The prefrontal-subcortical model of emotion regulation postulates that decreased prefrontal cortex (PFC) functioning may underlie the emergence of clinical affective disorders. In addition, accumulated evidence suggests that there is considerable variability in negative affect in the nonclinical population. This study examined whether negative affective symptoms were associated with decreased PFC functioning in nonclinical young adults. Forty college students aged 18–24 years (ten males) underwent an n-back paradigm (i.e., a frontal executive task) with a working memory (WM) load (i.e., 3-back) and a vigilance control condition (i.e., 0-back) while their hemodynamics changes in the lateral and medial PFC on both sides were monitored using a 16-channel functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system. They also filled out the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) to estimate the levels of their negative emotions in the preceding week. Young adults exhibited an increased concentration of oxyhemoglobin and a decreased concentration of deoxyhemoglobin (i.e., activation), primarily in the lateral PFC, in response to the WM load (i.e., 3-back > 0-back). Importantly, higher DASS scores indicating higher levels of recent negative mood, especially depression and stress rather than anxiety symptoms, correlated with lower WM-related activation in the lateral PFC. Thus, recent negative mood is associated with decreased lateral PFC functioning during the executive control of WM in healthy young adults. Our findings suggest that decreased PFC functioning is also present in the nonclinical population with increased levels of negative mood and that fNIRS is a promising tool for elucidating individual differences in negative affective symptoms.

中文翻译：

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消极情绪与年轻人工作记忆期间前额叶皮层功能下降有关

情绪调节的前额叶皮层下模型假设前额叶皮层（PFC）功能降低可能是临床情感障碍出现的基础。此外，积累的证据表明，非临床人群的负面影响存在相当大的差异。这项研究检查了消极情感症状是否与非临床年轻成人的 PFC 功能下降有关。四十名 18-24 岁的大学生（十名男性）接受了n具有工作记忆 (WM) 负荷（即 3-back）和警觉控制条件（即 0-back）的后背范式（即正面执行任务），同时它们的血流动力学在外侧和内侧 PFC 上都发生变化使用 16 通道功能近红外光谱 (fNIRS) 系统监测两侧。他们还填写了抑郁焦虑压力量表（DASS）来估计他们在前一周的负面情绪水平。年轻人表现出氧合血红蛋白浓度增加和脱氧血红蛋白浓度降低（即激活），主要在外侧 PFC 中，以响应 WM 负荷（即 3-back > 0-back）。重要的是，较高的 DASS 分数表明近期的消极情绪水平较高，尤其是抑郁和压力而不是焦虑症状，与外侧 PFC 中较低的 WM 相关激活相关。因此，最近的负面情绪与健康年轻人 WM 执行控制期间侧向 PFC 功能下降有关。我们的研究结果表明，在消极情绪水平升高的非临床人群中也存在 PFC 功能下降，并且 fNIRS 是阐明消极情感症状个体差异的有前途的工具。