Neural activity associated with episodic memory for emotional context
Open accessAbstract
To address the question of which brain regions subserve retrieval of emotionally-valenced memories, we used event-related fMRI to index neural activity during the incidental retrieval of emotional and non-emotional contextual information. At study, emotionally neutral words were presented in the context of sentences that were either negatively, neutrally or positively valenced. At test, fMRI data were obtained while participants discriminated between studied and unstudied words. Recognition of words presented in emotionally negative relative to emotionally neutral contexts was associated with enhanced activity in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, left amygdala and hippocampus, right lingual gyrus and posterior cingulate cortex. Recognition of words from positive relative to neutral contexts was associated with increased activity in bilateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices, and left anterior temporal lobe. These findings suggest that neural activity mediating episodic retrieval of contextual information and its subsequent processing is modulated by emotion in at least two ways. First, there is enhancement of activity in networks supporting episodic retrieval of neutral information. Second, regions known to be activated when emotional information is encountered in the environment are also active when emotional information is retrieved from memory.
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Conjoint activation of the hippocampus and amygdala under arousing conditions is a critical component of emotional memory storage and retrieval processes.
“neuroimaging studies have provided strong support for the idea that the conjoint activation of the hippocampus and amygdala under arousing counditions is a critical component of emotional memory storage and retrieval processes (Maratos et al. [191]; Dolcos et al. [192]; Dolcos et al. [193]).”
From The Temporal Dynamics Model of Emotional Memory Processing: A Synthesis on the Neurobiological Basis of Stress-Induced Amnesia, Flashbulb and Traumatic Memories, and the Yerkes-Dodson Law (2007) · cites this paper as Maratos et al. [191]
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- Authors
- Maratos, E. J., Dolan, R. J., Morris, J. S., Henson, R. N. A., & Rugg, M. D.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- The Royal Free Hospital (GB)
- UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Rugg, M.D
- Venue
- Neuropsychologia
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2001-01
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 910-920
- ISSN
- 0028-3932 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1983511603
- Cited by
- 306
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 14
- FWCI
- 7.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- Locations
- Neuropsychologia (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- episodic memory, emotional context, emotional valence, memory retrieval, incidental learning, recognition memory, amygdala, hippocampus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, anterior temporal lobe, posterior cingulate cortex, lingual gyrus, emotional words
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Amygdala, Emotions, Evoked Potentials, Female, Hippocampus, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Memory, Temporal Lobe, Prefrontal Cortex
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