The Characteristics and Neural Mechanisms of Working Memory of College Students with Different Neural Types

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240105

Abstract

Abstract: Pavlov proposed the theory of higher nervous activity, and divided the neural activities of humans and animals into four types. Different types of individuals have different behavioral performances and cognitive processing characteristics. At present, while most of the researches on neural types and working memory are behavioral experiments, the neural mechanism of the differences in working memory of different neural types is not clear. Therefore, this study focuses on the neural mechanism of working memory of different neural types by using event-related potentials technique (ERPs).
Before the normal experiment, 1263 college students were tested using 80-8 Neural Type Test Scale, with each 15 students for the flexible, quiet, excitatory and inhibitory type randomly selected from the subjects (a student of the flexible type did not complete all the experimental tasks) .The 59 subjects were engaged in and finished N-back tasks, the behavioral data and ERP data in the task were recorded and analyzed.
Behavioral results showed that: (1) In accuracy, the main effect of task type was significant (p < .001), task of 2-back was significantly higher than that of 3-back; the main effect of neural type was significant (p = .001), the flexible type was significantly higher than the excitatory (p = .01) and inhibitory type (p = .001), there was no difference between the quiet type and the excitatory type, and there was no difference between the excitatory type and the inhibitory type either. (2) In reaction time, the main effect of task type was significant (p < .001), task of 2-back was significantly higher than that of 3-back; the main effect of neural type was significant(p < .001), the quiet type was borderline significantly higher than the excitatory type(p = .06) and the inhibitory type(p = .07), the flexible type was significantly higher than the excitatory type (p < .01) and the inhibitory type (p= .004), there was no differences between the flexible type and the quiet type, excitatory type group and inhibitory type had no differences either, the interaction between neural type and task type was not significant. The ERP results showed that: (1) On the P3 amplitude of the target trials, the main effect of task type was significant (p < .001), the P3 amplitudes of 2-back was significantly higher than 3-back; the main effect of neural type was significant (p < .05), flexible type group was borderline significantly higher than the inhibitory type group (p < .05), there was no difference between other types. (2) On the P3 amplitude of the non-target trials, the main effect of task type was significant (p = .001), the P3 amplitudes of 2-back was significantly higher than 3-back; the main effect of neural type was significant (p < .05), the flexible type was significantly higher than the inhibitory type group (p = .03), there was no difference between other types. (3) On the P3 latency of the target and non-target trials, the main effect of task type was not significant, the main effect of neural type was not significant, and the interaction between neural type and task type was not significant either.
In conclusion, the present study found that there were significant differences between subjects with different neural types in the working memory, the flexible type was higher than the excitatory type and the inhibitory type in accuracy. For the ERP results, the P3 amplitude of the flexible type was significantly higher than the inhibitory type, and there was no difference between the types in the P3 latency. These findings suggested that the difference between the flexible type and the inhibitory type was not due to the matching subtask of working memory, but due to the updating subtask of working memory.

Key words: neural types, working memory, N-back, P3

摘要： 为探讨不同神经类型大学生工作记忆加工的特点,用80-8神经类型量表筛选灵活型、安静型、兴奋型和抑制型四组典型的神经类型大学生并让其完成ERP版的N-back任务。结果发现灵活型大学生的正确率显著高于兴奋型和抑制型;在任务所诱发的P3波幅上,灵活型被试大于抑制型,在P3的潜伏期上不同类型之间无差异。说明灵活型个体与抑制型个体之间的差异不是来源于工作记忆加工的匹配子任务阶段,而是由于工作记忆的刷新子任务上,灵活型个体比抑制型个体加工能力更强。

关键词: 神经类型, 工作记忆, N-back, P3

Shi Xinguang, Li Xiao, Feng Chengzhi. The Characteristics and Neural Mechanisms of Working Memory of College Students with Different Neural Types[J]. Journal of Psychological Science, 2024, 47(1): 36-43.

史新广, 李箫, 冯成志. 不同神经类型大学生工作记忆的特点及神经机制^*[J]. 心理科学, 2024, 47(1): 36-43.

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