Capacity-limited visual working memory (VWM) requires that individuals have sufficient memory space and the ability to filter distractors. Negative emotional states are known to impact VWM storage, yet their influence on distractor filtering within VWM remains underexplored. We conducted direct neural measurement of participants (n = 56) who conducted a lateralized change detection task with distractors, while manipulating the emotional state by presenting neutral or negative images before each trial. We found a detrimental effect of distractors on memory accuracy under both neutral and negative emotional states. Using the event-related potential (ERP) component, contralateral delay activity (CDA; sensitive to VWM load), to observe the VWM load in each condition, we found that in the neutral state, the participants showed significantly higher late CDA amplitudes when remembering 4 targets compared with 2 targets and 2 targets with 2 distractors but no significant difference when remembering 2 targets compared with 2 targets with 2 distractors. In the negative state, no significant CDA amplitude differences were evident when remembering 4 targets and 2 targets, but CDA was significantly higher when remembering 2 targets with 2 distractors compared with 2 targets. These results suggest that the maximum number of items participants could store in VWM was lower under negative emotional states than under neutral emotional states. Importantly, the participants could filter out distractors when in a neutral emotional state but not in a negative emotional state, indicating that negative emotional states impair their ability to filter out distractors in VWM.

容量有限的视觉工作记忆（VWM）要求个体有足够的记忆空间和过滤干扰因素的能力。众所周知，负面情绪状态会影响 VWM 存储，但它们对 VWM 内干扰物过滤的影响仍未得到充分研究。我们对参与者（n = 56）进行了直接神经测量，这些参与者使用干扰物进行了侧化变化检测任务，同时通过在每次试验前呈现中性或负面图像来操纵情绪状态。我们发现，在中性和消极情绪状态下，干扰因素都会对记忆准确性产生不利影响。利用事件相关电位（ERP）成分，对侧延迟活动（CDA；对VWM负荷敏感），观察每种情况下的VWM负荷，我们发现在中性状态下，参与者在记忆时表现出明显更高的晚期CDA振幅4 个目标与 2 个目标以及 2 个目标与 2 个干扰项相比，但记住 2 个目标与 2 个目标与 2 个干扰项相比，没有显着差异。在消极状态下，当记住4个目标和2个目标时，没有明显的CDA幅度差异，但当记住带有2个干扰物的2个目标时，与记住2个目标相比，CDA明显更高。这些结果表明，参与者在 VWM 中可以存储的最大物品数量在消极情绪状态下低于中性情绪状态下。重要的是，参与者在中性情绪状态下可以过滤掉干扰因素，但在消极情绪状态下却不能，这表明消极情绪状态会削弱他们在 VWM 中过滤干扰因素的能力。