Abstract
Rumination is an important etiological factor of anxiety pathology, with its mechanism related to the deficit of working memory. The current study examined whether working memory training (WM-T) and emotional working memory training (EWM-T) could reduce rumination in anxious individuals. The participants with high trait anxiety underwent 21 days of mobile applications-based WM-T (n = 34), EWM-T (n = 36) or placebo control (n = 36), with questionnaires, cognitive tasks, and resting electroencephalogram (EEG) as the pre-post-test indicators. The results revealed that two training groups obtained comparable operation span increases (WM-T: d = 0.53; EWM-T: d = 0.65), updating improvement (WM-T: d = 0.43; EWM-T: d = 0.60) and shifting improvement (WM-T: d = 0.49; EWM-T: d = 0.72). Furthermore, compared to the control group, the EWM-T showed significant self-reported rumination reduction (d = 0.69), increased inhibition ability (d = 0.72), as well as modification of resting EEG microstate C parameters (Duration C: d = 0.42, Coverage C: d = 0.39), which were closely related to rumination level (r ~ 0.4). The WM-T group also showed the potential to reduced self-reported rumination (d = 0.45), but with the absence of the observable inhibition improvement and resting EEG changes. The correlation analysis suggested that the emotional benefits of WM-T depending more on improved updating and shifting, and that of EWM-T depending more on improved inhibition ability. The advantage to add emotional distractions into general working memory training for targeting rumination related anxiety has been discussed.