Integration module: emotion and memory Flashcards
What is an example of the link between emotions and memory?
People tend to remember emotional stimuli better! The same effect is shown (and even amplified) for incidental learning, where participants are NOT informed that their memory will be tested
How is suppressing emotions affecting recall?
People recall worse! There is also increased cardiovascular activation
What is the relationship between amygdala activation and recall?
The higher amygdala activation, the higher recall
What is the effect of amygdala damage on flashbulb memories?
Parients with amygdala damage have less flashbulb memories.
What did Bradley et al (2022) found in his fMRI study on amygdala activation patterns?
He asked participants to retrieve and imagine the same pleasant and unpleasant autobiographical events repeatedl. Repeated retrieval of emotional autobiographical events DID not activate amygdala. It seems that there is repetition suppression - neural response gets lower with subsequent presentations of the same stimuli.
What did the Sambuco et al found in his study on retriving personal emotional events?
Retrieval DID NOT correlate with amygdala activation :( BUT! it did correlate with adjacent anterior hippocampus
What seems to stimulate the most amygdala activation?
Novel scene stimuli!
What is most likely the cause of better retrieval of emotional stimuli?
It seems to be whole-brain phenomenon in which many networks strongly interconnected with each other get activated.
What happens to memory consolidation while stressed?
Stimulants can improve memory consolidation! Rodent studies with stimulant drugs show that rodents have enhanced memory in maze learning or shock avoidance when drugs were injected after training. Importantly, subsequent studies suggest that memory consolidation requires new protein synthesis (synaptic plasticity)
What is the amygdala role in memory consolidation?
In Morris water maze task, spatial learning was improved when there was injection of amphetamine after initial learning in either hippocampus or amygdala.
What happens when glucocorticorids (inducing stress levels) are injected shortly before testing?
They impair memory retrieval! Especially if they are injected to hippocampus
What is the interaction between emotion and short-term memory?
In cued partial report paradigm with emotional vs neutral targets, participants are better at recalling emotional targets (they capture their attention, especially in case of threatening stimuli). It seems that emotion slows decay of iconic memory.
How emotional information is affected by ‘‘timelines’’ in the brain?
Whenever event is taking place in certain space and context ⇒ and you think of time (year, place) ⇒ strongly encoded by hippocampus. Interaction between hippocampus x dlPFC x amygdala put emotions in time.
What is a difference between amygdala damage and hippocampal damage? What happens if they previously encountered a doctor with pin in their hand?
Hippocampal patient won’t remember the doctor, but they will be reluctant to shake hands (implicit memory intact). Amygdala patient will be happy to shake hands and will remember the doctor
What is relationship between amydala and instructed fear?
Patients were explicitly told that they will receive shock if they see blue square (but they did receive the shock). Controls showed implicit learning (higher skin conductance) and explicit learning. Amygdala patients learned explicitly (they knew what to expect), but did not show implicit learning (no skin conductance)
