The Influence of Emotional States on Short-Term Memory Retention by Using Electroencephalography (EEG) Measurements: A Case Study

The electroencephalogram (EEG) is a non-invasive test that records the electrical activity of the brain as wave patterns generated by various brain structures. The electrical activity is recorded from the scalp surface after being picked up by metal electrodes (small metal discs) and conductive media. This study explored how emotions can impact short-term memory retention, and thus the process of learning, by analyzing five mental tasks: relaxation, memorization of ten words, memorization of ten two-digit numbers, visual exposure to emotional stimuli, and recall of the 10 words and 10 numbers. The word list contained ten words as five event-related (directly related to the type of emotion triggered) and five not event-related words. The visual task was separated into three categories corresponding to the type of image extracted from the public domain International Affective Picture System (IAPS) library, which in turn correspond to three emotional states assumed to be evoked by them: neutral, negative (e.g. sadness), and positive (e.g. happiness). Event-related potentials (ERP) were measured by EEG with the ANT Neuro system. The ASA software and EEGLab were utilized for the analysis of ERPs in five EEG bands: Delta (0-3.9Hz), Theta (4-7.9Hz), Alpha (8-12.9Hz), Beta (13-30 Hz), and Gamma (31-50 Hz). Eleven participants (ten males and one female between 20 and 25 years old) were included in this case study. To date, no other studies have been reported to use EEG measurements in the evaluation of the influence of emotional states on short-term memory retention