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Brain Imaging Investigation of the Memory-Enhancing Effect of Emotion
Published on: May 4, 2011
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Neuronal activity in the human amygdala and hippocampus enhances emotional memory encoding
Salman E Qasim1, Uma R Mohan2, Joel M Stein3
1Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. salman.qasim@mssm.edu.
Nature Human Behaviour
|January 16, 2023
Summary
The brain prioritizes emotional memories through high-frequency activity (HFA) in the hippocampus and amygdala. Disrupting this neural activity impairs emotional memory recall.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Emotional events are strongly encoded and recalled as valuable memories.
- The amygdalohippocampal circuit plays a crucial role in memory formation and emotional processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the prioritization of emotional information for memory storage.
- To examine the causal role of hippocampal and amygdalar high-frequency activity (HFA) in emotional memory.
Main Methods:
- Intracranial electroencephalographic (iEEG) recordings in 148 participants during an episodic memory task.
- Deep brain stimulation (DBS) applied to the hippocampus in a subset of 19 participants.
- Assessment of memory performance and neural activity (HFA) in healthy individuals and individuals with depression.
Main Results:
- Successful encoding of emotional stimuli correlated with increased HFA in the hippocampus and amygdala.
- Hippocampal stimulation selectively impaired emotional memory recall and reduced HFA.
- Individuals with depression showed diminished emotion-mediated memory and HFA.
Conclusions:
- High-frequency activity in the amygdalohippocampal circuit causally mediates the prioritization of emotional memories.
- Disruptions in HFA are linked to impaired emotional memory in depression, suggesting translational potential.
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