TY - JOUR A1 - Kopf, Juliane A1 - Dresler, Thomas A1 - Reicherts, Philipp A1 - Herrmann, Martin J. A1 - Reif, Andreas T1 - The Effect of Emotional Content on Brain Activation and the Late Positive Potential in a Word n-back Task JF - PLoS ONE N2 - Introduction There is mounting evidence for the influence of emotional content on working memory performance. This is particularly important in light of the emotion processing that needs to take place when emotional content interferes with executive functions. In this study, we used emotional words of different valence but with similar arousal levels in an n-back task. Methods We examined the effects on activation in the prefrontal cortex by means of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and on the late positive potential (LPP). FNIRS and LPP data were examined in 30 healthy subjects. Results Behavioral results show an influence of valence on the error rate depending on the difficulty of the task: more errors were made when the valence was negative and the task difficult. Brain activation was dependent both on the difficulty of the task and on the valence: negative valence of a word diminished the increase in activation, whereas positive valence did not influence the increase in activation, while difficulty levels increased. The LPP also differentiated between the different valences, and in addition was influenced by the task difficulty, the more difficult the task, the less differentiation could be observed. Conclusions Summarized, this study shows the influence of valence on a verbal working memory task. When a word contained a negative valence, the emotional content seemed to take precedence in contrast to words containing a positive valence. Working memory and emotion processing sites seemed to overlap and compete for resources even when words are carriers of the emotional content. KW - analysis of variance KW - electrode recording KW - electroencephalography KW - emotions KW - eyes KW - near-infrared spectroscopy KW - reaction time KW - working memory Y1 - 2013 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-96687 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ziegler, Georg C. A1 - Ehlis, Ann-Christine A1 - Weber, Heike A1 - Vitale, Maria Rosaria A1 - Zöller, Johanna E. M. A1 - Ku, Hsing-Ping A1 - Schiele, Miriam A. A1 - Kürbitz, Laura I. A1 - Romanos, Marcel A1 - Pauli, Paul A1 - Kalisch, Raffael A1 - Zwanzger, Peter A1 - Domschke, Katharina A1 - Fallgatter, Andreas J. A1 - Reif, Andreas A1 - Lesch, Klaus-Peter T1 - A Common CDH13 Variant is Associated with Low Agreeableness and Neural Responses to Working Memory Tasks in ADHD JF - Genes N2 - The cell—cell signaling gene CDH13 is associated with a wide spectrum of neuropsychiatric disorders, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, and major depression. CDH13 regulates axonal outgrowth and synapse formation, substantiating its relevance for neurodevelopmental processes. Several studies support the influence of CDH13 on personality traits, behavior, and executive functions. However, evidence for functional effects of common gene variation in the CDH13 gene in humans is sparse. Therefore, we tested for association of a functional intronic CDH13 SNP rs2199430 with ADHD in a sample of 998 adult patients and 884 healthy controls. The Big Five personality traits were assessed by the NEO-PI-R questionnaire. Assuming that altered neural correlates of working memory and cognitive response inhibition show genotype-dependent alterations, task performance and electroencephalographic event-related potentials were measured by n-back and continuous performance (Go/NoGo) tasks. The rs2199430 genotype was not associated with adult ADHD on the categorical diagnosis level. However, rs2199430 was significantly associated with agreeableness, with minor G allele homozygotes scoring lower than A allele carriers. Whereas task performance was not affected by genotype, a significant heterosis effect limited to the ADHD group was identified for the n-back task. Heterozygotes (AG) exhibited significantly higher N200 amplitudes during both the 1-back and 2-back condition in the central electrode position Cz. Consequently, the common genetic variation of CDH13 is associated with personality traits and impacts neural processing during working memory tasks. Thus, CDH13 might contribute to symptomatic core dysfunctions of social and cognitive impairment in ADHD. KW - ADHD KW - CDH13 KW - neurodevelopment KW - executive functions KW - working memory KW - Big Five KW - agreeableness Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-245220 SN - 2073-4425 VL - 12 IS - 9 ER -