title: Emotional content of stimuli improves visuospatial working memory.
abstract: Processing and storage in visuospatial working memory (VSWM) seem to depend on attention-based mechanisms. In order to explore the effect of attention-attractive stimuli, such as emotional faces on VSWM performance, ERPs were obtained from 20 young adults while reproducing spatial sequences of six facial (happy and neutral) and non-facial control stimuli in inverse order. Behavioral performances revealed that trials with happy facial expressions resulted in a significantly higher amount of correct responses. For positive emotional facial stimuli, N170 amplitude was higher over right temporo-parietal regions, while P2 amplitude was higher over frontal and lower over parietal regions. In addition, LPP amplitude was also significantly higher for this type of stimuli. Both behavioral and electrophysiological results support the notion of the domain-general attention-based mechanism of VSWM maintenance, in which spatial to-be-remembered locations might be influenced by the emotional content of the stimuli.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico; O.P.D. Hospital Civil de Guadalajara, Mexico. Electronic address: gonzalezgarrido@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Andrés Antonio
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: González-Garrido
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico.
authors.forename: Adriana Liset
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: López-Franco
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico.
authors.forename: Fabiola Reveca
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Gómez-Velázquez
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico.
authors.forename: Julieta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ramos-Loyo
authors.affiliation: Université de Lille I & Laboratoire de Neurosciences Fonctionnelles et Pathologies, France.
authors.forename: Henrique
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sequeira
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004644:Emotions; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D065852:Spatial Memory; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ERP; Emotional face; Memory load; Visuospatial working memory