The Effect of Emotion on Associative Memory: Anger Versus Fear

Studies show that emotion enhances memory for individual items but weakens memory for associations between items (Bisby & Burgess, 2014). One explanation for this associative memory impairment is that emotional stimuli capture attention, causing enhanced encoding of the emotional item but reduced encoding of the surrounding environment (Schupp, Junghöfer, Weike, & Hamm, 2003). This explanation generates the prediction that emotional information always impairs associative memory. Alternatively, it may be that emotion orients attention towards threats in the environment, suggesting that emotions’ effects on associative memory may differ depending on where they indicate a threat may be coming from (Öhman, Flykt, & Esteves, 2001). For example, seeing an angry face constitutes a direct threat. The angry face itself potentially captures attention and thereby reduces memory for its associated information. In contrast, seeing a fearful face indicates a threat elsewhere in the environment. Therefore, the fearful face may redirect attention towards the surroundings and thus enhance encoding of the associated information. To adjudicate between these hypotheses, subjects studied sets of three images, consisting of two objects and a face with either a neutral, angry, or fearful expression. Subjects were later tested on their memory for the associations between the three items. Supporting the first hypothesis, memory for both angry and fearful associations was worse than memory for neutral associations. Contrary to the second hypothesis, there were no differences in memory for angry versus fearful associations. Thus, emotional information itself seems to capture attention, weakening memory for related information.

Download Full-text

Spaced Retrieval Compensates for the Associative Memory Impairment in Older Adults

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e520602012-911 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Patti M. Simone ◽

Matt Bell

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Associative Memory ◽

Memory Impairment ◽

Spaced Retrieval

Download Full-text

Apparent Higher Brain Weight in Suicide Victims: Possible Reasons

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.2002.90.1.236 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 90 (1) ◽

pp. 236-238 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jože Balažic ◽

Andrej Marušič

Keyword(s):

Postmortem Examination ◽

Brain Weight ◽

The Other ◽

Emotional Information ◽

Partial Explanation ◽

Suicide Methods ◽

Surrounding Environment ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Self Harm ◽

The Brain

In 2000 we tested previously reported findings by Salib and Tadros that brain weight of fatal self-harm victims is higher than of those who died of natural causes. Our results were based on data from 15 suicides and 15 deaths of other causes. Data included matching variables of age, sex, time between death and postmortem examination, and temperature of the surrounding environment. The exploratory variables were brain weight and method of death. No significant difference was found between the brain weights of suicides and others. On the other hand, some differences were obtained for different suicide methods, which also differed in the temperature of the environment, this being lower for the group of suicides that occurred outdoors (around or below 0°C). Once we excluded all the outdoor cases and controls, a significantly higher brain weight was obtained for suicide cases. These and previous results are intriguing and require explanation. Respirator brain syndrome as described by Moseley, Molinari, and Walker in 1976 may provide only a partial explanation. Another possible suggestion is that higher brain weight in suicide victims may be related to previously demonstrated increased amygdala blood flow and subsequent amygdala enlargement due to the increased processing of emotional information.

Download Full-text

041 Alteration of Threat-Related Information Processing During Extended Sleep Deprivation

SLEEP ◽

10.1093/sleep/zsab072.040 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 44 (Supplement_2) ◽

pp. A18-A18

Author(s):

Sara Alger ◽

John Hughes ◽

Thomas Balkin ◽

Tracy Jill Doty

Keyword(s):

Sleep Deprivation ◽

Negative Mood ◽

Multiple Time ◽

High Expectation ◽

Medicine Research ◽

Related Information ◽

Recovery Sleep ◽

Threat Processing ◽

Fearful Face ◽

The Impact

Abstract Introduction Threat-related information is preferentially processed, facilitating quick and efficient responses. However, the impact of extended sleep deprivation on perception of and response to threatening information is not well known. Sleep loss may increase amygdalar activity and negative mood, potentially facilitating threat processing. However, it also reduces cognitive function, possibly impairing ability to respond. The present study assessed the extent to which extended sleep deprivation modulates threat processing using a threat expectation paradigm. Methods Twenty-one participants underwent one baseline night of sleep followed by 62hrs total sleep deprivation (TSD) and one recovery night of sleep (12hrs). Threat expectation task performance was assessed at baseline, at multiple time points during TSD, and following recovery sleep. To control for circadian influence, performance at three 1100 sessions (baseline, 52hrs into TSD, and recovery) were compared. The threat expectation task involved determining whether a presented face was fearful (i.e., signaled threat) or neutral. Faces were presented at three expectation levels: 80%, 50%, and 20% chance of viewing a fearful face. Results Overall, responses were faster (F=9.77, p=0.001) and more accurate (F=11.48, p=0.001) when the type of face (fearful or neutral) was expected. Accuracy significantly decreased over TSD (t=7.71, p<0.001) and recovered following subsequent sleep. Fear bias was calculated for accuracy (accuracy for fearful face minus neutral face). Under conditions of high expectation (80%) of viewing a fearful face, fear bias increased across TSD (t=-1.95, p=0.07). Although accuracy to both fearful and neutral faces significantly declined across TSD (both p<0.001), decline for neutral faces was greater, thus increasing fear bias. Importantly, the increased bias toward fear was still evident compared to baseline following a 12-hour recovery sleep opportunity, (t=-1.93, p=0.07). Conclusion Extended sleep deprivation, common in operational environments where there is also high expectation of encountering threat, impairs cognitive control and is thought to enhance amygdala activity. These data show that, consequently, cognitive resources become biased toward biologically adaptive behaviors (i.e., threat processing) at the expense of attending and responding more broadly to all stimuli. This behavior is not reversed with a single extended sleep opportunity. Support (if any) Department of Defense Military Operational Medicine Research Program (MOMRP)

Download Full-text

ERP Evidence for a Sex-Specific Stroop Effect in Emotional Speech

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/089892903322598102 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 15 (8) ◽

pp. 1135-1148 ◽

Cited By ~ 120

Author(s):

Annett Schirmer ◽

Sonja A. Kotz

Keyword(s):

Semantic Processing ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Behavioral Effect ◽

Emotional Prosody ◽

Emotional Speech ◽

Emotional Stimuli ◽

Emotional Information ◽

Men And Women ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Task Irrelevant

The present study investigated the interaction of emotional prosody and word valence during emotional comprehension in men and women. In a prosody-word interference task, participants listened to positive, neutral, and negative words that were spoken with a happy, neutral, and angry prosody. Participants were asked to rate word valence while ignoring emotional prosody, or vice versa. Congruent stimuli were responded faster and more accurately as compared to incongruent emotional stimuli. This behavioral effect was more salient for the word valence task than for the prosodic task and was comparable between men and women. The event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed a smaller N400 amplitude for congruent as compared to emotionally incongruent stimuli. This ERP effect, however, was significant only for the word valence judgment and only for female listeners. The present data suggest that the word valence judgment was more difficult and more easily influenced by task-irrelevant emotional information than the prosodic task in both men and women. Furthermore, although emotional prosody and word valence may have a similar influence on an emotional judgment in both sexes, ERPs indicate sex differences in the underlying processing. Women, but not men, show an interaction between prosody and word valence during a semantic processing stage.

Download Full-text

Task-irrelevant odours affect both response inhibition and response readiness in fast-paced Go/No-Go task: the case of valence

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-019-55977-z ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Javier Albayay ◽

Umberto Castiello ◽

Valentina Parma

Keyword(s):

Response Inhibition ◽

Intertrial Interval ◽

Emotional Stimuli ◽

Emotional Information ◽

Task Relevance ◽

Clean Air ◽

Response Readiness ◽

Attentional Interference ◽

Task Irrelevant

AbstractWhether emotional stimuli influence both response readiness and inhibition is highly controversial. Visual emotional stimuli appear to interfere with both under certain conditions (e.g., task relevance). Whether the effect is generalisable to salient yet task-irrelevant stimuli, such as odours, remains elusive. We tested the effect of orthonasally-presented pleasant (orange) and unpleasant odours (trimethyloxazole and hexenol) and clean air as a control on response inhibition. In emotional Go/No-Go paradigms, we manipulated the intertrial interval and ratios of Go/No-Go trials to account for motor (Experiment 1, N = 31) and cognitive (Experiment 2, N = 29) response inhibition processes. In Experiment 1, participants had greater difficulty in withholding and produced more accurate and faster Go responses under the pleasant vs. the control condition. Faster Go responses were also evident in the unpleasant vs. the control condition. In Experiment 2, neither pleasant nor unpleasant odours modulated action withholding, but both elicited more accurate and faster Go responses as compared to the control condition. Pleasant odours significantly impair action withholding (as compared to the control condition), indicating that more inhibitory resources are required to elicit successful inhibition in the presence of positive emotional information. This modulation was revealed for the motor aspect of response inhibition (fast-paced design with lower Go/No-Go trial ratio) rather than for attentional interference processes. Response readiness is critically impacted by the emotional nature of the odour (but not by its valence). Our findings highlight that the valence of task-irrelevant odour stimuli is a factor significantly influencing response inhibition.

Download Full-text

Latent patterns of task‐related functional connectivity relate to hyperactivation and associative memory impairment in SCD + and MCI

Alzheimer s & Dementia ◽

10.1002/alz.038002 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 16 (S5) ◽

Author(s):

Nick Corriveau‐Lecavalier ◽

Natasha Rajah ◽

Samira Mellah ◽

Sylvie Belleville ◽

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Associative Memory ◽

Memory Impairment

Download Full-text

LTP and memory impairment caused by extracellular Aβ and Tau oligomers is APP-dependent

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.26991 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

Cited By ~ 48

Author(s):

Daniela Puzzo ◽

Roberto Piacentini ◽

Mauro Fá ◽

Walter Gulisano ◽

Domenica D Li Puma ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Associative Memory ◽

Memory Impairment ◽

Long Term Potentiation ◽

Neuronal Uptake ◽

Common Mechanism ◽

Tau Oligomers ◽

Term Potentiation ◽

Induced Defects ◽

Oligomeric Forms

The concurrent application of subtoxic doses of soluble oligomeric forms of human amyloid-beta (oAβ) and Tau (oTau) proteins impairs memory and its electrophysiological surrogate long-term potentiation (LTP), effects that may be mediated by intra-neuronal oligomers uptake. Intrigued by these findings, we investigated whether oAβ and oTau share a common mechanism when they impair memory and LTP in mice. We found that as already shown for oAβ, also oTau can bind to amyloid precursor protein (APP). Moreover, efficient intra-neuronal uptake of oAβ and oTau requires expression of APP. Finally, the toxic effect of both extracellular oAβ and oTau on memory and LTP is dependent upon APP since APP-KO mice were resistant to oAβ- and oTau-induced defects in spatial/associative memory and LTP. Thus, APP might serve as a common therapeutic target against Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and a host of other neurodegenerative diseases characterized by abnormal levels of Aβ and/or Tau.

Download Full-text

Advantage for Emotional Words in Immediate and Delayed Memory Tasks: Could it be Explained in Terms of Processing Capacity?

The Spanish Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1017/s1138741600005850 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 78-89 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Pilar Ferré

Keyword(s):

Processing Capacity ◽

Emotional Stimuli ◽

Emotional Information ◽

Emotional Words ◽

Neutral Information ◽

Term Retention ◽

Long Term Retention ◽

Retention Intervals ◽

The One

Emotional stimuli are better remembered and recognized than neutral ones. This advantage for emotional stimuli has been repeatedly obtained when testing long-term retention. However, there are contradictory results concerning retention of emotional information when short retention intervals are used. The aim of the present study was, on the one hand, to test the effect of retention interval on memory for emotional stimuli (Experiment 1). The results showed that emotional information is better remembered than neutral information in both immediate and delayed memory tests, suggesting that the advantage for emotional information is not limited to long retention intervals. On the other hand, I tried to test the proposals made by Christianson and Nilsson (1984) and Bower (1992). These authors suggested that the advantage for emotional stimuli could be explained as emotional stimuli spending more processing capacity during acquisition, thus rendering less capacity available to encode simultaneously presented information (Experiments 2 and 3). Results showed that concurrent presentation of emotional stimuli did not inhibit the recall of neutral stimuli. These findings do not seem to support the proposals of Christianson and Nilsson (1984) and Bower (1992). According to these results, some mechanisms other than a greater spending of processing capacity have to be involved in the advantage for emotional information in memory.

Download Full-text