Exploring the effect of negative mood on working memory subprocesses: An event-related potential study

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroimaging
• Psychology

Background:

• Working memory (WM) utilizes gate mechanisms (opening, closing, updating, substitution) to control information flow.
• Neural underpinnings of WM subprocesses are not fully understood.
• The impact of negative mood on WM subprocesses remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural mechanisms of WM subprocesses using event-related potentials (ERPs).
• To examine the influence of negative mood on these WM subprocesses.
• To explore the behavioral and neural effects of negative mood on working memory.

Main Methods:

• A cue-version reference-back task was employed with 32 participants.
• Mood induction (negative vs. neutral) and assessment using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS).
• Behavioral data (reaction time, error rate) and electroencephalography (EEG) for ERP analysis were collected.

Main Results:

• All WM subprocesses showed reaction time costs; only substitution showed error rate costs.
• Negative mood reduced substitution costs in reaction time and gate opening costs in ERPs during the probe phase.
• Neural correlates identified for gate opening, updating, and substitution, with no observed neural costs for gate closing.

Conclusions:

• The study confirms four distinct WM subprocesses: gate opening, closing, updating, and substitution.
• Negative mood specifically modulates neural activity related to gate opening and affects substitution costs.
• Findings contribute to understanding the neural basis of working memory and emotion-cognition interactions.