工作记忆中的积极效应：情绪效价与任务相关性的影响

积极效应指相比于年轻人, 老年人更倾向于优先加工积极情绪刺激而非消极情绪刺激。近年来工作记忆的研究发现积极效应会受到情绪效价与任务相关性的影响：情绪效价作为任务相关属性的研究支持工作记忆中存在积极效应, 具体表现为老年人对积极情绪刺激记忆的增强, 以及对消极情绪刺激记忆的减弱; 情绪效价作为工作记忆任务无关属性的研究相对较少, 且未发现一致的积极效应, 提示情绪效价及任务相关性均为影响工作记忆积极效应的关键因素。脑成像的研究初步表明, 工作记忆中情绪加工上的年龄效应与背侧执行系统和腹侧情绪系统的随龄功能变化有关。社会情绪选择理论与双竞争模型对工作记忆中的积极效应具备较大的解释力, 而动态整合理论尚缺乏实证研究支持。未来研究可进一步探究老年人工作记忆不同阶段情绪加工的特点, 澄清不同情绪材料内在编码过程上的差异对积极效应发生机制的潜在影响, 探讨情绪效价及任务相关性影响工作记忆积极效应的关键神经环路, 并揭示情绪工作记忆训练提升老年人认知功能与情绪体验的内在机制及其潜在应用价值。

Positivity effects in working memory:The effects of emotional valence and task relevance

Age-related positivity effect refers to the phenomenon that older adults display a preference for positive rather than negative information in cognitive processing.Recent researches in working memory(WM)have found the effect of the interaction between emotional valance and task-relevance on positivity effect.Positivity effect has been observed in WM studies with emotional valence acting as a kind of task-relevant information.For instance,older people have enhanced performance in WM tasks with positive emotional stimuli,and decreased performance on negative emotional stimuli.In contrast,less attention has focused on the area of emotional valence as task-irrelevant information in WM and conflicting findings also have been reported.These remind that both emotional valence and task relevance are critical components in the processing of positivity effect in WM.Preliminary neuroimaging studies have revealed that the associations between age-related functional changes in the dorsal executive system and ventral affective system and the age effect in emotional process of WM.The socioemotional selectivity theory and the dual-competition model have been found to mainly account for age-related positivity effect in WM.But there is a lack of empirical evidence to support the dynamic integration theory.Overall,future studies are warranted in exploring the characteristics of emotional processing in different stages of WM in older adults,clarifying the potential influences of internal encoding processes of emotional materials on the mechanism of positivity effect,uncovering the important neural circuits related to the impact of task-relevance of emotion on positivity effect,as well as revealing the underlying mechanisms and potential benefits of emotional WM training on the improvement of cognitive functions and emotional experience in the elderly.