Brain dynamics associated with recollective experiences of emotional events

In this study, we used high-density event-related potentials to investigate the brain dynamics underlying the recollective experience for emotional and neutral pictures. Using the remember/know procedure, 12 male participants introspectively indicated whether their recognition was based on conscious recollection (remembered) or familiarity (known). The results show a higher rate of remember responses for emotional relative to neutral pictures, despite an equivalent memory accuracy. In the event-related potentials, the subjective recollective experience for emotional pictures relative to neutral pictures was accompanied by an enhanced old/new effect (500-800 ms) over parietal scalp locations. The results provide electrocortical evidence for a contribution of the parietal old/new effect to the enhanced vividness of individuals' emotional memories and indicate that emotions enhance the subjective belief of recognizing memories.