Discussion
ADVERSE EFFECT
The aim of this study was to explore the emotional mechanism underlying the adverse effect of social exclusion on working memory (WM) performance, and test whether anodal tDCS over the rVLPFC could alleviate this adverse effect. The participants completed the 2-back task in the conditions of exclusionary status (social inclusion vs. social exclusion) × stimulation (anodal vs. sham stimulation over the rVLPFC). ANOVA results showed that under the sham tDCS condition, mood rating score and 2-back task accuracy of social excluded participants were both lower than those of social included participants. Besides, mood rating score and 2-back task accuracy of excluded participants receiving anodal tDCS over the rVLPFC were both higher than excluded participants receiving sham tDCS. Furthermore, the mediation model indicated that negative emotion mediated the relationship between social exclusion and WM performance under the sham tDCS condition, while this mediating effect disappeared under the anodal tDCS condition. These findings supported our hypotheses that (1) the adverse effect of social exclusion on WM performance was mediated by negative emotion, and (2) anodal tDCS over the rVLPFC could successfully alleviate the adverse effect by reducing negative emotion.Previous studies suggested that resource-consuming self-regulatory process such as emotion regulation might be a candidate mechanism for the adverse effect of social exclusion on WM performance [Although previous studies have found the bilateral VLPFC activity increased in response to social exclusion [Although our study provided primary insights into the mediating role of negative emotion in the adverse effect of social exclusion on WM performance and anodal tDCS over the rVLPFC could reduce this adverse effect, it is also restricted by several limitations that could be remedied in the future work. First, according to the Multicomponent Model proposed by Baddeley [