Sala Lotfi, a grad student working with Dr. Hanjoo Lee, was recently awarded a grant-in-aid of research from the Sigma Xi, titled “Improving inhibitory control through emotional working memory training of anxious individuals”. This grant aims to cover the expenses of the research project, which Sala is currently working on under the supervision of Drs. Hanjoo Lee and Christine Larson.
It has been shown that trait anxiety is associated with an excessive allocation of attentional resources toward threat-related stimuli. Also, the extent to which working memory training can enhance the suppression of negative automatic thoughts has not been clearly shown. Sala’s study will shed light on the important role of working memory (WM) on anxiety problems using the two advanced research methods such as computerized WM training focused on inhibitory control, and online monitoring of neurocognitive activities via the EEG/ERP technique.