Balconi Michela, Angioletti Laura, Allegretta Roberta A
International research center for Cognitive Applied Neuroscience (IrcCAN), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy.
Research Unit in Affective and Social Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy.
Front Syst Neurosci. 2025 Jan 8;18:1524475. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2024.1524475. eCollection 2024.
This study examines the impact of positive and negative feedback on recall of past decisions, focusing on behavioral performance and electrophysiological (EEG) responses. Participants completed a decision-making task involving 10 real-life scenarios, each followed by immediate positive or negative feedback. In a recall phase, participants' accuracy (ACC), errors (ERRs), and response times (RTs) were recorded alongside EEG data to analyze brain activity patterns related to recall. Results indicate that accurately recalled decisions with positive feedback had slower RTs, suggesting an attentional bias toward positive information that could increase cognitive load during memory retrieval. A lack of difference in recall accuracy implies that social stimuli and situational goals may influence the positivity bias. EEG data showed distinct patterns: lower alpha band activity in frontal regions (AF7, AF8) for both correct and incorrect decisions recall, reflecting focused attention and cognitive control. Correctly recalled decisions with negative feedback showed higher delta activity, often linked to aversive processing, while incorrect recalls with negative feedback showed higher beta and gamma activity. A theta band feedback-dependent modulation in electrode activity showed higher values for decisions with negative feedback, suggesting memory suppression. These findings suggest that recalling decisions linked to self-threatening feedback may require greater cognitive effort, as seen in increased beta and gamma activity, which may indicate motivational processing and selective memory suppression. This study provides insights into the neural mechanisms of feedback-based memory recall, showing how feedback valence affects not only behavioral outcomes but also the cognitive and emotional processes involved in decision recall.
本研究考察了积极和消极反馈对过去决策回忆的影响，重点关注行为表现和电生理（脑电图）反应。参与者完成了一项涉及10个现实生活场景的决策任务，每个场景之后紧接着是即时的积极或消极反馈。在回忆阶段，记录参与者的准确率（ACC）、错误率（ERRs）和反应时间（RTs）以及脑电图数据，以分析与回忆相关的大脑活动模式。结果表明，得到积极反馈的准确回忆决策的反应时间较慢，这表明对积极信息存在注意力偏差，这可能会在记忆检索过程中增加认知负荷。回忆准确率没有差异意味着社会刺激和情境目标可能会影响积极偏差。脑电图数据显示出不同的模式：在额叶区域（AF7、AF8），正确和错误决策回忆的阿尔法波段活动较低，反映出注意力集中和认知控制。得到消极反馈的正确回忆决策显示出较高的德尔塔活动，这通常与厌恶处理有关，而得到消极反馈的错误回忆显示出较高的贝塔和伽马活动。电极活动中依赖于反馈的西塔波段调制显示，消极反馈决策的值较高，这表明存在记忆抑制。这些发现表明，回忆与自我威胁反馈相关的决策可能需要更大的认知努力，如贝塔和伽马活动增加所示，这可能表明存在动机处理和选择性记忆抑制。本研究为基于反馈的记忆回忆的神经机制提供了见解，展示了反馈效价如何不仅影响行为结果，还影响决策回忆中涉及的认知和情感过程。
