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This study examines performance on a novel attachment false memory task in children (ages 8-14) who are enrolled in an ongoing longitudinal study of neurobehavioral development. The attachment false memory task is comprised of 24 attachment scripts depicting everyday events involving parents and children. False memories for secure and insecure attachment lures are examined in relation to children's: (a) age; (b) past exposure to caregiving-related early adversities (e.g. abuse, neglect, caregiving disruption); (c) current security with their caregiver; and (d) psychopathology-related behaviors.

Depression, anxiety, burnout, and other stress-related illnesses are becoming a major cause of disability globally. However, current treatments, including pharmacology and psychotherapy, show high resistance and relapse rates. A transdiagnostic approach that targets underlying mechanisms may provide better results than current treatments. One potential avenue that fits a transdiagnostic approach is exercise as a mood boosting treatment, which can serve as a low-cost and easily accessible tool in treating and preventing mental illness. Exercise has been shown to boost mood, and alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety, though the mechanisms of how this happens are not well understood. One theory is that exercise acts to modify emotional memory processing, which is often disrupted in psychiatric illness. Laboratory results have shown some support for this argument, yet results from the lab remain mixed, higlhighitng a need to expand research into real-life settings. In addition to understanding the cognitive mechanisms, the neural pathways that are involved in this process are also not well understood. The relationship between exercise and mood and memory may be due to increased neural plasticity, as increased levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF) are often reported following exercise, which are linked to plasticity in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is a central episodic memory hubs, with connections to the default mode network (DMN). The DMN is involved in autobiographical memory and disruptions in this network are reported in a wide range of psychiatric illnesses. By stimulating neural plasticity in the hippocampus through exercise, it may lead to changes in DMN connectivity and alter emotional memory, thereby elevating mood. However, this overarching model encompassing the lab and real-life, as well as examining these processes involved, have yet to be investigated thoroughly.

Most of our knowledge about human emotional memory comes from animal research. Based on this work, the amygdala is often labeled the brain's “fear center”, but it is unclear to what degree neural circuitries underlying fear and extinction learning are conserved across species. Neuroimaging studies in humans yield conflicting findings, with many studies failing to show amygdala activation in response to learned threat. Such null findings are often treated as resulting from MRI-specific problems related to measuring deep brain structures. Here we test this assumption in a mega-analysis of three studies on fear acquisition (n= 98; 68 female) and extinction learning (n= 79; 53 female). The conditioning procedure involved the presentation of two pictures of faces and two pictures of houses: one of each pair was followed by an electric shock [a conditioned stimulus (CS+)], the other one was never followed by a shock (CS–), and participants were instructed to learn these contingencies. Results revealed widespread responses to the CS+compared with the CS–in the fear network, including anterior insula, midcingulate cortex, thalamus, and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, but not the amygdala, which actually responded stronger to the CS–. Results were independent of spatial smoothing, and of individual differences in trait anxiety and conditioned pupil responses. In contrast, robust amygdala activation distinguished faces from houses, refuting the idea that a poor signal could account for the absence of effects. Moving forward, we suggest that, apart from imaging larger samples at higher resolution, alternative statistical approaches may be used to identify cross-species similarities in fear and extinction learning.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTThe science of emotional memory provides the foundation of numerous theories on psychopathology, including stress and anxiety disorders. This field relies heavily on animal research, which suggests a central role of the amygdala in fear learning and memory. However, this finding is not strongly corroborated by neuroimaging evidence in humans, and null findings are too easily explained away by methodological limitations inherent to imaging deep brain structures. In a large nonclinical sample, we find widespread BOLD activation in response to learned fear, but not in the amygdala. A poor signal could not account for the absence of effects. While these findings do not disprove the involvement of the amygdala in human fear learning, they challenge its typical portrayals and illustrate the complexities of translational science.

The experiment aims to investigate valence effects on memory for words. The experiment is a conceptual replication of "Emotionally enhanced memory - does valence matter? (Experiment 1)". However, instead of nonword-word pairs, participants study handsign-word pairs.

Although it is known that aging impairs episodic memory, the precise effect of aging on emotional memory is not fully understood. In this study, younger and older adults listened to narratives that contained general and emotional (positive, negative, or neutral) details as they viewed related images. When participants later recalled the narratives, both age groups remembered more emotional details from the negative than the positive or neutral narratives. Interestingly, the enhanced recall for the negative narratives came with a reduced ability to remember the associated images for both younger and older adults. For all narrative types, older adults recalled a similar number of general but fewer emotional details than younger adults. Although there were no age-specific emotional effects, memory functioning of the older adults related to better recall of the positive narratives and associated images. These results provide insight into the similarities and differences in how younger and older adults encode and retrieve complex emotional memories.

La Dra. Marina Trakas, coordinadora del dossier “Memoria y emoción”, presenta los contenidos del mismo., A Dra. Marina Trakas, coordenadora do dossiê "Memória e Emoção", apresenta seu conteúdo., Dr. Marina Trakas, coordinator of the "Memory and Emotion" dossier, presents its contents., Dossier: Memoria y emoción, Facultad de Psicología

The eyewitness and fundamental memory research fields have investigated the effects of acute stress at encoding on memory performance for decades yet results often demonstrate contrasting conclusions. In this review, we first summarise findings on the effects of acute encoding stress on memory performance and discuss how these research fields often come to these diverging findings regarding the effects of encoding stress on memory performance. Next, we critically evaluate methodological choices that underpin these discrepancies, emphasising the strengths and limitations of different stress-memory experiments. Specifically, we elaborate on choice of stressors and stimuli, stress manipulation checks, stressor timing, and the interval between encoding and retrieval and discuss how methodological shortcomings in both the eyewitness and fundamental memory fields have limited our understanding of how encoding stress may affect eyewitness memory performance. Finally, we propose several recommendations for researchers interested in this topic, such as confirming stress inductions with physiological measures, implementing sufficient retrieval intervals to isolate the memory phase of interest and using ecologically valid memory paradigms. We conclude that the best progress can be made if researchers are responsive to the methodologies and findings reported in other research fields and encourage collaborations between the different disciplines. ispartof: MEMORY vol:29 issue:8 pages:1091-1100 ispartof: location:England status: published

The present study aims to analyse the effect of the passage of time on the phenomenological characteristics of the memory of a traumatic event of social relevance. The terrorist attack that took place in Barcelona (Spain) in August 2017 was taken as the traumatic event. A priori, this event meets the criteria to produce a flashbulb memory (level of surprise, consequentiality and emotional activation). A total of 364 memories from different individuals (78% women and a mean age of 20 years) were studied at five different time points, between September 2017 and December 2018, using the CCFRA/PQAM questionnaire. The results show that the memories only comply with the characteristics usually associated with flashbulb memories in the medium term (about 7 months after the events). These characteristics do not appear in a clear way immediately and are lost just over a year after the event. Therefore, the passage of time seems to have a great influence on the characteristics of memories of violent events, such as terrorist attacks. However, this influence may depend more on the relevance given to the event than on the elapsed time, as it is the relevance that determines the number of subsequent recalls, influencing the maintenance of the memory.

Disgust is remembered better than fear, despite both emotions being highly negative and arousing. But the mechanisms underlying this effect are not well-understood. Therefore, we compared two proposed mechanisms underlying superior memory for disgust. According to the memory consolidation mechanism, it is harder (but crucial) to remember potentially contaminating vs. threatening stimuli. Hence, disgust elicits additional memory consolidation processes to fear. According to the attention mechanism, it takes longer to establish if disgust (relative to fear) stimuli are dangerous. Hence, people pay more attention to disgust during encoding. Both mechanisms could boost memory for disgust. Ninety-eight participants encoded disgust, fear, and neutral images whilst completing a simple task to measure attention. After 10- or 45-min delay, participants freely recalled the images. We found enhanced memory for disgust relative to fear after 10- and 45-min delay, but this effect was larger after 45-min. Participants paid more attention to disgust than fear images during encoding. However, mixed effect models showed increased attention did not contribute to enhanced memory for disgust. Our results therefore support the memory consolidation mechanism.

This is a multi-part study with two main research questions, and data collected over two time-points. One set of data were collected during lockdown restrictions in June 2020 (T1), and the second set of data collection is planned for June 2021 (T2). Note, this pre-registration focuses only on data from T1 (June 2020). A pre-registration regarding Covid-19 hypotheses and data collection at T2 will follow closer to T2. The study is split into two-parts, based on the two main research questions. The first research question investigates the relationship between sleep, affect, and emotional memory; the second, explores sleep, affect, and mental-health. These questions will be examined in data collected at T1 (June 2020, during Covid-19 lockdown) and compared to T2 (June 2021, hopefully after Covid-19 lockdown restrictions). This pre-registration focuses on part-one (sleep, affect and memory). All data were collected online, questionnaires were used to measure affect and memory, and emotional memory was tested using emotionally valenced (positive, negative or neutral) word-pairs. a. Sleep and memory Sleep has been shown to be important for learning and memory (Rasch & Born, 2013). However, most of the sleep literature focuses on the consolidation of memories during sleep. More recently, attention has been drawn towards the role of sleep in refreshing the brain for subsequent encoding (e.g., Antonenko et al., 2013; Mander et al., 2011; J. L. Ong et al., 2020). The synaptic homeostasis hypothesis, predicts that sleep functions to remove excess synaptic connections (via synaptic downscaling) (Tononi & Cirelli, 2014). Synaptic downscaling is thought to maintain homeostasis and desaturate the brain, thus, the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis predicts that sleep primes the brain for subsequent learning. The current study will add to the developing literature by investigating the effects of sleep prior to learning, testing the predictions made by the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis that longer sleep duration and higher sleep quality prior to learning will be associated with improvements in episodic memory. As the current study is conducted online, it is unable to investigate the neural correlates of this association. However, it will be novel in exploring how naturalistic sleep patterns are related to the restoration of encoding capacity. To our knowledge, no current research has investigated how long-term, naturally occurring sleep patterns may be associated with refreshing the brain for learning. Instead, most research focuses on single night’s or daytime naps, which does not represent the more realistic issues of partial sleep restriction (Cousins et al., 2018). However, one study has previously investigated multiple-nights of sleep restriction before encoding, and found that 15-18 year olds who were sleep restricted had poorer encoding capacity than those who were well-rested (Cousins et al., 2018). In another multi-night study, participants who were sleep restricted but allowed an afternoon nap (5 hours nocturnal sleep, plus a 1.5 hour nap) had better memory than participants only allowed nocturnal sleep (6.5 hours nocturnal sleep) (Cousins et al., 2019). The memory benefit for the nap group was seen for information learned in the afternoon, not the morning, which may have theoretical implications in that the nap functioned as an additional period for desaturation (e.g. synaptic homeostasis hypothesis). The current study does not experimentally manipulate sleep, and instead measures naturally occurring sleep via the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), which includes multiple facets of sleep, including sleep duration and sleep quality, which may explain additional variance in the relationship between sleep and memory not explained by duration alone. b. Sleep and emotional memory The relationship between sleep and memory may also differ with emotionality. Previously, research has found that sleep deprived participants recall fewer neutral memories than well-rested participants, but their memory for negative stimuli remains intact (Tempesta et al., 2016; Vargas et al., 2019; Walker, 2009). Additionally, sleep deprived participants recall fewer positive stimuli than well-rested participants (Tempesta et al., 2016; Walker, 2009). All of these studies use total sleep deprivation paradigms, which does not capture the more common issue of sleep restriction. Further, only one of these studies (Tempesta et al., 2016) investigated how sleep before encoding may influence emotional memories, finding similar biases seen in consolidation research, in that sleep deprived participants recalled negative stimuli equally to well-rested participants, but had lower recall of neutral and positive stimuli. It has been suggested that sleep deprivation is associated with amygdala over-reactivity, via an uncalibrated noradrenergic system and reduced medial prefrontal cortex control (Goldstein & Walker, 2014). Whilst this theory may explain over-reactivity to emotional stimuli, resulting in greater negative than neutral memory when sleep deprived, it does not fully explain the finding that sleep-deprived participants have lower positive memory than well-rested participants, but equal negative memory (e.g. Tempesta et al., 2016), as an over-reactive amygdala would also predict increased reactivity to positive stimuli. Instead, the difference between positive memory for well-rested and sleep deprived participants may be explained by mood-congruent memory mechanisms. According to a systematic review and meta-analysis, short sleep duration is associated with lower positive affect and higher negative affect (Short et al., 2020). Changes in affect may have subsequent consequences for emotional memories. The associative network theory (Bower, 1981) posits that memories are more likely to be recalled if they are congruent with the mood of the participant. That is, participants high in positive affect will recall more positive memories relative to negative or neutral memories, and participants high in negative affect will recall more negative than positive or neutral memories. Here, we refer to affect as an umbrella term encompassing mood (longer-lasting feelings or affect) and emotions (more transient or fleeting forms of affect) (e.g. A. D. Ong et al., 2017). Vargas et al. (2019) found that sleep deprived participants had greater levels of negative affect than well-rested participants, and their memory for negative stimuli was greater than for neutral stimuli. They suggested that their results may be due to a mood-congruent mechanism, which requires further exploration. As they did not include positive affect, they were unable to fully examine the mood-congruent effects. Therefore, the current research will examine how sleep before encoding influences memory, based on predictions made by the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis. Two mechanisms will be examined in regards to how emotional valence predicts memory biases, (1) the interaction between sleep and valence, to test hypotheses made by Walker (2009) and Goldstein and Walker (2014) and (2) the interaction between affect and valence to test mood-congruent mechanisms predicted by associative network theory (Bower et al., 1981). Also, a three-way interaction including sleep, affect, and valence will be examined to account for sleep’s relationship with affect (Short et al., 2020). The study will address a gap in the literature by investigating naturally occurring sleep patterns, positive and negative affect separately, and sleep before the encoding of emotionally valenced stimuli.

The experiment aims to investiage valence effects on memory for words. In particular, the experiment compares recognition performance and cued recall performance for negatively arousing, positively arousing, and neutral words. Additionally, data will be analyzed with a multinomial processing tree model that allows to disentangle storage and retrieval processes underlying the performances in the memory tests.

The goal of this addendum is to preregister a fourth AIM for this project. Prior research has indicated that individuals’ memories at one time-point may relate to their prosocial behavior at a later time-point (e.g., Ford et al., 2017). We have the ability to examine this question in relation to moral decision-making using memory data (Round 2 data collection phase) from the current dataset, and are preregistering an aim to do so.

In this project, we will perform secondary analyses of MIDUS data to analyze how emotional responses in older adults with high levels of trait anxiety and heightened threat sensitivity may differ from the predictions of the socioemotional selectivity theory. Specifically, we will examine the relationship between trait anxiety, age, and EBR magnitude during negative images, as well as the relationship between EBR magnitude during negative images and age with negative memory bias . Finally, we will study the interaction between age and anxiety in relation to negative memory bias. The MIDUS dataset provides the opportunity of processing a sample that is fairly large as well as representative of an aging population and contains measures of emotional memory, affective responses as measured by EBR, and trait anxiety. Data from the MIDUS Refresher Project 5 (Neuroscience Project) collected between 2011-2016 during a picture viewing task will be used to extract EBR metrics. A subsequent free recall task of the images in the picture viewing task will be used to measure bias in emotional memory. Demographic information, age, and Spielberger State Trait Anxiety Inventory will be extracted from MIDUS Refresher Project 5.

Sleep has a beneficial effect on memory consolidation. However, its role in emotional memory is currently debated. Here, we investigate the role of sleep and a similar period of wakefulness on the recognition of emotional pictures and subjective emotional reactivity. Forty participants without any major physical, neurological or psychological condition were randomly assigned to the Sleep First Group or Wake First Group. The two groups underwent the encoding phase of an emotional images task with negative and neutral pictures at either 09:00 hours (Wake First Group) or 21:00 hours (Sleep First Group). Then participants performed an immediate recognition test (T1), and two delayed tests 12 hr (T2) and 24 hr (T3) later. Perceived arousal and valence levels were collected for each picture. Sleep parameters were recorded at participants' homes with a portable device. No differences were observed at T1, whereas at T2 the Sleep First Group showed a higher memory performance than the Wake First Group. At T3, performance decreased in the Sleep First Group (who spent the previous 12 hr awake), but not in the Wake First Group (who slept during the previous 12 hr). Overall, negative images were remembered better than neutral ones. We also observed a positive association between memory performance for negative items at the immediate test and the percentage of rapid eye movement sleep the night before the encoding. Our data confirm that negative information is remembered better over time than neutral information, and that sleep benefits the retention of declarative information. However, sleep seems not to preferentially improve emotional memory, although it may affect the encoding of negative information.

espanolEste articulo presenta una investigacion a partir del analisis de la experiencia del taller teatral Afrontando Miedos de la compania inclusiva Vertebradas Artes Escenicas, dirigida por Laura Suarez, impartido en el Congreso Aletheia: arte, arteterapia, trauma y memoria emocional, para observar y cotejar los resultados de la actividad artistica teatral con los recursos paliativos en la superacion del trauma. Intenta responder a ?Como ayuda un taller teatral experiencial en la gestion emocional del miedo? y ?Que papel juega la inclusion en el proceso? La investigacion vincula la importancia del cuerpo, la gestion emocional, el espacio seguro y la conexion con uno mismo y con los demas, en el tratamiento de recuperacion, reflejando el resultado de las ultimas investigaciones en neurociencia y psiquiatria. Se emplea una metodologia fenomenologica de corte cualitativo. El analisis tematico correspondiente a los siguientes temas y categorias: el taller de teatro, el cuerpo, la inclusion, el entorno seguro, arteterapia, el cuidado y la gestion emocional del miedo. Las fuentes de informacion son las encuestas a dieciseis asistentes al taller, la observacion participante y entrevistas semiestructuradas realizadas a los tres facilitadores con diversidad funcional. Los resultados responden a los objetivos de la investigacion: Es posible gestionar los propios miedos en un taller de teatro inclusivo. Se ha utilizado el cuerpo como fuente de informacion. La dinamica del taller del Teatro de la experiencia ha facilitado, tanto la relacion con las personas del grupo en un marco de inclusion y diversidad, como la conexion con la emocion del miedo en un entorno seguro, canalizandolo expresivamente a traves de las artes escenicas. La principal limitacion de la investigacion es que el analisis corresponde a un solo taller. Se pretende aportar conocimiento sobre la experiencia de profesionales del arteterapia en relacion a la gestion emocional del miedo y no se pretende generalizar los datos a otro ambito distinto. EnglishThis article presents an analytical investigation of the experience of the theatrical workshop Facing Fears created by the Vertebradas Company of Performing Arts, directed by Laura Suarez, which took place at the Aletheia Congress: Art, Art Therapy, Trauma and Emotional Memory to observe and collate the artistic theatrical activity results in relation to palliative resources to overcome trauma. The research answers the following questions: How does such an experiential theater workshop activity help to manage fear emotion? What role does inclusion play in the process? The investigation links the importance of body, emotional management, the safety of the environment, and connection with one self and the others, in recovery treatment. It reflects last neuroscience and psychiatry investigations results. Qualitative methodology and thematic analysis were used to examine topics such as the theater workshop, body, inclusion, the safety of the environment, art therapy and emotional management of fear. The main sources of information were surveys taken of 16 of the workshop partakers, participant observation and semi-structured interviews with the three facilitators with functional diversity. The results respond to the objectives of the research: It is possible to manage one's own fears in an inclusive theater workshop. The body has been used as a source of information. The dynamics of the Theater of Experience workshop have facilitated both relationship between the people of the group in a framework of inclusion and diversity, and connection with the emotion of fear in a safe environment, expressively channeling said emotion through the performing arts. The main limitation of the research is that the analysis concerns only one workshop. It is intended to provide knowledge about art therapy professionals in their experience of emotional management of fear. It does not pretend to generalize the information to a different context.

Il est naturel de penser que les experiences emotionnelles associees au souvenir d’un evenement passe sont des etats emotionnels nouveaux et presents declenches par l’evenement dont on se souvient. Cette conception commune a neanmoins ete remise en question au debut du xxe siecle par des intellectuels qui consideraient que les emotions peuvent etre encodees et recuperees, et que les aspects emotionnels lies aux souvenirs du passe personnel n’etaient pas toujours de nouvelles reponses emotionnelles provoquees par l’acte de souvenir. Ils ont appele « souvenirs affectifs » ce type specifique de souvenirs et ont defendu leur existence. Dans cet article, je presente le contexte historique de ce debat, ainsi que la caracterisation et le developpement que la notion de memoire affective a subi depuis sa creation. Le but est de montrer que, bien que le debat n’ait pas ete resolu et que le terme ait disparu de la recherche academique vers 1930, de nombreuses caracterisations de la nature des emotions et de la memoire avancees par les defenseurs de la memoire affective ont implicitement reapparu et ete developpees dans l’agenda scientifique des dernieres decennies.

Falls among older people are usually the result of several causes combined. Identifying all the fall-related factors that apply to a particular individual and providing comprehensive multifactorial intervention is recommended for the prevention of falls among older people. However, the overall net benefit of multifactorial intervention in preventing falls is small, and it does not appear to improve fall-related outcomes, such as the number of fall-related injuries. Therefore, we might require new perspectives to overcome this situation. Here, we raise two novel strategies for fall prevention among older people. One is using physical therapists more actively. The other is using aromatherapy for stabilization of older people. Physical therapists should carry out detailed gait assessment and caregiver education. Aromatherapy is effective in improving balance and mental stability in older people. To overcome refractory geriatric syndrome, there is no choice but to eliminate all preconceived ideas before choosing the best fall prevention strategies. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2021; 21: 445-450.

Negative emotional experiences can be more difficult to forget than neutral ones, a phenomenon termed the “emotional memory effect.” Individual differences in the strength of the emotional memory effect are associated with emotional health. Thus, understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of the emotional memory effect has important implications, especially for individuals at risk for emotional health problems. Although the neural basis of emotional memory effects has been relatively well defined, less is known about how hormonal factors that can modulate emotional memory, such as glucocorticoids, relate to that neural basis. Importantly, probing the role of glucocorticoids in the stress- and emotion-sensitive period of late childhood to adolescence could provide actionable points of intervention. We addressed this gap by testing whether hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activity during a parent–child conflict task at 11 years of age predicted emotional memory and its primary neural circuitry (i.e., amygdala–hippocampus functional connectivity) at 16 years of age in a longitudinal study of 147 girls (104 with complete data). Results showed that lower HPA axis activity predicted stronger emotional memory effects, r(124) = −.236, p < .01, and higher emotional memory-related functional connectivity between the right hippocampus and the right amygdala, β = −.385, p < .001. These findings suggest that late childhood HPA axis activity may modulate the neural circuitry of emotional memory effects in adolescence, which may confer a potential risk trajectory for emotional health among girls.

Mounting research has linked acute moderate-intensity exercise with changes indiscrimination of similar events – i.e., mnemonic memory. Conversely, few studies have compared performance in tasks associated to each type of memory(mnemonic similarity and emotional) and less have evaluatedperformance several days after exercise sessions. Thirty-five undergraduate students were randomly distributed in three groups that differed in the assigned duration of the moderate-intensity exercise session.Weestablished first the moderate-intensityexercise program by calculating the VO2max 50%. Two-to-five days later, participantsengaged in the exercise condition to which they were assigned, followed by a five-minute rest period. Immediately after, all participantswere exposed to the training phase of both memory tasks. The first retrieval phase was tested 45 minutes afterencoding phase was completed. Subsequent retrieval phases were conducted 24, 48, and 168 hours post-training. Exercise of long duration in creased discrimination performance in images of low similarity. Comparison of the effects of exercise on discrimination of the three types of images that the emotional-memory task entailsshowed improved performance only for aversive and neutral images. Exercise improves discrimination of low similarity images, with better overall performance after a longer exercise session. This finding adds to previous reports that have found analogous effects using other memory tasks.It also supports the notion that acute effects due to exercise are specifically related to hippocampal functionality and its ability to separate patterns. Finally, maintenance of emotional information across time suggest a different mechanism,independent of pattern-separation processing.

The amygdala is a key brain region involved in emotional memory formation. It is also responsible for memory modulation in other brain areas. Under extreme conditions, amygdala modulation may lead to the generation of abnormal plasticity and trauma-related psychopathologies. However, the amygdala itself is a dynamic brain region, which is amenable to long-term plasticity and is affected by emotional experiences. These alterations may modify the way the amygdala modulates activity and plasticity in other related brain regions, which in turn may alter the animal's response to subsequent challenges in what could be termed as 'Behavioral metaplasticity'. Because of the reciprocal interactions between the amygdala and other emotion processing regions, such as the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) or the hippocampus, experience-induced intra-amygdala metaplasticity could lead to alterations in mPFC-dependent or hippocampus-dependent behaviors. While initiated by alterations within the basolateral amygdala (BLA), such alterations in other brain regions may come to be independent of BLA modulation, thus establishing what may be termed 'Trans-regional metaplasticity'. In this article, we review evidence supporting the notions of intra-BLA metaplasticity and how this may develop into 'Trans-regional metaplasticity'. Future research is needed to understand how such dynamic metaplastic alterations contribute to developing psychopathologies, and how this knowledge may be translated into promoting novel interventions in psychopathologies associated with fear, stress, and trauma.

Despite the number of documented declines in memory with age, memory for socioemotional information can be preserved into older adulthood. These studies assessed whether memory for character information could be preserved with age, and how the general versus specific nature of the information tested affected outcomes. We hypothesized that memory for general impressions would be preserved with age, but that memory for specific details would be impaired. In two experiments, younger and older adults learned character information about individuals characterized as positive, neutral, or negative. Participants then retrieved general impressions and specific information for each individual. The testing conditions in Experiment 2 discouraged deliberate recall. In Experiment 1, we found that younger performed better than older adults on both general and specific memory measures. Although age differences in memory for specific information persisted in Experiment 2, we found that younger and older adults remembered general impressions to a similar extent when testing conditions encouraged the use of “gut impressions” rather than deliberate retrieval from memory. We conclude that aging affects memory for specific character information, but memory for general impressions can be age-equivalent. Furthermore, there is no evidence for a positivity bias or differences in the effects of valence on memory across the age groups.

Available evidence suggests enhanced spontaneous emotion regulation in healthy aging, but the effects of specific strategies and the associated age-related neural mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, younger and older participants rated the emotional content of negative and neutral images, after explicit instructions or implicit priming to engage emotional suppression as an emotion regulation strategy, while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were recorded. Participants' memory for the images was also tested 1 week later. Behaviorally, younger and older adults were similarly successful in using explicit suppression to inhibit immediate emotional responses. However, this was associated with reduced long-term memory only for younger adults. fMRI data showed dissociable activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) coupled with similar activity in the amygdala in younger and older adults after the engagement of emotional suppression. Results also identified a lateral-to-medial shift in the functional connectivity of the PFC in aging, linked to the engagement of explicit suppression. Regarding memory, younger adults uniquely showed bilateral modulation of encoding-related activity in the hippocampus (HC), as well as a left-lateralized decrease of the HC-PFC functional connectivity after explicit emotional suppression. This is consistent with diminished involvement of typical mechanisms associated with emotional memory because of successful engagement of explicit suppression in younger adults. Taken together, these findings identified similar and differential effects of suppression on immediate emotional responses and long-term memory for emotional information, in younger and older adults, and provide insights into the neural mechanisms by which younger and older adults adaptively cope with emotional challenges. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

In the past decades the role of cognitive biases as maintaining factors of anxiety has been widely researched. This theoretical framework assumes that vulnerability self-referential thoughts promote a hyper-vigilant mode of processing environmental stimuli. In this mode, threatening information increases attentional capture and therefore encoding and retrieval of such stimuli is enhanced. Although this attentional bias has been confirmed, the evidence concerning the memory bias is contradictory. Our hypothesis is that the bias in memory is expressed through the pattern of recognition. Particularly, the aim of this study was to evaluate the association of anxiety with familiarity, a deficient form of recognition which consists only in the identification of the item without retrieval of contextual information. Two groups of 17 participants with low and high anxiety levels performed an experimental task of visual recognition memory, using neutral, positive, and negative pictures. The experiment had two test phases, with a 24-hour interval, to evaluate possible effects of consolidation. The pattern of recognition was measured, behaviorally (through an independent Remember/Know paradigm) and through event-related potentials (ERP). Participants with higher levels of anxiety developed a bias in recognition of arousing stimuli (positive and negative) compared with the control group. This bias was observed behaviorally through an increase of familiarity-based recognition, and was associated with a positive modulation of a right parietal late positive component (LPC) at approximately 600 ms of latency. Participants with higher levels of anxiety are capable of recognizing arousing stimuli but lack efficiency in retrieving past contextual information compared to lower level anxiety participants. A recognition bias can be the first step in cognitive distortions that generate anxiety. This is, to our knowledge, the first study to explore the association of anxiety with familiarity-based recognition, using an independent Remember/Know paradigm combined with electrophysiological data. Further studies with bigger samples and more recording channels are needed to confirm the electrophysiological findings.

Carbonic anhydrases (CAs, EC 4.2.1.1) are metalloenzymes which use CO2 as substrate, catalysing its interconversion to bicarbonate and a proton. In humans 15 CAs are expressed, 12 of which are catalytically active: the cytosolic CA I-III, VII, XIII, the membrane-bound CA IV, the mitochondrial CA VA and VB, the secreted CA VI, and the transmembrane CA IX, XII, XIV. Nine isoforms are present in the mammalian brain. Evidence supporting that CA inhibitors impair memory in humans has come from studies on topiramate and acetazolamide during acute high-altitude exposure. In contrast, administration of CA activators in animal models enhances memory and learning. Here we review the involvement of selective CA inhibition/activation in cognition-related disorders. CAs may represent a crucial family of new targets for improving cognition as well as in therapeutic areas, such as phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalised anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorders, for which few efficient therapies are available.

The subiculum is one of output structures of the hippocampal formation and plays a pivotal role in learning and memory. Because its morphological features are less investigated than those of the hippocampus proper, we explored the internal structure of the rat subiculum using immunohistochemistry. The septal subiculum comprised one region, whereas the temporal subiculum consisted of two subregions, the distal subiculum (Sub1) and proximal subiculum (Sub2). The Sub2 contained four layers: (1) molecular layer, (2) superficial cell layer containing three types of pyramidal neurons immunolabeled for either nitric oxide synthase, Purkinje cell protein 4 (PCP4), or calbindin, (3) middle cell layer where boutons labeled for zinc transporter 3 and those for vesicular glutamate transporter 2 accumulated in the proximal and distal part of the Sub2, respectively, and (4) deep cell layer containing PCP4-positive pyramidal cells, apical dendrites of which showed a characteristic bundling pattern. These features were not observed in either the Sub1 or septal subiculum. There were clear species differences between rats and mice in labeling patterns of pyramidal cells. Morphological differences along the septotemporal axis might be the basis of the functional diversity of the subiculum, such as spatial memory and emotional memory processed at different septotemporal levels.

There is clear and early noradrenergic dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease. This is likely secondary to pathological tau deposition in the locus coeruleus, the pontine nucleus that produces and releases noradrenaline, which occurs prior to involvement of cortical brain regions. Disruption of noradrenergic pathways affects cognition, especially attention, which impacts on memory and broader functioning in daily life. Additionally, it leads to the autonomic and neuropsychiatric symptoms that are frequently observed with disease progression.Despite the strong evidence of noradrenergic involvement in Alzheimer’s, there are no clear trial data supporting the clinical use of any noradrenergic treatments. Several approaches have been tried, including both proof-of-principle studies and randomised controlled trials, although most of the latter have been relatively small scale. Treatments have included drug therapies as well as stimulation modalities thought to modulate noradrenergic transmission. The lack of clear positive findings is likely secondary to limited capacity for gauging locus coeruleus integrity and noradrenergic dysfunction at an individual level. However, the recent development of several novel biomarkers holds potential and should allow quantification of dysfunction. This in turn may inform inclusion criteria and stratification for future trials. Imaging approaches in particular have improved greatly following the development of neuromelanin-sensitive sequences, enabling the use of structural MRI scans to estimate locus coeruleus integrity. Additionally, functional MRI and PET scanning have the potential to quantify network dysfunction. As well as neuroimaging, EEG and pupillometry techniques may prove useful in assessing noradrenergic tone and dynamic response to stimulation.Here we review the development of these biomarkers and discuss how they might augment clinical studies, particularly randomised trials, through stratification and identification of patients most likely to benefit from treatment. We outline the biomarkers with most potential, and how they hold promise as a means of transforming symptomatic therapy for people living with Alzheimer’s disease.

Intracranial recordings from the human amygdala and the hippocampus during an emotional memory encoding and discrimination task reveal increased awake sharp-wave/ripples (aSWR) after encoding of emotional compared to neutral stimuli. Further, post-encoding aSWR-locked memory reinstatement in the amygdala and the hippocampus was predictive of later memory discrimination. These findings provide electrophysiological evidence that post-encoding aSWRs enhance memory for emotional events.

A few years ago I was on holiday when I briefly got chatting with a fellow tourist — a kind police officer — by the pool, who had been and was still working his way through ‘burnout’, relating to his work. He had written a book about his experiences, which introduced me to what is known as ‘Locard’s Exchange Principle’1 and the fact that ‘every contact leaves a trace’. Although this principle is one of the founding concepts in forensics, in his book he related it to how every traumatic or emotionally difficult situation leaves a residue or emotional memory within you, no matter how small, and how this can build up, sometimes leading to burnout and other psychological consequences. ‘Locard’s Exchange Principle’ in forensic science holds that the perpetrator of a crime will bring something to the crime scene and will leave with something from it;1 it was originally devised by the …

Background Numerous studies have shown that older adults have positive emotional bias. However, how sleep characteristics such as sleep continuity moderate this emotional bias in older adults is less understood. Objectives The present study aimed to determine whether positive emotional memory bias is associated with sleep continuity in older adults. Methods We recruited 92 community-dwelling older adults for a cross-sectional study. Participants underwent 1 week of objective actigraphic sleep monitoring and completed a visuospatial associative memory task at baseline and 1 week later. Results Older adults exhibited better memory performance for positive pictures than for neutral and negative pictures at baseline, and this positive emotional bias was maintained for at least 1 week. Crucially, this effect was moderated by sleep continuity: Older adults with shorter wake after sleep onset times (WASO) exhibited this positive bias, whereas those with longer WASO did not. Discussion The present results are the first to demonstrate that positive emotional bias is moderated by sleep continuity in older adults. These findings have implications for emotion regulation in older adults and highlight the need for targeted interventions to increase their sleep continuity, which may help to improve emotional processing in this population.

Entretien avec Shonni Enelow, auteur de Method Acting And Its Discontents. L’echange fut conduit via Zoom, mels et Google Chat de septembre and octobre of 2021.

Spatiotemporal context is an intrinsic aspect of episodic memory. Although a large literature has demonstrated that emotion enhances episodic memory, less research has considered whether and how emotion affects memory for the timing of an experience, despite theoretical and practical importance. In this review, we bridge three heavily researched cognitive domains - memory, emotion, and time - by discussing findings from a burgeoning literature on their intersection. We identify and review two broad ways in which memory for time has been conceptualised in the emotional memory literature, namely (1) memory for relative aspects of event timing ("when" an event detail occurred), which includes studies of temporal-order and source memory; and (2) memory for the time that elapsed during an event ("how long"), which includes studies of retrospective duration estimation. Emerging trends demonstrate that although temporal-order memory can be impaired or enhanced by emotion depending on study demands, temporal source memory, instead, is usually enhanced. Studies of duration memory show that the remembered duration of negative experiences is dilated, but it is less clear how duration memory is affected for positive events. These findings are considered under the lens of broader emotional memory literature theories, and directions for future research are proposed.

Receiver-operating characteristic curves from confidence ratings and remember/know (R/K) judgments are often used to estimate the contribution of familiarity and recollection to recognition memory. Both coming with specific advantages and disadvantages, which could be reduced by their combination. Little is known how the combination of both methods impacts response behaviour. This could be particularly important for emotional memory research, which is susceptible to variation in meta-mnemonic processes. We obtained reference performance indices from the two methods, instructing individuals to give confidence ratings or R/K judgments in one step. Against these, we contrasted R/K judgments in a two-step format and two combined formats, confidence ratings followed by R/K judgments and vice versa. Regarding reference formats, confidence ratings resulted in more liberal response criteria and false alarm rates than R/K judgments. Two-step R/K judgments and confidence ratings followed by R/K judgments resulted in patterns similar to one-step R/K judgments. Reversing the order resulted in more liberal response biases, higher hit and false alarms rates. Recollection and familiarity were unaffected by response formats. Valence effects did not vary with response formats. The present results suggest that confidence ratings followed by R/K judgments provide the advantages of both without biasing response behaviour.

The ability to generate humor gives rise to positive emotions and thus facilitate the successful resolution of adversity. Although there is consensus that inhibitory processes might be related to broaden the way of thinking, the neural underpinnings of these mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, we use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, a humorous alternative uses task and a stroop task, to investigate the brain mechanisms underlying the emergence of humorous ideas in 24 subjects. Neuroimaging results indicate that greater cognitive control abilities are associated with increased activation in the amygdala, the hippocampus and the superior and medial frontal gyrus during the generation of humorous ideas. Examining the neural mechanisms more closely shows that the hypoactivation of frontal brain regions is associated with an hyperactivation in the amygdala and vice versa. This antagonistic connectivity is concurrently linked with an increased number of humorous ideas and enhanced amygdala responses during the task. Our data therefore suggests that a neural antagonism previously related to the emergence and regulation of negative affective responses, is linked with the generation of emotionally positive ideas and may represent an important neural pathway supporting mental health.

Protein kinase Mζ (PKMζ) maintains long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term memory through persistent increases in kinase expression. Early-life adversity is a precursor to adult mood and anxiety disorders, in part, through persistent disruption of emotional memory throughout life. Here we subjected 10- to 16-wk-old male bonnet macaques to adversity by a maternal variable-foraging demand paradigm. We then examined PKMζ expression in their ventral hippocampi as 7- to 12-yr-old adults. Quantitative immunohistochemistry reveals decreased PKMζ in dentate gyrus, CA1, and subiculum of subjects who had experienced early-life adversity due to the unpredictability of maternal care. Adult animals with persistent decrements of PKMζ in ventral hippocampus express timid rather than confrontational responses to a human intruder. Persistent down-regulation of PKMζ in the ventral hippocampus might reduce the capacity for emotional memory maintenance and contribute to the long-lasting emotional effects of early-life adversity.

Emulating the biological behavior of the human brain with artificial neuromorphic devices is essential for the future development of human-machine interactive systems, bionic sensing systems and intelligent robotic systems. In this paper, artificial flexible transparent carbon nanotube synaptic transistors (F-CNT-STs) with signal transmission and emotional learning functions are realized by adopting the poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/SiO2 proton-conducting electrolyte. Synaptic functions of biological synapses including excitatory and inhibitory behaviors are successfully emulated in the F-CNT-STs. Besides, synaptic plasticity such as spike-duration-dependent plasticity, spike-number-dependent plasticity, spike-amplitude-dependent plasticity, paired-pulse facilitation, short-term plasticity, and long-term plasticity have all been systematically characterized. Moreover, the F-CNT-STs also closely imitate the behavior of human brain learning and emotional memory functions. After 1000 bending cycles at a radius of 3 mm, both the transistor characteristics and the synaptic functions can still be implemented correctly, showing outstanding mechanical capability. The realized F-CNT-STs possess low operating voltage, quick response, and ultra-low power consumption, indicating their high potential to work in low-power biological systems and artificial intelligence systems. The flexible artificial synaptic transistor enables its potential to be generally applicable to various flexible wearable biological and intelligent applications.

The causal influence of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in voluntary forgetting remains unclear. Here, we employed repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the right DLPFC to temporarily disrupt function of this brain region and examined its influence on an item-method directed forgetting (DF) task with both neutral and negative emotional memories. Participants were assigned to either an active or a sham rTMS group, in which we administered stimulation for 20 min before the DF task. We then examined the explicit and implicit DF effects with an explicit recognition and an implicit word completion test. We found that while participants in the sham group showed the classic DF effects in both explicit and implicit memory tests, temporally disrupting activity of the right DLPFC selectively reduced the DF effect on explicit recognition, but not on implicit word completion test. Our findings provide novel evidence that the right DLPFC plays a causal role in voluntary forgetting and support the direct inhibition account of voluntary memory control. Intriguingly, preserved implicit DF effects in the active stimulation group suggest that unintentional expressions of unwanted memories may be more sensitive to DF and less dependent on the right DLPFC.

Emotionally arousing stimuli are usually better remembered than neutral ones. This effect can be observed immediately after encoding and becomes more robust after a period of consolidation. The magnitude of this effect in an individual has been treated in various research contexts implicitly as reliable and temporally stable. However, we recently observed in 69 participants that an individual's memory advantage for negative over neutral stimuli, whether immediate or delayed, was very weakly correlated with the advantage measured after 3.5 years, albeit with slightly different memory paradigms. In the current study, we tested whether the test-retest reliability of these emotional memory effects might be larger if the temporal lapse between tests was shorter (10 weeks) and more similar memory tests were used. We observed that the better memory for emotional stimuli is highly replicable on the group level. However, the retest reliability on the individual level was very low. We replicated these findings by re-analysing data from a previous study where female participants took emotional memory tests at two different points of their menstrual cycle. We conclude, therefore, that the individual emotional enhancement of memory is not stable or that it cannot be measured reliably with the standard emotional memory paradigm.

Relative to neutral memories, negative and positive memories both exhibit an increase in memory longevity, subjective memory re-experiencing, and amygdala activation. These memory enhancements are often attributed to shared influences of arousal on memory. Yet prior work suggests the intriguing possibility that arousal affects memory networks in valence-specific ways. Psychophysics work has shown that arousal-related heart rate deceleration (HRD) responses are related to enhanced amygdala-visual functional connectivity (AVFC) and visual perception of negative stimuli. However, in the memory realm, it is not known if the effect of AVFC influences subsequent negative memory outcomes as a function of the magnitude of physiological arousal during encoding. Using psycho-autonomic interaction (PAI) analyses and trial-level measures of heart rate deceleration (HRD) as an objective measure of arousal during encoding of emotional stimuli, our findings suggest the magnitude of the HRD modulates the effect of AVFC on subsequent negative memory vividness. Specifically, AVFC effects in early visual regions predicted negative memory vividness, not neutral or positive vividness, but only in the presence of heightened physiological arousal. This novel approach was grounded in a replication of prior working showing enhanced HRD effects in the insula for negative stimuli. These findings demonstrate that the effect of arousal on emotional memory networks depends on valence and provide further evidence that negative valence may enhance the incorporation of visuo-sensory regions into emotional memory networks.

Recent research suggests oral contraceptive use is associated with altered memory for emotional story information, blunted stress hormone responses to emotional stimuli, and altered structure or function of the amygdala and hippocampus. This study examined the extent to which oral contraceptives influence relative recall of (a) the spatial location of emotional versus neutral stimuli and (b) positive versus negative emotional stimuli. Participants (58 oral contraceptive users, 40 nonusers, and 37 men) completed an Emotional Spatial Memory test and were evaluated on short-term recall and long-term (one week) recall. There was no evidence for group differences in recall of the locations of emotional versus neutral stimuli. However, oral contraceptive users remembered relatively more positive than negative items compared with nonusers and men on the spatial memory test. This effect was driven by oral contraceptive users recalling fewer negative items than free cyclers. The results indicate that hormonal contraceptives may decrease immediate recall of negative emotional stimuli.

Frequently, emotion is associated with enhancements in memory as long as arousal is not too extreme. Negative valence can also lead to increased false memories. Yet less is known about specific memory processes that drive these effects of emotional content on memory performance. The present study uses conjoint recognition analyses to investigate the memory processes associated with memory for negative and positive pictorial stimuli. Participants studied pictures, which had been rated as negative-arousing, positive-arousing, or neutral-non-arousing, before completing a recognition memory test 48 hr later. Contrary to initial expectations based on process-based estimates of emotional words, gist-based processing did not lead to high levels of true memory for negative pictures, nor were negative pictures associated with compellingly real false memories. Instead, negative pictures were recognized more frequently than neutral pictures, and this effect was related to increased verbatim-based identity judgments. However, emotional memory enhancements were not observed for positive pictures. These results indicate that emotional memory enhancements for negative pictures are related to enhanced verbatim processing of emotional material. When false memories did occur for negative pictures, they were because of gist-based similarity judgments as predicted by prior process-based estimates of false memory for negative-arousing words or pictures. Such results are discussed in terms of eyewitness memory and the processes underlying such remembering, because in many criminal and forensically relevant situations, witnesses, who are often victims as well, are asked to recognize the perpetrator or other arousing aspects of an event. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Perception of emotional valence and emotional memory performance vary across the menstrual cycle. However, the consequences of altered ovarian hormone levels due to the intake of hormonal contraceptives on these emotional and cognitive processes remain to be established. In the present study, which included 2169 healthy young females, we show that hormonal contraceptives (HC) users rated emotional pictures as more emotional than HC-non-users and outperformed non-users in terms of better memory recall of emotional pictures. The observed association between HC-status and memory performance was partially mediated by the perception of emotional picture valence, indicating that increased valence ratings of emotional pictures in HC-users led to their better emotional memory performance. These findings extend the knowledge about the relation of HC-intake with emotional valence perception and emotional memory performance. Further, the findings might stimulate further research investigating the interrelation of enhanced memory for emotional events and the increased risk for anxiety-related psychiatric disorders in women. peerReviewed

This article seeks to understand the collective victimhood of the Hindus, a majority group in India, relative to the feelings of collective victimhood of the Muslim minority. It studies the role that is played by feelings of collective victimhood (CV) along with ingroup identity, fraternalistic relative deprivation (FRD), intergroup emotions and relative power in responding to intergroup conflict situations. The results showed that Hindus reported collective victimhood in greater amount compared to Muslims. Muslims felt more FRD than Hindus. Hindus also carried more negative emotions as a consequence of experiencing collective victimhood. The preferred reaction of Hindus in conflict situations was of revenge and less of reconciliation. Collective victimhood of Hindus was explained by ingroup identity and negative emotions associated with the experiences of collective victimhood and fraternalistic relative deprivation. The action of revenge of Hindus and Muslims was explained by different sets of factors. Identity and CV-related negative emotions were more important in explaining the revengeful reactions of Hindus, while in the case of Muslims relative power, FRD and FRD-related negative emotions were found more efficacious. Results are explained in the context of current Hindu–Muslim relations in India.

How and where sensory stimuli, such as tones or lights, are linked to valence is an important unresolved question in the field of neuroscience. The auditory cortex is essential to analyse the identity and the behavioural importance of tones paired with emotional events. On the contrary, whether the auditory cortex may also encode information on the emotional-motivational valence of sounds is much more controversial. Here, we reviewed recent studies showing that the activity of cortical neurons reflects information about the content of emotional stimuli paired with tones. Critically, the blockade of these neuronal processes prevents animals from recognising sounds as aversive or pleasant. Based on these findings, we proposed a conceptual model in which the auditory cortex may incorporate ascending information from subcortical nuclei about the valence of sounds in sound representations and may consequently drive the activity of subcortical structures towards emotionally laden tones. This hypothesis may also have important implications in the characterisation of neural circuits engaged by maladaptive affective disorders, such as phobias.

Emotion typically enhances memory. This "canonical" emotional memory enhancement (EME) effect has been extensively studied in adults, but its developmental trajectory is unclear. The handful of developmental studies that have manipulated emotion at encoding and then tested subsequent memory have yielded mixed results. To identify whether development change in EME occurs across middle childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, we examined EME in 206 8- to 30-year-olds, using the same stimuli, paradigm, and analyses for all participants. At encoding, participants saw negative, neutral, and positive pictures while completing an incidental task. Two weeks later, participants completed a recognition memory test. We calculated negative-neutral and positive-neutral memory difference scores for each participant and then tested whether EME was predicted by age or gender. Negative pictures were remembered better than neutral pictures; the magnitude of this difference diminished in older male participants but not in older female ones. Positive pictures were also remembered better than neutral pictures, but this EME effect was small and did not change significantly with age or by gender. We also examined whether subjective ratings of stimulus emotion changed with age or between genders, and we report small differences. These results suggest that emotion effects on recognition memory are apparent by middle childhood and remain consistent across adolescence and early adulthood for girls and women, whereas emotion elicitation and EME effects diminish slightly with age for boys and men. These findings enrich both the EME literature specifically and what is known about emotion-cognition interactions across middle childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood more generally.

Background Extensive empirical evidence indicates that sleep plays an active role in memory consolidation. Moreover, sleep has been found to preferentially enhance emotional memories and may modulate affective reactions to previously encountered stimuli. Notably, recent findings suggest that disruptions of sleep-related memory processing could be involved in posttraumatic symptom development such that sleep disturbances may accelerate symptoms of intrusive re-experiencing. Methods Based on this emerging evidence, we investigated whether an analogue traumatic event would result in immediate impairments of sleep quality in a group of healthy, robust sleepers. In addition, we examined associations between a specific oscillatory correlate of emotional memory consolidation processes (REM theta activity) and subsequent analogue PTSD symptoms. Thirty-three healthy participants entered the study and were exposed to either “traumatic” or neutral films. Thereafter, participants were subjected to an 8.5-hour-long nocturnal sleep opportunity under standardized laboratory conditions including full-night polysomnographic recordings. Ambulatory intrusive memories and subjective symptom ratings were assessed during a period of three consecutive days. Results and conclusions Our results provide partial support for impaired sleep quality after exposure to a traumatic film. Correlation analyses further reveal that a longer REM sleep duration after “traumatic” exposure predicts reduced analogue PTSD symptoms. Critically, REM theta activity selectively predicts lower re-experiencing symptoms. As previous findings suggest that REM theta activity is reduced in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder, our findings provide a new perspective on the functional role of REM sleep in trauma memory processing.

Emotional memory may be modulated by BDNF Val66Met and 5-HTTLPR polymorphisms. However, the influence of these genetic variants on the overnight retention of emotional memories has not been investigated in humans. Thirty-six healthy female students were selected to participate in this study based on 5-HTTLPR genotype status (L’/L’, L’/S’, S’/S’). Participants were also genotyped for BDNF Val66Met (Val/Val, Met carriers). We measured recognition performance for positive, neutral and negative images before and after overnight sleep. We found a significant interaction between BDNF Val66Met genotype group and image valence on post-sleep recognition performance. This interaction was driven by greater memory for negative and positive images, relative to neutral images, in Met carriers. We also found that longer Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep duration predicted greater post-sleep recognition performance for negative images in Met carriers, but not in Val homozygotes. We observed no influence of 5-HTTLPR polymorphisms on post- sleep recognition performance for positive, neutral or negative images. Our findings support a modulatory role for BDNF Val66Met in overnight emotional memory retention in females. We discuss the implications of this finding for understanding the influence of BDNF Val66Met on depression vulnerability.

The hypothalamus may be viewed as the central piece of the survival circuits and is responsible for organizing endocrine, autonomic and behavioral responses to guarantee the survival of both the individual and the species. The hypothalamus is largely known to control the three basic classes of behavior required for animal survival, namely, ingestive, defensive, and reproductive behaviors. Over the years, a great deal has been learned regarding the hypothalamic circuits organizing these classes of behavior. In this review, we will focus on hypothalamic circuits involved in organizing anti-predatory and social defenses, noting putative interactions with other hypothalamic systems that mediate metabolic control and social responses, and exploring how the hypothalamic defensive circuits may influence emotional memory linked to predatory and social threats.