A1 Journal article (refereed)
A negative emotional state impairs individuals’ ability to filter distractors from working memory : an ERP study (2024)

Ye, C., Liu, R., Guo, L., Zhao, G., & Liu, Q. (2024). A negative emotional state impairs individuals’ ability to filter distractors from working memory : an ERP study. Cognitive Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 24(3), 491-504. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-024-01166-z

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Ye, Chaoxiong; Liu, Ruyi; Guo, Lijing; Zhao, Guoying; Liu, Qiang

Journal or series: Cognitive Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience

ISSN: 1530-7026

eISSN: 1531-135X

Publication year: 2024

Publication date: 13/02/2024

Volume: 24

Issue number: 3

Pages range: 491-504

Publisher: Springer

Publication country: United States

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-024-01166-z

Research data link: https://osf.io/bshm2/

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Partially open access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/93555

Abstract

Capacity-limited visual working memory (VWM) requires that individuals have sufficient memory space and the ability to filter distractors. Negative emotional states are known to impact VWM storage, yet their influence on distractor filtering within VWM remains underexplored. We conducted direct neural measurement of participants (n = 56) who conducted a lateralized change detection task with distractors, while manipulating the emotional state by presenting neutral or negative images before each trial. We found a detrimental effect of distractors on memory accuracy under both neutral and negative emotional states. Using the event-related potential (ERP) component, contralateral delay activity (CDA; sensitive to VWM load), to observe the VWM load in each condition, we found that in the neutral state, the participants showed significantly higher late CDA amplitudes when remembering 4 targets compared with 2 targets and 2 targets with 2 distractors but no significant difference when remembering 2 targets compared with 2 targets with 2 distractors. In the negative state, no significant CDA amplitude differences were evident when remembering 4 targets and 2 targets, but CDA was significantly higher when remembering 2 targets with 2 distractors compared with 2 targets. These results suggest that the maximum number of items participants could store in VWM was lower under negative emotional states than under neutral emotional states. Importantly, the participants could filter out distractors when in a neutral emotional state but not in a negative emotional state, indicating that negative emotional states impair their ability to filter out distractors in VWM.

Keywords: memory (cognition); emotions; working memory; visual memory; interferences; brain; EEG

Free keywords: negative emotion; contralateral delay activity; distractor filtering; visual short-term memory

Contributing organizations

Related projects

Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2024

Preliminary JUFO rating: 1