Emotional arousal impairs association memory: roles of prefrontal cortex regions

Fujiwara, Esther; Madan, Christopher; Caplan, Jeremy; Sommer, Tobias

Abstract

The brain processes underlying impairing effects of emotional arousal on associative memory were previously attributed to two dissociable routes using high-resolution fMRI of the MTL (Madan et al. 2017). Extrahippocampal MTL regions supporting associative encoding of neutral pairs suggested unitization; conversely, associative encoding of negative pairs involved compensatory hippocampal activity. Here, whole-brain fMRI revealed prefrontal contributions: dmPFC was more involved in hippocampal-dependent negative pair learning and vmPFC in extrahippocampal neutral pair learning. Successful encoding of emotional memory associations may require emotion regulation/conflict resolution (dmPFC), while neutral memory associations may be accomplished by anchoring new information to prior knowledge (vmPFC).

Citation

Fujiwara, E., Madan, C., Caplan, J., & Sommer, T. (2021). Emotional arousal impairs association memory: roles of prefrontal cortex regions. Learning and Memory, 28(3), 76-81. https://doi.org/10.1101/lm.052480.120

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 13, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Feb 16, 2021
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Dec 8, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 17, 2022
• Journal: Learning & Memory
• Print ISSN: 1072-0502
• Electronic ISSN: 1549-5485
• Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 28
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 76-81
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/lm.052480.120
• Keywords: Cognitive Neuroscience; Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience; Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5128715
• Publisher URL: http://learnmem.cshlp.org/content/28/3/76.abstract