two alternatives during EEG recording. RESULTS A significant increase in the absolute power of the delta and theta bands, distributed mainly over the frontal region was found during task execution, with a slight decrease of alpha band power in both groups but mainly in control individuals. However, these changes were more pronounced in the T1D patients, and reached their maximum level during the WM encoding phase, even on trials with the lower memory load. In contrast, changes seemed to occur more gradually in controls and results differed significantly only on the trials with the higher WM load. CONCLUSIONS These results reflect adaptive WM-processing mechanisms in which cognitive strategies have evolved in T1D patients in order to meet task demands.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Rebeca Romo-Vázquez
- Departamento de Ciencias Computacionales, CUCEI, Universidad de Guadalajara, 1421 Boulevard Marcelino García Barragán, 44430, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
| | - Geisa Bearitz Gallardo-Moreno
- Instituto de Neurociencias, CUCBA, Universidad de Guadalajara, 180 Francisco de Quevedo, 44130, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
| | - Hugo Vélez-Pérez
- Departamento de Ciencias Computacionales, CUCEI, Universidad de Guadalajara, 1421 Boulevard Marcelino García Barragán, 44430, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
| | - Andrés Antonio González-Garrido
- Instituto de Neurociencias, CUCBA, Universidad de Guadalajara, 180 Francisco de Quevedo, 44130, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.
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Yamazaki M, Tamura K. The menstrual cycle affects recognition of emotional expressions: an event-related potential study. F1000Res 2017; 6:853. [PMID: 28868136 PMCID: PMC5558101 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.11563.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/08/2017] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Several studies have investigated the relationship between behavioral changes and the menstrual cycle in female subjects at a reproductive age. The present study investigated the relationship between the menstrual cycle and emotional face recognition by measuring the N170 component of ERPs. Methods: We measured N170 of twelve women in both follicular phase and late luteal phase who were presented with human facial expressions as stimuli (happy and angry). Results: In the follicular phase, participants showed a significantly larger response to happy male facial expressions. In the late luteal phase, participants had longer reaction times to all emotional stimuli, and a significantly reduced response to happy faces, especially happy male facial expressions (P<0.001). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the menstrual cycle modulates early visual cognitive processing, and highlight the importance of considering the menstrual cycle phase in studies that investigate emotion and cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Madoka Yamazaki
- Division of Health Science, Daito Bunka University, 560 Iwadono, Higashimatsuyama, Saitama, 355-8501, Japan
| | - Kyoko Tamura
- Division of Health Science, Daito Bunka University, 560 Iwadono, Higashimatsuyama, Saitama, 355-8501, Japan
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Guàrdia-Olmos J, Gallardo-Moreno GB, Gudayol-Ferré E, Peró-Cebollero M, González-Garrido AA. Effect of verbal task complexity in a working memory paradigm in patients with type 1 diabetes. A fMRI study. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0178172. [PMID: 28582399 PMCID: PMC5459425 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178172] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2016] [Accepted: 05/08/2017] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is commonly diagnosed in childhood and adolescence, and the developing brain has to cope with its deleterious effects. Although brain adaptation to the disease may not result in evident cognitive dysfunction, the effects of T1D on neurodevelopment could alter the pattern of BOLD fMRI activation. The aim of this study was to explore the neural BOLD activation pattern in patients with T1D versus that of healthy matched controls while performing two visuospatial working memory tasks, which included a pair of assignments administered through a block design. In the first task (condition A), the subjects were shown a trial sequence of 3 or 4 white squares positioned pseudorandomly around a fixation point on a black background. After a fixed delay, a second corresponding sequence of 3 or 4 red squares was shown that either resembled (direct, 50%) or differed from (50%) the previous stimulation order. The subjects were required to press one button if the two spatial sequences were identical or a second button if they were not. In condition B, the participants had to determine whether the second sequence of red squares appeared in inverse order (inverse, 50%) or not (50%) and respond by pressing a button. If the latter sequence followed an order distinct from the inverse sequence, the subjects were instructed to press a different button. Sixteen patients with normal IQ and without diabetes complications and 16 healthy control subjects participated in the study. In the behavioral analysis, there were no significant differences between the groups in the pure visuo-spatial task, but the patients with diabetes exhibited poorer performance in the task with verbal stimuli (p < .001). However, fMRI analyses revealed that the patients with T1D showed significantly increased activation in the prefrontal inferior cortex, subcortical regions and the cerebellum (in general p < .001). These different activation patterns could be due to adaptive compensation mechanisms that are devoted to improving efficiency while solving more complex cognitive tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joan Guàrdia-Olmos
- Facultat de Psicologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Institut de Neurociències. Institute of Complex Systems (UBICS), Passeig de la Vall d’Hebron 171, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Geisa B. Gallardo-Moreno
- Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad de Guadalajara, Francisco de Quevedo 180, Colonia Arcos Vallarta, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
| | - Esteve Gudayol-Ferré
- Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico
| | - Maribel Peró-Cebollero
- Facultat de Psicologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Institut de Neurociències. Institute of Complex Systems (UBICS), Passeig de la Vall d’Hebron 171, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Andrés A. González-Garrido
- Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad de Guadalajara, Francisco de Quevedo 180, Colonia Arcos Vallarta, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
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Sava AA, Krolak-Salmon P, Delphin-Combe F, Cloarec M, Chainay H. Memory for faces with emotional expressions in Alzheimer's disease and healthy older participants: positivity effect is not only due to familiarity. AGING NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2016; 24:1-28. [PMID: 26873302 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2016.1143444] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Young individuals better memorize initially seen faces with emotional rather than neutral expressions. Healthy older participants and Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients show better memory for faces with positive expressions. The socioemotional selectivity theory postulates that this positivity effect in memory reflects a general age-related preference for positive stimuli, subserving emotion regulation. Another explanation might be that older participants use compensatory strategies, often considering happy faces as previously seen. The question about the existence of this effect in tasks not permitting such compensatory strategies is still open. Thus, we compared the performance of healthy participants and AD patients for positive, neutral, and negative faces in such tasks. Healthy older participants and AD patients showed a positivity effect in memory, but there was no difference between emotional and neutral faces in young participants. Our results suggest that the positivity effect in memory is not entirely due to the sense of familiarity for smiling faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alina-Alexandra Sava
- a Institut de Psychologie, Laboratoire d'Etude de Mécanismes Cognitifs (EMC) , Université Lumière Lyon 2 , Lyon , France
| | - Pierre Krolak-Salmon
- b INSERM U1028 - CNRS UMR5292 , Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon , Bron , France.,c Hospices civils de Lyon, CM2R , Hôpital gériatrique des Charpennes , Villeurbane , France
| | - Floriane Delphin-Combe
- c Hospices civils de Lyon, CM2R , Hôpital gériatrique des Charpennes , Villeurbane , France
| | - Morgane Cloarec
- a Institut de Psychologie, Laboratoire d'Etude de Mécanismes Cognitifs (EMC) , Université Lumière Lyon 2 , Lyon , France
| | - Hanna Chainay
- a Institut de Psychologie, Laboratoire d'Etude de Mécanismes Cognitifs (EMC) , Université Lumière Lyon 2 , Lyon , France
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Bermudez T, Souza AS. Can emotional content reduce the age gap in visual working memory? Evidence from two tasks. Cogn Emot 2016; 31:1676-1683. [PMID: 27702390 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2016.1240066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Ageing is associated with declines in several cognitive abilities including working memory (WM). The goal of the present study was to assess whether emotional information could reduce the age gap in the quantity and quality (precision) of representations in visual WM. Young and older adults completed a serial image recognition (SIR) task and a colour-image binding (CIB) task. Results of the SIR task showed worse performance for negative than neutral and positive images within the older group, hence enlarging the age gap in WM. In the CIB task, recall precision was lower in the old than young adults, showing an ageing decline in the quality of WM representations. Positive images tended to improve precision, but this boost was similar for both age groups. In sum, emotional content did not reduce the age gap in visual WM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tania Bermudez
- a Department of Psychology , University of Zurich , Switzerland
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Faehling F, Plewnia C. Controlling the Emotional Bias: Performance, Late Positive Potentials, and the Effect of Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS). Front Cell Neurosci 2016; 10:159. [PMID: 27378856 PMCID: PMC4911396 DOI: 10.3389/fncel.2016.00159] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2016] [Accepted: 06/01/2016] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Cognitive control of emotional processing is essential for adaptive human behavior. Biased attention toward emotionally salient information is critically linked with affective disorders and is discussed as a promising treatment target. Anodal (activity enhancing) transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to increase healthy and impaired cognitive control over emotional distraction and is therefore widely used for the investigation and experimental treatment of this disorder. In this study, event-related potential (ERP) were recorded parallel to tDCS to track its online effects. Healthy volunteers (n = 87) performed a delayed working memory paradigm with emotional salient and neutral distractors during stimulation with different intensities (sham, 0.5, 1, 1.5 mA). Measuring the late positive potential (LPP), an ERP that indexes attention allocation, we found that a valence-specific increase of the early portion of the LPP (eLPP, 250-500 ms) was associated with less emotional distraction in the sham group. Of note, stimulation with tDCS exerted an intensity related effect on this correlation. The later part of the LPP (lLPP, 500-1000 ms) was found to be correlated with reaction time, regardless of valence. General effect of tDCS on LPPs and task performance were not observed. These findings demonstrate that ERP recordings parallel to tDCS are feasible to investigate the neuronal underpinnings of stimulation effects on executive functions. Furthermore, they support the notion that the LPP induced by a distractive stimulus during a working memory task mirrors the additional allocation of neuronal resources with a specific sensitivity of the early LPP for highly arousing negative stimuli. Finally, together with the variable magnitude and direction of the emotional bias, the lack of systematic modulations of LPPs and behavior by tDCS further underlines the important influence of the individual brain activity patterns on stimulation effects both on the behavioral and neurophysiological level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florian Faehling
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Neurophysiology and Interventional Neuropsychiatry, University of Tübingen Tübingen, Germany
| | - Christian Plewnia
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Neurophysiology and Interventional Neuropsychiatry, University of TübingenTübingen, Germany; Werner Reichardt Centre of Integrative Neuroscience, University of TübingenTübingen, Germany
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Qi M, Gao H, Guan L, Liu G, Yang J. Subjective Stress, Salivary Cortisol, and Electrophysiological Responses to Psychological Stress. Front Psychol 2016; 7:229. [PMID: 26925026 PMCID: PMC4757705 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2015] [Accepted: 02/04/2016] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
The present study aimed to investigate the subjective stress, salivary cortisol, and electrophysiological responses to psychological stress induced by a modified version of a mental arithmetic task. Fifteen participants were asked to estimate whether the multiplication product of two-decimal numbers was above 10 or not either with a time limit (the stress condition) or without a time limit (the control condition). The results showed that participants reported higher levels of stress, anxiety, and negative affect in the stress condition than they did in the control condition. Moreover, the salivary cortisol level continued to increase after the stress condition but exhibited a sharp decrease after the control condition. In addition, the electrophysiological data showed that the amplitude of the frontal-central N1 component was larger for the stress condition than it was for the control condition, while the amplitude of the frontal-central P2 component was larger for the control condition than it was for the stress condition. Our study suggests that the psychological stress characteristics of time pressure and social-evaluative threat caused dissociable effects on perception and on the subsequent attentional resource allocation of visual information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingming Qi
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University Chongqing, China
| | - Heming Gao
- School of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University Dalian, China
| | - Lili Guan
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University Chongqing, China
| | - Guangyuan Liu
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest UniversityChongqing, China; College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Southwest UniversityChongqing, China
| | - Juan Yang
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University Chongqing, China
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