Moya Cristina, Fuentes-Sánchez Nieves, Martínez-Sáez Ma Cruz, Ros Laura, Latorre José M
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, C/Almansa, 14, Albacete, Spain.
Mem Cognit. 2025 Jun 18. doi: 10.3758/s13421-025-01746-5.
The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of working memory overload on emotional processing and recognition memory. Firstly, to study emotional processing, subjective and fNIRS correlates were measured while inducing emotions using affective pictures presented for 6 s. A recognition memory task was then administered, in which participants were required to indicate whether each affective stimulus was new or had previously been used in the passive viewing task. A sample of 70 healthy volunteers (44 women) were divided into an experimental group in which working memory was overloaded during the emotion induction procedure, and a control group in which working memory was not overloaded. Regarding the effect of working memory overload on emotional processing, the results showed that the experimental group rated negative stimuli as less unpleasant. Additionally, this group presented higher fNIRS activations in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), particularly to high arousal stimuli. Meanwhile, the findings revealed better recognition for negative and high arousal stimuli in the experimental group. Overall, our findings provide further evidence on the modulation of emotional processing and recognition memory as a function of working memory overload, while highlighting the importance of the DLPFC in emotion processing and cognitive load management.
本研究的目的是调查工作记忆过载对情绪加工和识别记忆的影响。首先，为了研究情绪加工，在使用呈现6秒的情感图片诱发情绪时，测量主观和功能性近红外光谱（fNIRS）相关指标。然后进行一项识别记忆任务，要求参与者指出每个情感刺激是新的还是之前在被动观看任务中使用过的。70名健康志愿者（44名女性）样本被分为实验组和对照组，实验组在情绪诱发过程中工作记忆过载，对照组工作记忆未过载。关于工作记忆过载对情绪加工的影响，结果显示实验组将负面刺激评为不那么令人不快。此外，该组在背外侧前额叶皮层（DLPFC）表现出更高的fNIRS激活，尤其是对高唤醒刺激。同时，研究结果显示实验组对负面和高唤醒刺激有更好的识别。总体而言，我们的研究结果为工作记忆过载对情绪加工和识别记忆的调节提供了进一步证据，同时突出了DLPFC在情绪加工和认知负荷管理中的重要性。
