Failure to filter: anxious individuals show inefficient gating of threat from working memory

A negative emotional state impairs individuals' ability to filter distractors from working memory: an ERP study

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.

The differential impact of face distractors on visual working memory across encoding and delay stages

External distractions often occur when information must be retained in visual working memory (VWM)-a crucial element in cognitive processing and everyday activities. However, the distraction effects can differ if they occur during the encoding rather than the delay stages. Previous research on these effects used simple stimuli (e.g., color and orientation) rather than considering distractions caused by real-world stimuli on VWM. In the present study, participants performed a facial VWM task under different distraction conditions across the encoding and delay stages to elucidate the mechanisms of distraction resistance in the context of complex real-world stimuli. VWM performance was significantly impaired by delay-stage but not encoding-stage distractors (Experiment 1). In addition, the delay distraction effect arose primarily due to the absence of distractor process at the encoding stage rather than the presence of a distractor during the delay stage (Experiment 2). Finally, the impairment in the delay-distraction condition was not due to the abrupt appearance of distractors (Experiment 3). Taken together, these findings indicate that the processing mechanisms previously established for resisting distractions in VWM using simple stimuli can be extended to more complex real-world stimuli, such as faces.

Conceptualizing avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder via an executive functioning lens

Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is a heterogeneous disorder wherein restrictive eating is primarily attributed to non-shape/weight-based reasons (e.g., sensory sensitivity) that empirical research continues to explore. Mounting evidence suggests that ARFID often presents alongside neurodevelopmental diagnoses (NDs) or divergent neurodevelopment broadly. Executive functioning (EF) differences often characterize divergent neurodevelopmental trajectories. Additionally, restrictive eating in anorexia nervosa has been conceptualized as related to EF factors (e.g., set shifting). Given the neurodevelopmental phenotype that may be associated with ARFID and the role of EF in anorexia nervosa, this paper proposes EF as a potentially important, yet understudied factor in ARFID pathology. We posit that various observed ARFID behavioral/cognitive tendencies can be conceptualized in relation to EF differences. We contextualize commonly observed ARFID presentations within "core" EF components (i.e., cognitive flexibility, working memory, inhibitory control), leading to hypotheses about EF in ARFID. Finally, we offer additional considerations/directions for future research on EF in ARFID. Increased research on EF in ARFID is needed to consider this potential common factor in the etiology and maintenance of this heterogeneous disorder. We aim to promote further consideration of EF in ARFID etiology, maintenance, and treatment-outcome research. PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE: This article proposes that aspects of executive functioning (EF) may play a role in the onset and maintenance of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), although this notion is largely untested by existing research. Further research on the role of EF in ARFID may assist with refining models and treatments for this heterogeneous disorder.

Controlling human causal inference through in silico task design

Learning causal relationships is crucial for survival. The human brain's functional flexibility allows for effective causal inference, underlying various learning processes. While past studies focused on environmental factors influencing causal inference, a fundamental question remains: can these factors be manipulated for strategic causal inference control? This paper presents a task control framework for orchestrating causal learning task design. It utilizes a two-player game setting where a neural network learns to manipulate task variables by interacting with a human causal inference model. Training the task controller to generate experimental designs, we confirm its ability to accommodate complexities of environmental causal structure. Experiments involving 126 human subjects successfully validate the impact of task control on performance and learning efficiency. Additionally, we find that task control policy reflects the intrinsic nature of human causal inference: one-shot learning. This framework holds promising potential for applications paving the way for targeted behavioral outcomes in humans.

Can templates-for-rejection suppress real-world affective objects in visual search?

Previous evidence has suggested that feature-based templates-for-rejection can be maintained in working memory to suppress matching features in the environment. Currently, this effect has only been demonstrated using abstract neutral shapes, meaning that it is unclear whether this generalizes to real-world images, including aversive stimuli. In the current investigation, participants searched amongst an array of real-world objects for a target, after being precued with either a distractor template, target template, or a no template baseline. In Experiment 1, where both distractor and target template cues were presented randomly on a trial-by-trial basis, there was moderate evidence of increased capture by aversive distractors after the distractor template cue. In Experiment 2a, however, when distractor templates were the only available cue and more time was given to encode the cue features, there was moderate evidence of effective distractor inhibition for real-world aversive and neutral stimuli. In Experiment 2b, when the task required a slower more effortful comparison of target features to stereotypical object representations, there was weaker evidence of inhibition, though there was still modest evidence suggesting effective inhibition of aversive distractors. A Bayesian meta-analysis revealed that across Experiment 2, aversive distractors showed strong cumulative evidence of effective inhibition, but inconsistent inhibition for neutral distractors. The results are interpreted from a rational search behaviour framework, which suggests that individuals utilize informative cues when they enable the most beneficial strategy and are accessible, and apply these to distractors when they cause sufficient disruption, either to search speed or emotional state.

To err is human- to understand error-processing is divine: Contributions of working memory and anxiety to error-related brain and pupil responses

Both anxiety and working memory capacity appear to predict increased (more negative) error-related negativity (ERN) amplitudes, despite being inversely related to one another. Until the interactive effects of these variables on the ERN are clarified, there may be challenges posed to our ability to use the ERN as an endophenotype for anxiety, as some have suggested. The compensatory error monitoring hypothesis suggests that high trait-anxiety individuals have larger ERN amplitudes because they must employ extra, compensatory efforts to override the working memory demands of their anxiety. Yet, to our knowledge, no ERN study has employed direct manipulation of working memory demands in conjunction with direct manipulations of induced (state) anxiety. Furthermore, little is known about how these manipulations affect other measures of error processing, such as the error-related pupil dilation response and post-error behavioral adjustments. Therefore, we manipulate working memory load and anxiety in a 2 × 2 within-subjects design to examine the interactive effects of working memory load and anxiety on ERN amplitude, error-related pupil dilation response amplitude, and post-error behavior. There were no effects of our manipulations on ERN amplitude, suggesting a strong interpretation of compensatory error-processing theory. However, our worry manipulation affected post-error behavior, such that worry caused a reduction in post-error accuracy. Additionally, our working memory manipulation affected error-related PDR magnitude and the amplitude of the error-related positivity (Pe), such that increased working memory load decreased the amplitude of these responses. Implications of these results within the context of the compensatory error processing framework are discussed.

Threat of shock increases distractor susceptibility during the short-term maintenance of visual information

BACKGROUND

Work on anxiety related attention control deficits suggests that elevated arousal impacts the ability to filter out distractors. To test this, we designed a task to look at distractor suppression during periods of threat. We administered trials of a visual short-term memory (VSTM) task, during periods of unpredictable threat, and hypothesized that threat would impair performance during trials where subjects were required to filter out large numbers of distractors.

METHOD

Experiment 1 involved fifteen healthy participants who completed one study visit. They performed four runs of a VSTM task comprising 32 trials each. Participants were presented with an arrow indicating left or right, followed by an array of squares. They were instructed to remember the target side and disregard the distractors on the off-target side. A subsequent target square was shown, and participants indicated whether it matched one of the previously presented target squares. The trial conditions included 50% matches and 50% mismatches, with an equal distribution of left and right targets. The number of target and distractor squares varied systematically, with high (4 squares) and low (2 squares) target and distractor conditions. Trials alternated between periods of safety and threat, with startle responses recorded using electromyography (EMG) following white noise presentations.Experiment 2 involved twenty-seven healthy participants who completed the same VSTM task inside an MRI scanner during a single study visit. The procedure mirrored that of Experiment 1, except for the absence of white noise presentations.

RESULTS

For Experiment 1, subjects showed significantly larger startle responses during threat compared to safe period, supporting the validity of the threat manipulation. However, results suggested that the white noise probes interfered with performance. For Experiment 2, we found that both accuracy was affected by threat, such that distractor load negatively impacted accuracy only in the threat condition.

CONCLUSION

Overall, these findings suggest that threat affects distractor susceptibility during the short-term maintenance of visual information. The presence of threat makes it more difficult to filter out distracting information. We believe that this is related to hyperarousal of parietal cortex, which has been observed during unpredictable threat.

High executive functioning is associated with reduced posttraumatic stress after trauma exposure among male U.S. military personnel

Introduction

Evidence suggests that executive function (EF) may play a key role in development of PTSD, possibly influenced by factors such as trauma type and timing. Since EF can be improved through intervention, it may be an important target for promoting resilience to trauma exposure. However, more research is needed to understand the relation between trauma exposure, EF, and PTSD. The goal of this study was to improve understanding of EF as a potential antecedent or protective factor for the development of PTSD among military personnel.

Method

In a cohort of U.S. Marines and Navy personnel (N = 1,373), the current study tested the association between exposure to traumatic events (pre-deployment and during deployment) and PTSD severity, and whether EF moderated these associations. Three types of pre-deployment trauma exposure were examined: cumulative exposure, which included total number of events participants endorsed as having happened to them, witnessed, or learned about; direct exposure, which included total number of events participants endorsed as having happened to them; and interpersonal exposure, which included total number of interpersonally traumatic events participants' endorsed. EF was measured using the Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery.

Results

EF was associated with less PTSD symptom severity at pre-deployment, even when adjusting for trauma exposure, alcohol use, traumatic brain injury, and number of years in the military. EF also moderated the relation between cumulative trauma exposure and interpersonal trauma exposure and PTSD, with higher EF linked to a 20 and 33% reduction in expected point increase in PTSD symptoms with cumulative and interpersonal trauma exposure, respectively. Finally, higher pre-deployment EF was associated with reduced PTSD symptom severity at post-deployment, independent of deployment-related trauma exposure and adjusting for pre-deployment PTSD.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that EF plays a significant, if small role in the development of PTSD symptoms after trauma exposure among military personnel. These findings provide important considerations for future research and intervention and prevention, specifically, incorporating a focus on improving EF in PTSD treatment.

Adjunctive cognitive training with exposure enhances fear and neural outcomes in social anxiety

Exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the gold standard for treating social anxiety disorder (SAD), yet response is not universal. CBT is thought to operate via extinction-related learning during exposure, which in turn relies on cognitive processes such as working memory. The present proof-of-concept study investigates the potential for training working memory to improve anxiety related outcomes following exposure. Thirty-three adults with elevated social anxiety were randomized to complete a working memory training or sham training condition. Post-training, participants completed a working memory assessment, speech exposure session, and two fMRI tasks. Participants who received working memory training demonstrated lower distress ratings by the end of the speech exposures and better performance on the fMRI working memory task than those in sham. Working memory training completers had greater neural activation in frontoparietal regions during an in-scanner working memory task and exhibited less neural activation in the fusiform gyrus in response to an emotional face processing task than those in sham. Adding working memory training to exposure procedures could strengthen functioning of frontoparietal regions and alter emotional processing - key mechanisms implicated in extinction learning. Findings provide preliminary evidence that training working memory in conjunction with exposure may enhance exposure success.

Understanding anxiety symptoms as aberrant defensive responding along the threat imminence continuum

Threat-anticipatory defensive responses have evolved to promote survival in a dynamic world. While inherently adaptive, aberrant expression of defensive responses to potential threat could manifest as pathological anxiety, which is prevalent, impairing, and associated with adverse outcomes. Extensive translational neuroscience research indicates that normative defensive responses are organized by threat imminence, such that distinct response patterns are observed in each phase of threat encounter and orchestrated by partially conserved neural circuitry. Anxiety symptoms, such as excessive and pervasive worry, physiological arousal, and avoidance behavior, may reflect aberrant expression of otherwise normative defensive responses, and therefore follow the same imminence-based organization. Here, empirical evidence linking aberrant expression of specific, imminence-dependent defensive responding to distinct anxiety symptoms is reviewed, and plausible contributing neural circuitry is highlighted. Drawing from translational and clinical research, the proposed framework informs our understanding of pathological anxiety by grounding anxiety symptoms in conserved psychobiological mechanisms. Potential implications for research and treatment are discussed.

Alterations in working memory maintenance of fearful face distractors in depressed participants: An ERP study

Task-irrelevant threatening faces (e.g., fearful) are difficult to filter from visual working memory (VWM), but the difficulty in filtering non-threatening negative faces (e.g., sad) is not known. Depressive symptoms could also potentially affect the ability to filter different emotional faces. We tested the filtering of task-irrelevant sad and fearful faces by depressed and control participants performing a color-change detection task. The VWM storage of distractors was indicated by contralateral delay activity, a specific event-related potential index for the number of objects stored in VWM during the maintenance phase. The control group did not store sad face distractors, but they automatically stored fearful face distractors, suggesting that threatening faces are specifically difficult to filter from VWM in non-depressed individuals. By contrast, depressed participants showed no additional consumption of VWM resources for either the distractor condition or the non-distractor condition, possibly suggesting that neither fearful nor sad face distractors were maintained in VWM. Our control group results confirm previous findings of a threat-related filtering difficulty in the normal population while also suggesting that task-irrelevant non-threatening negative faces do not automatically load into VWM. The novel finding of the lack of negative distractors within VWM storage in participants with depressive symptoms may reflect a decreased overall responsiveness to negative facial stimuli. Future studies should investigate the mechanisms underlying distractor filtering in depressed populations.

Distinct Effects of Anxiety and Depression on Updating Emotional Information in Working Memory

Anxiety and depression have been shown to negatively influence the processing of emotional information in working memory. However, most studies have examined anxiety-related or depression-related working memory deficits independently, without considering their high co-morbidity. We tested the effects of emotional valence on working memory performance among healthy young adults with varying levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Ninety young adults aged between 18-24 (51 female) completed an emotional 2-back task in which positive, negative, and neutral images were presented. Multi-level modeling was used to examine anxiety and depressive symptoms as predictors of response accuracy and latency across the three emotional valence conditions. The results showed that participants responded to negative images with the highest accuracy and to positive images with the lowest accuracy. Both negative and positive images elicited slower responses than neutral images. Importantly, we found that more severe anxiety symptoms predicted a smaller difference in response accuracy between negative and neutral stimuli, whereas more severe depressive symptoms predicted a larger updating reaction time difference between positive and neutral stimuli. These findings demonstrated the uniquely anxiety-related deficits in processing negative contents and the uniquely depression-related deficits in updating positive contents in working memory, thus highlighting the necessity of novel cognitive bias modification interventions targeting the anxiety-specific and depression-specific deficits in working memory.

Sensory Delay Activity: More than an Electrophysiological Index of Working Memory Load

Sustained contralateral delay activity emerges in the retention period of working memory (WM) tasks and has been commonly interpreted as an electrophysiological index of the number of items held in a discrete-capacity WM resource. More recent findings indicate that these visual and tactile components are sensitive to various cognitive operations beyond the storage of discrete items in WM. In this Perspective, we present recent evidence from unisensory and multisensory visual and tactile WM tasks suggesting that, in addition to memory load, sensory delay activity may also be indicative of attentional and executive processes, as well as reflecting the flexible, rather than discrete, allocation of a continuous WM resource. Together, these findings challenge the traditional model of the functional significance of the contralateral delay activity as a pure measure of item load, and suggest that it may also reflect executive, attentional, and perceptual mechanisms operating in hierarchically organized WM systems.

Using clustering algorithms to examine the association between working memory training trajectories and therapeutic outcomes among psychiatric and healthy populations

Working memory (WM) training has gained interest due to its potential to enhance cognitive functioning and reduce symptoms of mental disorders. Nevertheless, inconsistent results suggest that individual differences may have an impact on training efficacy. This study examined whether individual differences in training performance can predict therapeutic outcomes of WM training, measured as changes in anxiety and depression symptoms in sub-clinical and healthy populations. The study also investigated the association between cognitive abilities at baseline and different training improvement trajectories. Ninety-six participants (50 females, mean age = 27.67, SD = 8.84) were trained using the same WM training task (duration ranged between 7 to 15 sessions). An algorithm was then used to cluster them based on their learning trajectories. We found three main WM training trajectories, which in turn were related to changes in anxiety symptoms following the training. Additionally, executive function abilities at baseline predicted training trajectories. These findings highlight the potential for using clustering algorithms to reveal the benefits of cognitive training to alleviate maladaptive psychological symptoms.

Association between spatial working memory and Re-experiencing symptoms in PTSD

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Few studies have evaluated the link between working memory (WM) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Further, it is unknown whether this relationship is accounted for by other relevant variables including negative affect, emotional dysregulation, or general non-WM-related cognitive control deficits, which are associated with PTSD. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which a computerized WM task could predict PTSD symptomology incrementally beyond the contribution of other relevant variables associated with PTSD.

METHODS

Thirty veterans were eligible to complete emotional symptom questionnaires, a heart-rate variability measure, and computerized tasks (i.e., emotional Stroop and automated complex span tasks). A three-stage hierarchical regression was conducted with the PCL-5 total score and symptom clusters (i.e., re-experiencing, avoidance, hyperarousal, and negative cognition/mood) as the dependent variable.

RESULTS

Results revealed that only the re-experiencing symptom cluster was significantly predicted by executive, verbal, and visuospatial WM tasks, which explained an additional 29.7% of the variance over and above other relevant variables. Most notably, the visuospatial task was the only WM task that significantly explained PCL-5 re-experiencing symptoms.

LIMITATIONS

This study was based on a small sample of veterans with PTSD and causality cannot be determined with this cross-sectional study.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, the results suggest that deficits in visuospatial WM are significantly associated with PTSD re-experiencing symptoms after controlling for other relevant variables. Further research should evaluate whether an intervention to improve visuospatial WM capacity can be implemented to reduce re-experiencing symptoms.

Working Memory Performance for Differentially Conditioned Stimuli

Previous work suggests that threat-related stimuli are stored to a greater degree in working memory compared to neutral stimuli. However, most of this research has focused on stimuli with physically salient threat attributes (e.g., angry faces), failing to account for how a "neutral" stimulus that has acquired threat-related associations through differential aversive conditioning influences working memory. The current study examined how differentially conditioned safe (i.e., CS-) and threat (i.e., CS+) stimuli are stored in working memory relative to a novel, non-associated (i.e., N) stimuli. Participants (n = 69) completed a differential fear conditioning task followed by a change detection task consisting of three conditions (CS+, CS-, N) across two loads (small, large). Results revealed individuals successfully learned to distinguishing CS+ from CS- conditions during the differential aversive conditioning task. Our working memory outcomes indicated successful load manipulation effects, but no statistically significant differences in accuracy, response time (RT), or Pashler's K measures of working memory capacity between CS+, CS-, or N conditions. However, we observed significantly reduced RT difference scores for the CS+ compared to CS- condition, indicating greater RT differences between the CS+ and N condition vs. the CS- and N condition. These findings suggest that differentially conditioned stimuli have little impact on behavioral outcomes of working memory compared to novel stimuli that had not been associated with previous safe of aversive outcomes, at least in healthy populations.

Social threat and safety learning in individuals with adverse childhood experiences: electrocortical evidence on face processing, recognition, and working memory

BACKGROUND

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are often associated with stress and anxiety-related disorders in adulthood, and learning and memory deficits have been suggested as a potential link between ACEs and psychopathology.

OBJECTIVE

In this preregistered study, the impact of social threat learning on the processing, encoding, and recognition of unknown faces as well as their contextual settings was measured by recognition performance and event-related brain potentials.

METHOD

Sixty-four individuals with ACEs encoded neutral faces within threatening or safe context conditions. During recognition, participants had to decide whether a face was new or had been previously presented in what context (item-source memory), looking at old and new faces. For visual working memory, participants had to detect changes in low and high load conditions during contextual threat or safety.

RESULTS

Results showed a successful induction of threat expectation in persons with ACEs. In terms of face and source recognition, overall recognition of safe and new faces was better compared to threatening face-compounds, with more socially anxious individuals having an advantage in remembering threatening faces. For working memory, an effect of task load was found on performance, irrespective of threat or safety context. Regarding electrocortical activity, an old/new recognition effect and threat-selective processing of face-context information was observed during both encoding and recognition. Moreover, neural activity associated with change detection was found for faces in a threatening context, but only at high task load, suggesting reduced capacity for faces in potentially harmful situations when cognitive resources are limited.

CONCLUSION

While individuals with ACE showed intact social threat and safety learning overall, threat-selective face processing was observed for item/source memory, and a threatening context required more processing resources for visual working memory. Further research is needed to investigate the psychophysiological processes involved in functional and dysfunctional memory systems and their importance as vulnerability factors for stress-related disorders.

Effect of test anxiety on visual working memory capacity using evidence from event-related potentials

This study examined the effects of test anxiety on working memory capacity. Studies have demonstrated that individuals with trait social anxiety disorder exhibit increased visual working memory capacity and that those with trait anxiety exhibit decreased working memory capacity. Test anxiety may also induce unique effects on individuals' working memory capacity, and we thus employed the change detection task to explore such effects. Participants were divided into high- and low-test anxiety groups. We used K score and contralateral delay activity (CDA) amplitude to measure working memory capacity, focusing on processing effectiveness and efficiency. The study results revealed that deficits in the working memory capacity of individuals in the high test anxiety group manifested in the CDA amplitude rather than in the K score. The CDA amplitude of the high test anxiety group did not increase after load 3, and that of the low test anxiety group did not increase after load 4. No difference was observed in the K scores of the two groups. The study concluded that test anxiety impairs processing efficiency but not processing effectiveness.

Test anxiety impairs filtering ability in visual working memory: Evidence from event-related potentials

Attentional control theory regards individuals with high anxiety as having deficits of inhibitory control when faced with distractors, especially under high-load conditions and with threatening distractors. Research on test anxiety has a long history, but the working memory (WM) characteristics of individuals with high test anxiety (HTA) remain unclear. We used two experiments to test the WM filtering ability of individuals with HTA, and the salient results were those of the contralateral delay activity amplitude rather than K score. The first experiment employed neutral distractors. HTA participants filtered distractors under low-load conditions but not under high-load conditions. Participants with low test anxiety (LTA) filtered distractors under high-load conditions but not under low-load conditions. The second experiment utilized threatening distractors. The participants with HTA exhibited deficits in their ability to filter neutral and threatening distractors, whereas the participants with LTA filtered both types of distractor.

Negative and Positive Bias for Emotional Faces: Evidence from the Attention and Working Memory Paradigms

Visual attention and visual working memory (VWM) are two major cognitive functions in humans, and they have much in common. A growing body of research has investigated the effect of emotional information on visual attention and VWM. Interestingly, contradictory findings have supported both a negative bias and a positive bias toward emotional faces (e.g., angry faces or happy faces) in the attention and VWM fields. We found that the classical paradigms-that is, the visual search paradigm in attention and the change detection paradigm in VWM-are considerably similar. The settings of these paradigms could therefore be responsible for the contradictory results. In this paper, we compare previous controversial results from behavioral and neuroscience studies using these two paradigms. We suggest three possible contributing factors that have significant impacts on the contradictory conclusions regarding different emotional bias effects; these factors are stimulus choice, experimental setting, and cognitive process. We also propose new research directions and guidelines for future studies.

Social anxiety is related to impaired ability to filter out irrelevant information but not reduced storage capacity

Individuals with social anxiety have deficits in inhibiting task-irrelevant threatening information, but the mechanism is poorly understood. In this study, we instructed participants with high and low social anxiety to perform a variant change-detection task, recording their accuracy and electrophysiological data. The results indicated that individuals with high social anxiety showed impaired ability to filter out irrelevant information in disgust facial expression condition rather than neutral facial expression. While individuals with low social anxiety didn't show filter efficiency defects under both disgust and neutral facial expressions. Furthermore, we found high socially anxious individuals could hold more information in visual working memory than low socially anxious individuals. These results suggest that the abundance of cognitive resources in socially anxious individuals compensates the presumed weak performance in accuracy produced by impaired filter efficiency. These results provide support for the claims of efficiency and effectiveness in attentional control theory.

Estimating the statistical power to detect set-size effects in contralateral delay activity

The contralateral delay activity (CDA) is an event-related potential component commonly used to examine the online processes of visual working memory. Here, we provide a robust analysis of the statistical power that is needed to achieve reliable and reproducible results with the CDA. Using two very large EEG datasets that examined the contrast between CDA amplitude with set sizes 2 and 6 items and set sizes 2 and 4 items, we present a subsampling analysis that estimates the statistical power achieved with varying numbers of subjects and trials based on the proportion of significant tests in 10,000 iterations. We also generated simulated data using Bayesian multilevel modeling to estimate power beyond the bounds of the original datasets. The number of trials and subjects required depends critically on the effect size. Detecting the presence of the CDA-a reliable difference between contralateral and ipsilateral electrodes during the memory period-required only 30-50 clean trials with a sample of 25 subjects to achieve approximately 80% statistical power. However, for detecting a difference in CDA amplitude between two set sizes, a substantially larger number of trials and subjects were required; approximately 400 clean trials with 25 subjects to achieve 80% power. Thus, to achieve robust tests of how CDA activity differs across conditions, it is essential to be mindful of the estimated effect size. We recommend researchers designing experiments to detect set-size differences in the CDA collect substantially more trials per subject.

Personal relative deprivation impairs ability to filter out threat-related distractors from visual working memory

The literature has indicated that personal relative deprivation (PRD) results in anxiety disorders. Given that some cognitive models propose that attention bias toward a threat causes and maintains anxiety, relatively deprived individuals may have difficulty gating threat from working memory. To test this hypothesis, this study investigated the influence of PRD on the filtering ability of happy, angry, and neutral facial distractors from visual working memory using electroencephalography (EEG). Participants were randomly assigned to a PRD (n = 24) or a non-PRD group (n = 24). Filtering ability was reflected by comparing the contralateral delay activity (CDA) amplitude for one-target, one-target-one-distractor, and two-targets conditions. The CDA was measured as the difference in mean amplitudes between activity in the hemispheres contralateral and ipsilateral to the to-be-remembered information. Results indicated that individuals in the PRD group showed a reduced ability to filter out neutral and angry facial distractors, as reflected by similar CDA amplitudes for one-target-one-distractor and two-targets conditions for both angry and neutral distractors in the PRD group. However, PRD did not impair the ability to filter out happy facial distractors, as reflected by similar CDA amplitudes for one-target-one-distractor and one-target conditions for happy distractors in the PRD group. As neutral faces might then be taken as potentially threatening information by relatively deprived individuals, these results support the hypothesis that relatively deprived individuals might have difficulty filtering out threat-related information.

Investigating Principal Working Memory Features in Generalized, Panic, and Social Anxiety Spectrum Disorders

Anxiety spectrum disorders are characterized by excessive and uncontrollable worrying about potential negative events in the short- and long-term future. Various reports linked anxiety spectrum disorders with working memory (WM) deficits despite conflicting results stemming from different study approaches. It remains unclear, however, how different anxiety spectrum disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), and panic disorder (PD), differ in WM function. In this study, we utilized verbal, numerical, and sequential evaluations of WM to cover most possible facets of the WM data space. We used principal component analysis to extract the uncorrelated/whitened components of WM based on these measures. We evaluated medication-free patients with GAD, SAD, and PD patients as well as matched healthy individuals using a battery that measures WM duration and load. We found that patients with GAD and SAD, but not PD, exhibited poor performance only in the WM principal component that represents maintenance. There were no other significant differences between the four groups. Further, different WM components significantly predicted the severity of anxiety symptoms in the groups. We explored the clinical utility of WM components for differentiating patients with anxiety spectrum disorders from healthy individuals. By only using the WM components that represent maintenance and encoding, we managed to differentiate patients from controls in 84% of cases. For the first time, we present multiple novel approaches to examine cognitive function and design cognitive screening, and potentially diagnostics, for psychiatric disorders.

Patients with anxiety disorders rely on bilateral dlPFC activation during verbal working memory

One of the hallmarks of anxiety disorders is impaired cognitive control, affecting working memory (WM). The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) is critical for WM; however, it is still unclear how dlPFC activity relates to WM impairments in patients. Forty-one healthy volunteers and 32 anxiety (general and/or social anxiety disorder) patients completed the Sternberg WM paradigm during safety and unpredictable shock threat. On each trial, a series of letters was presented, followed by brief retention and response intervals. On low- and high-load trials, subjects retained the series (five and eight letters, respectively) in the original order, while on sort trials, subjects rearranged the series (five letters) in alphabetical order. We sampled the blood oxygenation level-dependent activity during retention using a bilateral anatomical dlPFC mask. Compared to controls, patients showed increased reaction time during high-load trials, greater right dlPFC activity and reduced dlPFC activity during threat. These results suggest that WM performance for patients and controls may rely on distinct patterns of dlPFC activity with patients requiring bilateral dlPFC activity. These results are consistent with reduced efficiency of WM in anxiety patients. This reduced efficiency may be due to an inefficient allocation of dlPFC resources across hemispheres or a decreased overall dlPFC capacity.

The role of trait anxiety in attention and memory-related biases to threat: An event-related potential study

Threat-related information strongly competes for attentional selection, and can subsequently be more strongly represented within visual working memory. This is particularly the case for individuals reporting high trait anxious personality. The present study examined the role of anxiety in both attention and memory-related interactions with threat. We employed a hybrid working memory/visual search task, with participants preselected for low and high anxious personality traits. They selected and memorized an emotional face (angry or happy) appearing together with a neutral face in encode displays. Following a delay period, they matched the identity of the memorized face to a probe display item. Event-related markers of attentional selection (N2pc components) and memory maintenance during the delay period (i.e., CDA) were measured. Selection biases toward angry faces were observed within both encode and probe displays, evidenced by earlier and larger N2pcs. A similar threat-related bias was also found during working memory maintenance, with larger CDA components when angry faces were stored. High anxious individuals showed large selection biases for angry faces at encoding. For low anxious individuals, this bias was smaller but still significant. In contrast, only high anxious individuals showed larger CDA components for angry faces. These results suggest that threat biases in attentional selection are modulated by trait anxiety, and that threat biases within working memory may only be present for high anxious individuals. These findings highlight the key role of individual differences in trait anxiety on threat-related biases in visual processing, especially at the level of working memory maintenance.

State anxiety reduces working memory capacity but does not impact filtering cost for neutral distracters

Current theories propose that anxiety adversely impacts working memory (WM) by restricting WM capacity and interfering with efficient filtering of task-irrelevant information. The current study investigated the effect of shock-induced state anxiety on WM capacity and the ability to filter task-irrelevant neutral stimuli. We measured the contralateral delay activity (CDA), an event-related potential that indexes the number of items maintained in WM, while participants completed a lateralized change detection task. The task included low and high WM loads, as well as a low load plus distracter condition. This design was used to assess WM capacity for low and high loads and investigate an individual's ability to filter neutral task-irrelevant stimuli. Participants completed the task under two conditions, threat of shock and safe. We observed a reduced CDA in the threat compared to the safe condition that was specific for high memory load. However, we did not find any differences in CDA filtering cost between threat and safe conditions. In addition, we did not find any differences in behavioral performance between the threat and safe conditions. These findings suggest that being in an anxious state reduces the neural representation for large amounts of information in WM, but have little effect on the filtering of neutral distracters.

Updating facial emotional expressions in working memory: Differentiating trait anxiety and depressiveness

Individual differences in updating emotional facial expressions in working memory are not fully understood. Here we focused on the effects of high trait anxiety and high depressiveness in men and women on updating schematic emotional facial expressions (sad, angry, scheming, happy, neutral). A population representative sample of young adults was divided into four emotional disposition groups based on STAI-T and MADRS cut-offs: high anxiety (HA, n = 41), high depressiveness (HD, n = 31), high depressiveness & high anxiety (HAHD, n = 65) and control (CT, n = 155). Participants completed a 2-back task with schematic emotional faces, and valence/arousal ratings and verbal recognition tasks. A novel approach was used to separate encoding from retrieval. We found an interaction of emotional dispositions and emotional faces in updating accuracy. HD group made more errors than HA when encoding happy schematic faces. Other differences between emotional dispositions on updating measures were found but they were not specific to any emotional facial expression. Our findings suggest that there is a minor happy disadvantage in HD in contrast to HA which can be seen in lower accuracy for visual encoding of happy faces, but not in retrieval accuracy, the speed of updating, nor perception of emotional content in happy faces. These findings help to explain differences and similarities between high trait anxiety and high depressiveness in working memory and processing of facial expressions. The results are discussed in relation to prevalent theories of information processing in anxiety and depression.

Effects of load and emotional state on EEG alpha-band power and inter-site synchrony during a visual working memory task

Motivationally/emotionally engaging stimuli are strong competitors for the limited capacity of sensory and cognitive systems. Thus, they often act as distractors, interfering with performance in concurrent primary tasks. Keeping task-relevant information in focus while suppressing the impact of distracting stimuli is one of the functions of working memory (WM). Macroscopic brain oscillations in the alpha band (8-13 Hz) have recently been identified as a neural correlate of WM processing. Using electroencephalography, we examined the extent to which changes in alpha power and inter-site connectivity during a typical WM task are sensitive to load and emotional distraction. Participants performed a lateralized change-detection task with two levels of load (four vs. two items), which was preceded by naturalistic scenes rated either as unpleasant or neutral, acting as distractors. The results showed the expected parieto-occipital alpha reduction in the hemisphere contralateral to the WM task array, compared to the ipsilateral hemisphere, during the retention interval. Selectively heightened oscillatory coupling between frontal and occipital sensors was observed (1) during the retention interval as a function of load, and (2) upon the onset of the memory array, after viewing neutral compared to unpleasant distractors. At the end of the retention interval, we observed greater coupling during the unpleasant compared to the neutral condition. These findings are consistent with the notions that (1) representing more items in WM requires greater interconnectivity across cortical areas, and (2) unpleasant emotional distractors interfere with subsequent WM processing by disrupting processing during the encoding stage.

Better cognitive efficiency is associated with increased experimental anxiety

There is increased interest in the development of cognitive training targeting working memory (WM) to alleviate anxiety symptoms, but the effectiveness of such an approach is unclear. Improved understanding of the effect of cognitive training on anxiety may facilitate the development of more effective cognitive training treatment for anxiety disorders. This study uses an experimental approach to examine the interplay of WM and anxiety following WM training. Previous studies show that increased demand on WM reduces concurrent anxiety evoked by threat of shock (induced anxiety). However, improving WM pharmacologically or via exercise prevents this anxiolytic effect. Conceivably, improving WM frees up cognitive resources to process threat information, thereby increasing anxiety. The present study tested the hypothesis that practicing a high load WM (i.e., increased demand) task would improve WM, and thus, free cognitive resources to process threat of shock, resulting in more anxiety (i.e., greater startle) during a subsequent WM task. Participants were randomly assigned to two training groups. The active-training group (N = 20) was trained on a 1- (low load) & 3-back (high load) WM task, whereas the control-training group (N = 20) performed a 0-back WM task. The experimental phase, similar in both groups, consisted of a 1- & 3-back WM task performed during both threat of shock and safety. As predicted, active training improved WM accuracy and increased anxiety during the experimental 3-back WM task. Therefore, improving WM efficiency can increase anxiety, possibly by freeing WM resources to process threat information.

Controlling Unpleasant Thoughts: Adjustments of Cognitive Control Based on Previous-Trial Load in a Working Memory Task

Dynamic cognitive control adjustments are important for integrating thoughts and actions that take place during dynamic changes of environmental demands and support goal-directed behavior. We investigated, in a working memory (WM) paradigm, whether dynamic adjustments in cognitive control based on previous trial load influence the neural response to neutral or unpleasant distracters. We also investigated whether individual self-reported abilities in controlling thoughts influence this effect. Participants performed a WM change detection task with low or high WM-related cognitive demands. An unpleasant or a neutral distractive image was presented at the beginning of each trial, prior to the WM task. We tested for control adjustments that were associated with the load level of the preceding trial task (N-1) on the neural response to the subsequent distractive image. We found an effect of the prior WM task load on a parieto-occipital waveform event-related potential (ERP) that appeared between 200 and 300 ms after the neutral distracter onset. This effect was not observed for the unpleasant distracter. Individual ability for controlling thoughts may influence the effect of cognitive control adjustments on distracter processing during the unpleasant condition. These findings provide evidence that: (1) dynamic cognitive control adjustments are impaired by unpleasant distracters; and (2) the ability to control unpleasant thoughts is linked to individual differences in flexible cognitive control adjustments and shielding of WM representations from unpleasant distracters.

Visual Working Memory for Faces and Facial Expressions as a Useful "Tool" for Understanding Social and Affective Cognition

Visual working memory (VWM) is one of the most investigated cognitive systems functioning as a hub between low- and high-level processes. Remarkably, its role in human cognitive architecture makes it a stage of crucial importance for the study of socio-affective cognition, also in relation with psychopathology such as anxiety. Among socio-affective stimuli, faces occupy a place of first importance. How faces and facial expressions are encoded and maintained in VWM is the focus of this review. Within the main theoretical VWM models, we will review research comparing VWM representations of faces and of other classes of stimuli. We will further present previous work investigating if and how both static (i.e., ethnicity, trustworthiness and identity) and changeable (i.e., facial expressions) facial features are represented in VWM. Finally, we will examine research showing qualitative differences in VWM for face representations as a function of psychopathology and personality traits. The findings that we will review are not always coherent with each other, and for this reason we will highlight the main methodological differences as the main source of inconsistency. Finally, we will provide some suggestions for future research in this field in order to foster our understanding of representation of faces in VWM and its potential role in supporting socio-affective cognition.

Reward-related distracters and working memory filtering

Reward-related stimuli capture attention, even when they are task irrelevant. A consequence of attentional prioritization of reward-related stimuli is that they may also have preferential access to working memory like other forms of emotional information. However, whether reward-related distracters leak into working memory remains unknown. Here, using a well-validated change detection task of visual working memory capacity and filtering, we conducted two studies to directly assess the impact of reward-related distracters on working memory. In both studies, the distracters consisted of colored bars or circles that were previously associated with monetary reward. In Experiment 1, results indicated that previously rewarded distracters did not impact behavioral measures of working memory filtering efficiency compared to neutral distracters. In Experiment 2, using ERPs, we measured the contralateral delay activity (CDA), a psychophysiological index of the number of items retained in working memory, to further assess filtering efficiency. We observed that the CDA for high reward distracters was similar to low reward and neutral distracters. However, in early trials, behavioral measures revealed that previously rewarded stimuli negatively impacted working memory capacity, an effect not observed with neutral distracters. This effect, though, was not found for the CDA in early trials. In summary, our findings across two studies suggest that attentional capture by task-irrelevant reward may have minimal impact on visual working memory-findings that have important implications for delineating the boundaries of reward-cognition interactions.

Neural measures of the causal role of observers' facial mimicry on visual working memory for facial expressions

Simulation models of facial expressions propose that sensorimotor regions may increase the clarity of facial expressions representations in extrastriate areas. We monitored the event-related potential marker of visual working memory (VWM) representations, namely the sustained posterior contralateral negativity (SPCN), also termed contralateral delay activity, while participants performed a change detection task including to-be-memorized faces with different intensities of anger. In one condition participants could freely use their facial mimicry during the encoding/VWM maintenance of the faces while in a different condition participants had their facial mimicry blocked by a gel. Notably, SPCN amplitude was reduced for faces in the blocked mimicry condition when compared to the free mimicry condition. This modulation interacted with the empathy levels of participants such that only participants with medium-high empathy scores showed such reduction of the SPCN amplitude when their mimicry was blocked. The SPCN amplitude was larger for full expressions when compared to neutral and subtle expressions, while subtle expressions elicited lower SPCN amplitudes than neutral faces. These findings provide evidence of a functional link between mimicry and VWM for faces and further shed light on how this memory system may receive feedbacks from sensorimotor regions during the processing of facial expressions.

A pilot randomized trial of a dual n-back emotional working memory training program for veterans with elevated PTSD symptoms

Anxiety is characterized by excessive attention to threatening information, leading to impaired working memory (WM) performance and elevated anxious thoughts. Preliminary research indicates that individuals with PTSD show particular difficulty with WM in emotional contexts (Schweizer et al., 2011). Although several studies show that computerized training can improve WM capacity for anxious individuals (Owens et al., 2013; Schweizer et al., 2011; 2013), there has been very little research on WM training for PTSD or with Veterans (Saunders et al., 2015). In a pilot randomized trial, we assigned Veterans with elevated PTSD symptoms to an online emotional WM training, either adaptive (n-back; n = 11) or a less potent training (1-back; n = 10). Overall, both groups showed significant decreases in PTSD symptoms. The n-back group showed a trend of outperforming the 1-back group in improving reexperiencing symptoms (which are likely to be associated with impaired WM functioning). This population anecdotally found the intervention quite challenging, which may be why even the less potent 1-back was still helpful. These preliminary findings justify the effort for developing new WM-focused PTSD intervention for complex, vulnerable populations, particularly as online training can improve accessibility.

Dispositional negativity, cognition, and anxiety disorders: An integrative translational neuroscience framework

When extreme, anxiety can become debilitating. Anxiety disorders, which often first emerge early in development, are common and challenging to treat, yet the underlying mechanisms have only recently begun to come into focus. Here, we review new insights into the nature and biological bases of dispositional negativity, a fundamental dimension of childhood temperament and adult personality and a prominent risk factor for the development of pediatric and adult anxiety disorders. Converging lines of epidemiological, neurobiological, and mechanistic evidence suggest that dispositional negativity increases the likelihood of psychopathology via specific neurocognitive mechanisms, including attentional biases to threat and deficits in executive control. Collectively, these observations provide an integrative translational framework for understanding the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders in adults and youth and set the stage for developing improved intervention strategies.

Social anxiety enhances recognition of task-irrelevant threat words

Past research is mixed regarding the conditions under which memory biases emerge in individuals with high levels of social anxiety. The current study examined whether high social anxiety would be associated with a memory bias for threatening, but task-irrelevant information, or whether it creates a memory bias for both threatening as well as neutral distractors. 60 undergraduate students were recruited, half classified as having high social anxiety and half as having low social anxiety according to the Social Phobia Inventory. Participants memorized a series of sequentially and visually presented target words that were either all neutral (e.g., patient) or all socially threatening (e.g., embarrassed). Simultaneously during encoding, participants also saw a distractor word on each trial that was either neutral or socially threatening. Memory for targets was then assessed using a recall and recognition test. Incidental recall and recognition tests for the distractors were also administered. There were no group differences in memory for threat versus neutral targets. However, recognition of socially threatening distractors was significantly enhanced in those with high relative to low levels of social anxiety, but only when targets were also socially threatening. Memory biases in high social anxiety were shown to be specific for threat-related distractors rather than general, for all distractors. This specific bias for threat emerged only when the to-be-remembered target information was also threatening. Findings suggest that when social anxiety is primed, attention to irrelevant, but socially threatening, information is heightened.

Trait anxiety is associated with a decreased visual working memory capacity for faces

Recent work has suggested that anxiety restricts working memory capacity, which may underlie a wide range of cognitive symptoms in anxiety. However, previous literature on the anxiety-visual working memory association yielded mixed results, with some studies demonstrating an anxiety-related increase in visual working memory capacity. In an attempt to gain a more thorough understanding of the relationship between anxiety and visual working memory maintenance function, the current study examined the influence of trait anxiety on visual working memory capacity and resolution for negative, positive, and neutral faces in a large unselected sample, by conducting two different experiments. Experiment 1 used a change-detection task to estimate visual working memory capacity, while Experiment 2 used a modified time-delay estimation task to measure memory precision. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze the relationship between trait anxiety, emotional valence, and visual working memory. Results showed that trait anxiety was associated with decreased visual working memory capacity for faces in a valence-independent manner, whereas anxiety-related change in visual working memory resolution was not significant. This pattern of results was discussed in light of the theories of anxiety and visual working memory.

The impact of visual working memory capacity on the filtering efficiency of emotional face distractors

Emotional faces can serve as distractors for visual working memory (VWM) tasks. An event-related potential called contralateral delay activity (CDA) can measure the filtering efficiency of face distractors. Previous studies have investigated the influence of VWM capacity on filtering efficiency of simple neutral distractors but not of face distractors. We measured the CDA indicative of emotional face filtering during a VWM task related to facial identity. VWM capacity was measured in a separate colour change detection task, and participants were divided to high- and low-capacity groups. The high-capacity group was able to filter out distractors similarly irrespective of its facial emotion. In contrast, the low-capacity group failed in filtering the neutral and angry face distractors, while the filtering was efficient for the happy face distractors. The results indicate that potentially threatening faces are particularly difficult to filter if VWM capacity is limited.

For whom is social-network usage associated with anxiety? The moderating role of neural working-memory filtering of Facebook information

Is Facebook usage bad for mental health? Existing studies provide mixed results, and direct evidence for neural underlying moderators is lacking. We suggest that being able to filter social-network information from accessing working memory is essential to preserve limited cognitive resources to pursue relevant goals. Accordingly, among individuals with impaired neural social-network filtering ability, enhanced social-network usage would be associated with negative mental health. Specifically, participants performed a novel electrophysiological paradigm that isolates neural Facebook filtering ability. Participants' actual Facebook behavior and anxious symptomatology were assessed. Confirming evidence showed that enhanced Facebook usage was associated with anxious symptoms among individuals with impaired neural Facebook filtering ability. Although less robust and tentative, additional suggestive evidence indicated that this specific Facebook filtering impairment was not better explained by a general filtering deficit. These results involving a neural social-network filtering moderator, may help understand for whom increased online social-network usage is associated with negative mental health.

A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study of State Anxiety and Auditory Working Memory Load

Cognitive studies have suggested that anxiety is correlated with cognitive performance. Previous research has focused on the relationship between anxiety level and the perceptual load within the frontal region, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices. High-anxious individuals are predicted to have worse performance on cognitively-demanding tasks requiring efficient cognitive processing. A few functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have specifically discussed the performance and brain activity involving working memory for high-anxious individuals. This topic has been further explored with electroencephalography, although these studies have mostly provided results involving visual face-related stimuli. In this study, we used auditory stimulation to manipulate the working memory load and attempted to interpret the deficiency of cognitive function in high-anxious participants or patients using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The fNIRS signals of 30 participants were measured while they were performing an auditory working memory task. For the auditory n-back task, there were three experimental conditions, including two n-back task conditions of stimuli memorization with different memory load and a condition of passive listening to the stimuli. Hemodynamic responses from frontal brain regions were recorded using a wireless fNIRS device. Brain activation from the ventrolateral and orbital prefrontal cortex were measured with signals filtered and artifacts removed. The fNIRS signals were then standardized with statistical testing and group analysis was performed. The results revealed that there were significantly stronger hemodynamic responses in the right ventrolateral and orbital prefrontal cortex when subjects were attending to the auditory working memory task with higher load. Furthermore, the right lateralization of the prefrontal cortex was negatively correlated with the level of state anxiety. This study revealed the possibility of incorporating fNIRS signals as an index to evaluate cognitive performance and mood states given its flexibility regarding portable applications compared to other neuroimaging techniques.

"Keep That in Mind!" The Role of Positive Affect in Working Memory for Maintaining Goal-Relevant Information

Some studies have demonstrated a beneficial role of Positive Affect on working memory (WM) by either applying protocols of mood induction or assessing naturally occurring state Positive Affect. However, there are no studies directly linking Positive Affect as a stable personality-like trait with WM. We aimed to address this potential relationship using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule scale and contra-lateral delay activity (CDA) as measures of trait Positive Affect and WM Capacity, respectively. We also sought to investigate the impact of a neutral or unpleasant emotional state on this relationship. Participants performed a change detection task, while a neutral or an unpleasant emotional state was induced. Our results showed a positive robust correlation between trait Positive Affect and WM Capacity for both neutral and unpleasant emotional states, as revealed by the neuroelectrophysiological gold-standard measure of WM, namely, CDA. These data suggest a tangible role of trait Positive Affect in the cognitive ability of maintaining goal-relevant information in WM, such that even a highly disruptive state is not sufficient to corrupt this relationship.

The cost of facing fear: Visual working memory is impaired for faces expressing fear

Previous research has identified numerous factors affecting the capacity and accuracy of visual working memory (VWM). One potentially important factor is the emotionality of the stimuli to be encoded and held in VWM. We often must hold in VWM information that is emotionally charged, but much is still unknown about how the emotionality of stimuli impacts VWM performance. In the current research, we performed four studies examining the impact of fearful facial expressions on VWM for faces. Fearful expressions were found to produce a consistent cost to VWM performance. This cost was modulated by encoding time, but not set size. This cost was only present for faces in an upright orientation consistent with this cost being a product of the emotionality of the faces rather than lower-level perceptual differences between neutral and fearful faces. These findings are discussed in the context of existing theoretical accounts of the impact of emotion on information processing. We suggest that a number of competing effects drive both costs and benefits and are at play when emotional information must be stored in VWM, with the task context determining the balance between them.