Looking inward: shifting attention within working memory representations alters emotional responses

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Emotion Regulation

Background:

• Selective attention is crucial for emotion regulation, typically studied during stimulus exposure.
• Previous research has not fully explored attention's role in regulating emotions from active memory representations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if selective attention can modulate emotional responses during the post-stimulus period, specifically when representations are held in working memory (WM).
• To determine if directing attention to different aspects of a working memory representation influences emotional outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Participants viewed negative or neutral images, then maintained the image representation in WM.
• Participants were cued to focus attention on either neutral or arousing aspects of the working memory representation.
• Emotional responses were measured via self-report and late positive potential (LPP), a neural correlate of emotional reactivity.

Main Results:

• Focusing on neutral aspects of a negative image representation in WM significantly reduced self-reported negative emotion compared to focusing on arousing aspects.
• Neural reactivity, measured by the late positive potential (LPP), was also reduced when attention was directed to neutral aspects of the negative image representation.
• These findings indicate that attentional focus within WM influences emotional processing.

Conclusions:

• Selective attention can effectively regulate emotional responses originating from affective representations currently active in working memory.
• This study extends the understanding of emotion regulation by demonstrating its application during the post-stimulus, memory-based processing phase.
• The findings highlight the dynamic interplay between attention, working memory, and emotional regulation.