scholarly journals Out-of-body experience favors emotional memory consolidation

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Konstantinos Christos Daoultzis ◽  
Sophie Alida Bogemann ◽  
Yoshiyuki Onuki ◽  
Martijn Meeter ◽  
Ysbrand Van Der Werf
Keyword(s):  
Skin Temperature ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Emotional Memory ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Body Experience ◽  
Body Experiences ◽  
Emotional Pictures ◽  
Retrieval Session

Body ownership reflects our ability to recognise our body at a certain location, enabling us to interact with the world. Emotion has a strong impact on memory and body ownership; interestingly, skin temperature may at least in part mediate this impact. Previous studies have found that out-of-body experiences (OBE) impair memory encoding and cause skin temperature to drop. In the present study a new method for inducing OBE was designed and their impact on a different stage and type of memory processing (emotional memory consolidation) and on skin temperature was investigated. In our experiment, we presented three types of emotional pictures (neutral, pleasant, unpleasant) before inducing OBE and testing our participants’ recognition memory in a retrieval session. Throughout the whole experiment, both neck and hand skin temperature were measured using iButtons. Participants’ performance was calculated using d-prime and statistical analyses included one-way ANOVA, probing the relationship between the score on the OBE questionnaire, performance and skin temperature; we also compared the differences between the experimental and a control group. Results showed that OBE favour emotional memory consolidation and cause a temperature increase, supporting the embodied cognition theory as proposed by Anderson (2003). Future studies should expand our findings, to rule out that participants experiencing OBE could have a better memory at baseline or that temperature could be increased due to other reasons.

Inside insights: A phenomenology of interoception

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Drew Leder
Keyword(s):  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
Lived Body ◽  
The West ◽  
Body Experience ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Outer World ◽  
Body Experiences ◽  
Rational Thought ◽  
And Control

This chapter undertakes a phenomenology of inner-body experience, starting with a focus on visceral interoception. While highly personal, such experience also reveals a level of the lived body that is pre-personal, beyond our understanding and control. In contrast to exteroception, elements of the visceral field can be inaccessible, or surface only indistinctly and intermittently to conscious awareness. Nonetheless, interoception is more than just a series of such sensations. This chapter argues for the “exterior interior”—that is, we interpret inner body experiences through models drawn from the outer world, and interoception itself is bound up with emotion, purpose, and projects. In the West, we tend to valorize the interiority of rational thought; by contrast, experience of the inner body is a kind of “inferior interior,” often overlooked or overridden, yet inside insights—gained from attending to messages from the inner body—may preserve our health and wellbeing.

Pharmacologically Increasing Sleep Spindles Enhances Recognition for Negative and High-arousal Memories

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (10) ◽  
pp. 1597-1610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik J. Kaestner ◽  
John T. Wixted ◽  
Sara C. Mednick
Keyword(s):  
Rem Sleep ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Declarative Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Emotional Memory ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Sleep Spindles ◽  
Sleep Spindle ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Valence And Arousal

Sleep affects declarative memory for emotional stimuli differently than it affects declarative memory for nonemotional stimuli. However, the interaction between specific sleep characteristics and emotional memory is not well understood. Recent studies on how sleep affects emotional memory have focused on rapid eye movement sleep (REM) but have not addressed non-REM sleep, particularly sleep spindles. This is despite the fact that sleep spindles are implicated in declarative memory as well as neural models of memory consolidation (e.g., hippocampal neural replay). Additionally, many studies examine a limited range of emotional stimuli and fail to disentangle differences in memory performance because of variance in valence and arousal. Here, we experimentally increase non-REM sleep features, sleep spindle density, and SWS, with pharmacological interventions using zolpidem (Ambien) and sodium oxybate (Xyrem) during daytime naps. We use a full spread of emotional stimuli to test all levels of valence and arousal. We find that increasing sleep spindle density increases memory discrimination (da) for highly arousing and negative stimuli without altering measures of bias (ca). These results indicate a broader role for sleep in the processing of emotional stimuli with differing effects based on arousal and valence, and they raise the possibility that sleep spindles causally facilitate emotional memory consolidation. These findings are discussed in terms of the known use of hypnotics in individuals with emotional mood disorders.

scholarly journals The Experimental Effects of Acute Exercise on Long-Term Emotional Memory

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Breanna Wade ◽  
Paul Loprinzi
Keyword(s):  
Acute Exercise ◽  
Group Interaction ◽  
Emotional Memory ◽  
Exercise Group ◽  
Moderate Intensity ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Moderate Intensity Exercise ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Randomized Controlled Experiment ◽  
Memory Recognition

Emerging work suggests that acute, moderate-intensity aerobic exercise may help to subserve episodic memory of neutral stimuli. Less investigated, however, is whether acute exercise is associated with enhanced memory recognition of emotional stimuli, which was the purpose of this experiment. A parallel-group randomized controlled experiment was employed. Participants (mean age = 20 yr) were randomized into an exercise (n = 17) or control group (n = 17). The exercise group engaged in a 15-min bout of moderate-intensity treadmill walking. Emotional memory recognition was assessed via images from the International Affective Picture System, including assessments of varying degrees of valence and arousal. Memory recognition was assessed at 1 day, 7 days, and 14 days post-memory encoding. We observed a significant main effect for time (F(2) = 104.2, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.77) and a significant main effect for valence–arousal classification (F(4) = 21.39, p < 0.001, η2p = 0.40), but there was no significant time by group interaction (F(2) = 1.09, p = 0.34, η2p = 0.03), classification by group interaction (F(4) = 0.12, p = 0.97, η2p = 0.01), time by classification interaction (F(8) = 1.78, p = 0.08, η2p = 0.05), or time by classification by group interaction (F(8) = 0.78, p = 0.62, η2p = 0.02). In conclusion, emotional memory recognition decreased over the 14-day follow-up period and this rate of memory decay was not altered by acute moderate-intensity exercise engagement. We discuss these findings in the context of exercise intensity and the temporal effects of exercise.

scholarly journals The Influence of Sleep on Emotional Memory Consolidation Processes

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael De Jesus ◽  
William Fishbein
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Emotional Memory ◽  
Emotional Memories ◽  
Affective Functioning

An emerging trend in the literature has accumulated evidence in support for sleep’s role in the processing of episodic emotional memories. This review presents varying perspectives and models regarding information processing and affective functioning as it relates to sleep, emotions, and memory. Adaptive and maladaptive functions as it directly relates to sleep and emotions are also discussed herein. Collectively, the findings attempt to build on the literature and offer some clarity into the interaction of sleep, emotions, and memory.

Sex differences in emotional memory consolidation: The effect of stress-induced salivary alpha-amylase and cortisol

2012 ◽  
Vol 89 (3) ◽  
pp. 539-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim L. Felmingham ◽  
Thu Phuong Tran ◽  
Wing Chee Fong ◽  
Richard A. Bryant
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Emotional Memory ◽  
Alpha Amylase ◽  
Salivary Alpha Amylase

scholarly journals A causal role for the right angular gyrus in self-location mediated perspective taking

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. L. de Boer ◽  
P. J. Johnston ◽  
G. Kerr ◽  
M. Meinzer ◽  
A. Cleeremans
Keyword(s):  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Exogenous Attention ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Rehabilitation Programs ◽  
Body Experiences ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Environmental Stimulation ◽  
Elementary Form ◽  
The Right

Abstract Recent theories suggest that self-consciousness, in its most elementary form, is functionally disconnected from the phenomenal body. Patients with psychosis frequently misattribute their thoughts and actions to external sources; and in certain out-of-body experiences, lucid states, and dreams body-ownership is absent but self-identification is preserved. To explain these unusual experiences, we hypothesized that self-identification depends on inferring self-location at the right angular gyrus (i.e., perspective-taking). This process relates to the discrimination of self-produced signals (endogenous attention) from environmental stimulation (exogenous attention). Therefore, when this mechanism fails, this causes altered sensations and perceptions. We combined a Full-body Illusion paradigm with brain stimulation (HD-tDCS) and found a clear causal association between right angular gyrus activation and alterations in self-location (perspective-taking). Anodal versus sham HD-tDCS resulted in: a more profound out-of-body shift (with reduced sense of agency); and a weakened ability to discriminate self from other perspectives. We conclude that self-identification is mediated in the brain by inferring self-location (i.e., perspective-taking). Self-identification can be decoupled from the bodily self, explaining phenomena associated with disembodiment. These findings present novel insights into the relationship between mind and body, and may offer important future directions for treating psychosis symptoms and rehabilitation programs to aid in the recovery from a nervous system injury. The brain’s ability to locate itself might be the key mechanism for self-identification and distinguishing self from other signals (i.e., perspective-taking).

scholarly journals The influence of REM sleep and SWS on emotional memory consolidation in participants reporting depressive symptoms

Cortex ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 281-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus O. Harrington ◽  
Jennifer M. Johnson ◽  
Harriet E. Croom ◽  
Kyla Pennington ◽  
Simon J. Durrant
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Rem Sleep ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Emotional Memory

Thermal balance and biogenic amine excretion in Gaspé fishermen exposed to cold

1964 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacques Leblanc ◽  
M. Pouliot ◽  
S. Rheaume
Keyword(s):  
Body Temperature ◽  
Cold Stress ◽  
Skin Temperature ◽  
Biogenic Amine ◽  
Heat Production ◽  
Cold Exposure ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Catecholamine Excretion ◽  
Adrenergic Response

Previous studies have shown a decreased response in fishermen to cold applied locally. In the present study, the same subjects, when exposed naked for 1 hr at 60 F maintained a higher skin temperature than a control group. If these findings indicate a decreased vasoconstriction, all results obtained to date on these fishermen would indicate a decreased adrenergic response. Evidence of gross shivering was much more pronounced in the fishermen but this was not reflected by greater heat production. Both groups excreted more hydroxycortisone in the cold, and the excretion was higher in the control subjects. Cold exposure did not increase the catecholamine excretion in either group. Note: (With the Technical Assistance of P. Tousignant) acclimatization; body temperature; skin temperature; vasomotor adaptation; shivering; adrenergic response in cold habituation; hydroxycortisone excretion in cold stress Submitted on June 17, 1963

Out-of-Body Experience Status as a Moderator of Effects of Narcissism on Paranormal Beliefs

1987 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 440-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerome J. Tobacyk ◽  
Thomas E. Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Significant Relationship ◽  
Body Experience ◽  
Paranormal Belief ◽  
Out Of Body Experience ◽  
Narcissistic Personality ◽  
Body Experiences ◽  
Paranormal Beliefs ◽  
Narcissistic Personality Inventory ◽  
Belief Scale

The Narcissistic Personality Inventory and the Paranormal Belief Scale were given to 383 college students. As hypothesized, significant but small direct correlations were obtained between narcissism and belief in Psi and in Precognition. When the sample was divided into those 56 who reported out-of-body experiences and 327 nonreporters, an interaction emerged. Among the former, narcissism showed significant moderate correlations with belief in Psi, Precognition, Witchcraft, and Superstition. Among the latter only one small significant relationship was found between narcissism and Precognition. These differential relationships between narcissism and paranormal beliefs for reporters and nonreporters of out-of-body experiences were interpreted in terms of schemata theory.

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