Memory of emotional events under cognitive load influence resting state functional brain connectivity in subclinical anxiety

Abstract

Memory suppression is an active process that voluntarily prevents the intrusion of undesirable memories into one's conscious awareness. However, the process may trigger ironic effects, meaning such suppressed memories become more accessible to the conscious mind. Cognitive load is one of the factors contributing to ironic effects. The influence of directed remembering and suppression of emotionally valenced memories under cognitive load in anxiety are sparse in the literature, to our knowledge. We, therefore, measured whether the directed remembering/recall or suppression of emotionally valenced memories impact an independent visual working memory task (imposing a cognitive load) in healthy young adults with dispositional/subclinical anxiety and its association with resting state functional connectivity (rsfc).