Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

8-2024

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph. D.

Department

Psychological and Brain Sciences

Degree Program

Experimental Psychology, PhD

Committee Chair

DePue, Brendan E.

Committee Member

DeMarco, Paul

Committee Member

Cashon, Cara H.

Committee Member

Hindy, Nicholas C.

Author's Keywords

working memory; maintenance; updating; affective information; neuroimaging

Abstract

Working memory (WM) is a dynamic system that processes and manipulates both goal-relevant and goal-irrelevant information, integral to higher-level cognition and executive control (Fujii, 2001; Nyberg & Erikkson, 2016). The processing and manipulation of representations is modulated by the affective nature of the information (Pessoa, 2009) such that negative information can either impair or enhance WM processing. WM impairments are seen commonly across clinical disorders such as depression, anxiety, PTSD and schizophrenia (Levens & Gotlib, 2010; Joorman et a., 2011; Brodziak et al., 2015). Specifically, negative information is known to have differential processing in WM compared to neutral and positive information, specifically in clinical populations. However, the neural underpinnings of exactly how negative information modulates WM sub-processes of maintenance and updating are still unclear. This study explored the intricate interactions of emotion, WM maintenance and updating, using a modified affective version of the 1-2-AX CPT in an fMRI study. Additionally, using self-report questionnaires, I aimed to investigate the role of depression, anxiety, emotion regulation and childhood trauma in WM sub-processes in affective contexts. 30 participants took part in our experiment, completing a scanning session at the University of Louisville, providing neuroimaging, behavioral (RT and accuracy) and self-report scales data. Behavioral results indicated participants were overall slower on trials that required WM updating compared to maintenance. Specifically, participants were slowest on negative and neutral incongruent updating trials. Results from neuroimaging analyses showed strong fronto-parietal connectivity for all maintenance trials and fronto-thalamic connectivity for all updating trials. Specifically, negatively valenced updating trials showed stronger fronto-thalamic-striatal connectivity compared to neutral updating trials. Neutral maintenance trials showed stronger fronto-parietal-BG connectivity, whereas negative maintenance trials showed stronger limbic and striatal connectivity. Slower RTs on maintenance trials were associated with stronger frontoparietal-limbic connectivity while faster RTs were associated with stronger subcortical (BG, striatum, limbic regions) and parietal connectivity. Slower RTs at updating were associated with stronger limbic connectivity whereas faster RTs were associated with stronger parietal, limbic and striatal connectivity. Results of this study highlight the complex interplay between functional connectivity in the brain, WM sub-processes, and affective information.

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