(PS4-88) Neurophysiological Correlates of Anger Rumination and Its Association with Working Memory Performance

Rumination is associated with the emergence and maintenance of several psychological disorders and related symptomatology (e.g., depression, aggression). Thus, it has been proposed as a transdiagnostic risk factor and a target of evidenced-based treatments for depression and aggression (e.g., rumination focused- CBT). Recent work on patterns of brain activation while ruminating to sadness has shown associations with theta and alpha-band oscillations; however, less is known about brain activation patterns in response to anger-inducing events. The tendency to ruminate on negative events has been associated with decreased working memory (WM) performance, although few studies have examined the link between anger rumination and WM. This study examined how anger rumination influenced WM performance and whether neurophysiological correlates of anger rumination (i.e., alpha and theta-band oscillations) were related to WM performance. We hypothesized that participants who ruminated to an anger-provoking event would exhibit poorer WM performance compared those who did not and oscillations would be associated with WM performance.  

Data collection is ongoing with an expected sample size of 75 undergraduate participants by November 2024. Resting state EEG (8 minutes of relaxing with eyes open and closed) was collected before participants were randomly assigned to either: (1) rumination condition (writing about a recent, personal angering event) or (2) neutral condition (writing about a daily routine). Participants were then instructed to think about how they felt when recalling the angering event (rumination phase) or visualize their daily routine (visualization phase) while EEG was recorded. A self-report measure of mood state (Profile of Mood State; POMS) was completed by participants at three time points (before and after the written task; after the rumination/visualization phase) and WM tasks (digit span [DS] forwards and backwards) were administered after the rumination/visualization phase.

Preliminary analyses (N= 23; M age = 19; 30% female; 65% Asian; 22% White; 9% Black; 4% Biracial) revealed that the experimental manipulation (rumination = 13; neutral = 10) worked as intended, as the rumination condition reported significantly higher scores on the POMS anger subscale after the written task, t(21) = 1.72, p < .05, and after the rumination phase, t(7) = 2.88, p =.01, as compared to the neutral condition. Although there were no significant performance differences between the rumination and neutral condition on the DS backwards task, the difference between conditions on the DS forwards task (rumination: M = 28.6; SD = 4.6; neutral: M = 31.1; SD = 4.6) was marginally significant, t(21)= -1.29, p < .10. Interestingly, DS forwards total scores were significantly and negatively correlated with theta-band oscillations while ruminating for participants in the rumination condition (r = -0.59, p= .04).

These results from a diverse sample of emerging adults suggest that ruminating to an angering event may influence WM performance and theta-band oscillations while ruminating may be a useful tool in understanding what underlies this performance. These findings also highlight the potential role of WM in rumination-focused CBT treatments.