title: The modulating role of ADRA2B in emotional working memory: Attending the negative but remembering the positive.
abstract: Previous studies found that the ADRA2B gene modulates early perception and attention. Here, we aimed to examine whether ADRA2B polymorphisms also influence emotional working memory and the willingness to implement behaviors (switching affective intonation) in order to avoid negative information, both considered indexes of cognitive-affective flexibility. We examined genotype data collected from 212 healthy females, 91 ADRA2B carriers and 121 non-carriers, and found that carriers showed a positivity bias in working memory. That is, carriers remembered a higher number of positive words compared to negative and neutral words. In addition, although carriers were more unwilling to switch intonation in order to avoid negative information, they showed better recognition memory for words read with a positive intonation. These findings suggest that deletion variants of ADRA2B may show greater levels of cognitive-affective flexibility compared to non-carriers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Health and Territory, University of Chieti, Italy. Electronic address: n.mammarella@unich.it.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mammarella
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Health and Territory, University of Chieti, Italy.
authors.forename: Beth
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fairfield
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Health and Territory, University of Chieti, Italy.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Domenico
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience and Imaging, University of Chieti, Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: D'Onofrio
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Health and Territory, University of Chieti, Italy; Center of Excellence on Aging, "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti, Italy.
authors.forename: Liborio
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Stuppia
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Health and Territory, University of Chieti, Italy; Center of Excellence on Aging, "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti, Italy.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gatta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D018341:Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha-2 / Q000235:genetics*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: C547771:ADRA2B protein, human; D018341:Receptors, Adrenergic, alpha-2
keywords: ADRA2B; Emotion; Willingness to avoid negative information; Working memory