MOOD STATES ON WORKING MEMORY AND BRAIN HAEMODYNAMIC RESPONSE USING OPTICAL TOPOGRAPHY MODALITY

Higher cognitive brain functions such as language, planning and problem solving
require the working memory (WM). Studies have shown that negative mood states
impair the WM functions, related to activations at the prefrontal cortex (PFC) region.
Previous works which were conducted based on Japanese and German subjects have
reported a significant correlation between negative mood states and reduced PFC
activation during the verbal WM task, however no significant correlation was found
during the visuospatial WMtask. Before proceeding to investigate whether spatial WM
function is invulnerable to impairment by negative mood states, it is essential to
reaffirm that the relationship between negative mood and PFC activity is in fact a
general phenomenon irrespective to WM task paradigm and subjects' anthropology
factors. The relationship between induced mood states and the PFC activation using
verbal n-back task paradigm is investigated, among multiracial subjects in Malaysia.