Abstract
Emotion, importantly displayed by facial expressions, is one of the most significant memory modulators. The interaction between memory and the different emotional valences change across lifespan, while young adults (YA) are expected to better recall negative events (Negativity Bias Hypothesis), older adults (OA) tend to focus on positive stimuli (Positivity Effect Hypothesis). This research work aims at verifying whether cortical electrical activity of these two age groups would also be differently influenced by emotional valences in a visuo-spatial working memory task. 27 YA (13 males) and 25 OA (14 males), all healthy volunteers, underwent electroencephalographic recordings (21 scalp electrodes montage), while performing the Spatial Delayed Recognition Span Task using a touch screen with different stimuli categories: neutral, positive and negative faces and geometric pictures. YA obtained higher scores than OA, and showed higher activation of theta and alpha bands in the frontal and midline regions, besides a more evident right-hemispheric asymmetry on alpha band when compared to OA. For both age groups, performance in the task was worse for positive faces than to negative and to neutral faces. Facial stimuli induced a better performance and higher alpha activation on the pre-frontal region for YA, and on the midline, occipital and left temporal regions for OA when compared to geometric figures. The superior performance of YA was expected due to the natural cognitive deficits connected to ageing, as was a better performance with facial stimuli due to the evolutionary importance of faces. These results were related to cortical activity on areas of importance for action-planning, decision making and sustained attention. Taken together, they are in accordance with the Negativity Bias but do not support the Positivity Effect. The methodology used was able to identify age-related differences in cortical activity during emotional mnemonic processing and may be interesting to future investigations.
Highlights
Memory – the ability to acquire, retain and utilize information and knowledge – is a fundamental process that allows learning and adaptive behavior, since the organism can use its previous experiences to select the most appropriate behavior for the upcoming situation
Behavioral results for Spatial Delayed Recognition Span Task (SDRST) revealed significant statistical differences in the mean of scores between age groups (YA.older adults (OA); F1,49 = 42.787; p,0.001) and between stimulus categories (F3,147 = 4.093; p = 0.008), but not for the interaction between the factors (F3,147 = 0.225; p = 0.879)
This study explored EEG data of young and older adults performing a visuo-spatial working memory task with processing of emotional facial expressions
Summary
Memory – the ability to acquire, retain and utilize information and knowledge – is a fundamental process that allows learning and adaptive behavior, since the organism can use its previous experiences to select the most appropriate behavior for the upcoming situation. This ability has originated as an adaptation to a complex and constantly modifying environment [1,2]. Since information is more consolidated when it has an emotional connection to the individual, this interaction can be considered adaptive, for it allows the keeping of information that are relevant to its survival in a more efficient way [12,13]
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