What does neuroimaging tell us about the role of prefrontal cortex in memory retrieval?

AbstractNeuroimaging has revealed robust interactions between the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus when people stop memory retrieval. Efforts to stop retrieval can arise when people encounter reminders to unpleasant thoughts they prefer not to think about. Retrieval stopping suppresses hippocampal and amygdala activity, especially when cues elicit aversive memory intrusions, via a broad inhibitory control capacity enabling prepotent response suppression. Repeated retrieval stopping reduces intrusions of unpleasant memories and diminishes their affective tone, outcomes resembling those achieved by the extinction of conditioned emotional responses. Despite this resemblance, the role of inhibitory fronto-hippocampal interactions and retrieval stopping broadly in extinction has received little attention. Here we integrate human and animal research on extinction and retrieval stopping. We argue that reconceptualising extinction to integrate mnemonic inhibitory control with learning would yield a greater understanding of extinction’s relevance to mental health. We hypothesize that fear extinction spontaneously engages retrieval stopping across species, and that controlled suppression of hippocampal and amygdala activity by the prefrontal cortex reduces fearful thoughts. Moreover, we argue that retrieval stopping recruits extinction circuitry to achieve affect regulation, linking extinction to how humans cope with intrusive thoughts. We discuss novel hypotheses derived from this theoretical synthesis.

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Causal role of the prefrontal cortex in top-down modulation of visual processing and working memory.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.10402956.11226054 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Maurizio Corbetta

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Causal Role ◽

Top Down

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The causal role of right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in visual working memory

Acta Psychologica Sinica ◽

10.3724/sp.j.1041.2018.00727 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 50 (7) ◽

pp. 727 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Visual Working Memory ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Causal Role ◽

Dorsolateral Prefrontal

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Alcohol Dependence Conceptualized as a Stress Disorder

The Oxford Handbook of Stress and Mental Health ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190681777.013.9 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 198-220

Author(s):

Leandro F. Vendruscolo ◽

George F. Koob

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Alcohol Use ◽

Alcohol Dependence ◽

Glucocorticoid Receptors ◽

Critical Role ◽

Emotional States ◽

Brain Circuits ◽

Negative Emotional State ◽

Alcohol Alcohol

Alcohol use disorder is a chronically relapsing disorder that involves (1) compulsivity to seek and take alcohol, (2) difficulty in limiting alcohol intake, and (3) emergence of a negative emotional state (e.g., dysphoria, anxiety, irritability) in the absence of alcohol. Alcohol addiction encompasses a three-stage cycle that becomes more intense as alcohol use progresses: binge/intoxication, withdrawal/negative affect, and preoccupation/anticipation. These stages engage neuroadaptations in brain circuits that involve the basal ganglia (reward hypofunction), extended amygdala (stress sensitization), and prefrontal cortex (executive function disorder). This chapter discusses key neuroadaptations in the hypothalamic and extrahypothalamic stress systems and the critical role of glucocorticoid receptors. These neuroadaptations contribute to negative emotional states that powerfully drive compulsive alcohol drinking and seeking. These changes in association with a disruption of prefrontal cortex function that lead to cognitive deficits and poor decision making contribute to the chronic relapsing nature of alcohol dependence.

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