Emotional prospective memory in traumatic brain injury: task characteristics matter

This study investigated the effects of emotional valence on prospective memory (PM) performance in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) compared to healthy controls. Using an emotional version of the Virtual Week paradigm, we examined how positive, negative, and neutral emotional content influenced both event-based and time-based PM tasks. Thirty-one participants with TBI and 31 matched healthy controls completed the computerised PM measure over three simulated days, and a recognition task to assess the retrospective component of PM. Participants with TBI performed less accurately than controls across all conditions. For event-based tasks, positive emotional content enhanced PM performance in both groups. Time-based tasks showed a different pattern, with neutral content leading to better performance. Analysis of the retrospective component revealed a significant group by valence interaction: participants with TBI showed enhanced recognition of negative stimuli in time-based tasks, while healthy controls maintained high recognition accuracy across all valence conditions. These findings suggest a complex interaction between emotional valence, task type, and PM components in TBI, with implications for cognitive rehabilitation strategies.