Quick Summary

Excited to share new work re: anxiety-cognition interplay in a cool dataset where anxiety was manipulated via a threat-of-shock paradigm and cognition via Methylphenidate (MPH). Joint work with @brunojenlynn, @LMBClaudino, Claudie Gaillard, and Monique Ernst

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Methods

Using a TDA-based Mapper approach and a computational framework, we examined how cognitive enhancement (under MPH) might alter brain activity patterns in the face of induced anxiety and increased cognitive (working memory; WM) load.

Results

Both approaches yielded converging evidence of WM load-appropriate engagement of neural resources under MPH (i.e., different neural engagement for 3- vs 1-back). This load-based engagement was linked to higher performance in the WM task during high load and anxiety conditions.