Relationship of negative mood with prefrontal cortex activity during working memory tasks: an optical topography
Ryuta Aoki1, Hiroki Sato, Takusige Katura
1Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan. cc097702@mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Neuroscience Research
|March 9, 2011
Summary
Naturalistic negative moods correlate with reduced prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity during verbal working memory (WM) tasks. This suggests the PFC plays a role in how everyday moods affect cognitive functions like verbal WM.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psychophysiology
Background:
- Mood significantly influences cognitive functions.
- The prefrontal cortex (PFC) mediates mood-cognition interactions.
- Limited understanding exists on how naturalistic mood relates to PFC activity during cognitive tasks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between perceived naturalistic mood and PFC activity during working memory (WM) tasks.
- To explore individual variations in mood and their impact on cognitive task performance and neural correlates.
- To examine the role of the PFC in mediating mood-cognition interactions in daily life.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaire to quantify mood levels.
- Employed optical topography (OT) for non-invasive measurement of PFC activity during verbal and spatial WM tasks.
- Included healthy adults and controlled for confounding factors like age, gender, and task performance.
Main Results:
- Significant bilateral dorsolateral PFC activation was observed during both verbal and spatial WM tasks.
- Higher levels of negative mood were associated with lower PFC activity during the verbal WM task.
- No significant association was found between negative mood and PFC activity during the spatial WM task.
Conclusions:
- Verbal working memory performance is linked to naturalistic negative mood states.
- The prefrontal cortex is implicated in the mood-cognition interaction under everyday circumstances.
- Individual differences in mood can modulate neural activity during cognitive tasks.
