Two routes to emotional memory: Distinct neural processes for valence and arousal

“However, there is also evidence of valence-related differences in these effects (Kensinger and Corkin 2004; Mickley Steinmetz and Kensinger 2009; Mickley Steinmetz et al. 2010; Ritchey et al. 2011).”

“The “subsequent memory effect” suggests that activity at encoding in left prefrontal and bilateral middle temporal regions can predict later successful memory recall (44, 45).”

“Valence refers to the pleasant-to-unpleasant quality (hedonic tone) and arousal to the low-to-high degree of excitement of affective experience (Barrett and Russell, 1999; Kensinger and Corkin, 2004).”

“BA 40 is activated by the emotional salience of words [Kensinger and Corkin, 2004], working memory processing of emotional content [Rämä et al., 2001], and visual attention [for review, see Culham and Kanwisher, 2001].”

“This is consistent with the work of [42] who found that distinct neural processes are involved in emotional memory formation for arousing versus valenced, non-arousing stimuli.”

“(reviewed by Phelps, 2004), often focusing on the correlations or co-activations between the amygdala and the hippocampus during the formation or retrieval of an emotional memory (e.g., Dolcos et al., 2004; Kensinger and Corkin, 2004).”

“Emotional arousal can sometimes enhance memory for central and peripheral details of emotional episodes (Dolan, 2002; Hamann, 2001; Kensinger & Corkin, 2003a, 2004; Kensinger et al., 2006; Mather & Nesmith, 2008; Sharot & Phelps, 2004).”

“Nevertheless, information with negative valence, even if non-arousing, is better remembered than neutral information (eg, Kensinger & Corkin, 2004a , 2004b ).”

“The enhancement of emotional memories is linked to states of psychophysiological arousal (Cahill & McGaugh, 1998) and mediated by dedicated neural (amygdalar monoaminergic) mechanisms within the brain (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; McGaugh, Cahill, & Roozendaal, 1996; Yonelinas & Ritchey, 2015).”

“…the beneficial influence of emotion on the initial encoding of a memory trace (Canli, Zhao, Brewer, Gabrieli, & Cahill, 2000; Dolcos et al., 2004a; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004) and its consolidation, or strengthening, over time (Hamann, Ely, Grafton, & Kilts, 1999; Kleinsmith & Kaplan, 1963; LaBar &…”

“Consistent with prior work (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004), small ROIs were used due to the circumscribed nature of amygdalar and hippocampal anatomy.”

“complex is critically involved in emotional memory (Kensinger and Corkin 2004; McGaugh 2004).”

“Independent contributions of valence and arousal to affective processing have been found in imaging studies using PET (Lane et al., 1999) and fMRI (Anders et al., 2004; Kensinger and Corkin, 2004; Mourao-Miranda et al., 2003).”

“Memory enhancement for arousing emotional information also seems more automatic than it is for non-arousing information (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“, 2004) and for emotional memory for non-arousing information (Kensinger and Corkin, 2004).”

“Like above, valence directly associates with emotional relevance of an event in the memory [84].”

“However, in studies examining the evaluation of valence, more cortical, attentional structures are observed (Kensinger, 2004; Kensinger and Corkin, 2004).”

“…of attention-related alpha-band suppression in the evaluation of stimuli with different emotional valence and also with different predicting values of aversive/appetitive outcomes in the context of associative learning and other types of memory (Kensinger and Corkin, 2004; Costanzi et al., 2019).”

“…than those that are less arousing (e.g., Berntsen & Rubin, 2004; Bradley, Greenwald, Petry, & Lang, 1992; Brown & Kulik, 1977; Kensinger, 2004; Kensinger & Corkin 2003, 2004; Madan, Caplan, Lau, & Fujiwara, 2012; Madan, Glaholt, & Caplan, 2010; Mather & Sutherland, 2011; Öhman, Flykt, &…”

“…the growing literatures demonstrating valence effects in both emotion (Bowen et al., in press; Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005; Gasper & Clore, 2002; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Taylor, 1991; Xie & Zhang, 2016) and reward (Jensen et al., 2007; Kahneman & Tversky, 1984; Lejarraga & Hertwig, 2016; Litt…”

“Likewise, other factors that can influence emotional recall such as length of memory delay (Sharot and Yonelinas, 2008) and attentional resources available during encoding (Kensinger and Corkin, 2004) should be taken into account in future study designs.”

“Because both arousal and valence are known to increase activation in limbic regions (e.g. amygdala) and influence memory (e.g. Kensinger and Corkin, 2004 ), further work is needed to tackle this issue.”

“Employing functional MRI (fMRI) and behavioral studies, Kensinger and Corkin (2004) concluded that memory enhancement for arousing information occurs automatically gy, Erasmus University Ro .”

“This pattern of the emotional subsequent memory effect is highly consistent with previous PET and fMRI studies (Cahill et al. 1996; Canli et al. 2000; Kilpatrick and Cahill 2003; Dolcos et al. 2004a,b; Kensinger and Corkin 2004; Richardson et al. 2004; Kensinger and Schacter 2005, 2006; Dougal et al. 2007; Talmi et al…”

“Ultimately, our understanding of the complex relationships among task difficulty, arousal and memory will be substantiated by studying the activation or inhibition of different brain memory systems by different levels of task difficulty and arousal (Barch et al., 1997; Arnsten, 1998; Diamond et al., 2001; Braver et al…”

“Several previous studies have indicated that arousal and valence may be processed by different neural systems (Kensinger and Corkin, 2004; Lewis et al., 2007; Mourão-Miranda et al., 2003); however their effects are difficult to dissociate experimentally as they tend to covary, especially in the case of negative stimul…”

“Consequently, when valenced items are experienced that are not arousing, then prefrontal cortical areas are more activated as compared with neutral materials that lack a valenced component (e.g., Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“For instance, a number of studies demonstrated that the posterior HC is active during spatial memory tasks, while the anterior HC is engaged if a memory task contains emotional information (Bannerman et al., 2004; Dolcos et al., 2004; Kensinger and Corkin, 2004; Kensinger, 2009; Strange et al., 2014; Poppenk and Mosco…”

“Enhanced activation of the left hippocampus is in line with our previous findings on taste metaphors (10); its activation is usually associated with encoding and retrieval of emotional memories (23, 68, 69) and has also been reported in response to emotion words during lexical access (70).”

“Furthermore, it is also suggested that arousal and valence may work in distinct neural pathways to mediate the enhancing effect of emotion on memory formation (Kensinger, 2004; Kensinger and Corkin, 2004).”

“The emotional valence of a visual stimulus (positive or negative vs. neutral) and the physiological arousal elicited by a stimulus (strong vs. weak) can also increase memory for information (Dolcos et al. 2004; Kensinger & Corkin 2004; see Hamann 2001 and Kensinger 2009 for reviews).”

“…later recollection when semantically encoded study items were fully attended (e.g., Brassen, Weber-Fahr, Sommer, Lehmbeck, & Braus, 2006; Staresina & Davachi, 2006; Uncapher, Otten, & Rugg, 2006; Uncapher & Rugg, 2005b; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Ranganath et al., 2004; Otten, Henson, & Rugg, 2001).”

“Amygdala activation during memory encoding modulates the memory’s explicit subsequent strength 23 , evaluated through its persistence, accuracy and vividness 24 .”

“…exist: an amygdala-hippocampal network which is associated with enhancement for arousing stimuli and a prefrontal cortex-hippocampal network which enhances memory for non-arousing, but valenced stimuli (Kensinger and Corkin, 2004; Labar and Cabeza, 2006; Mickley Steinmetz and Kensinger, 2009).”

“In particular, the amygdala, which processes motional arousal (Kensinger and Corkin, 2004), is implicated in remembering’ but not in ‘knowing’ emotional stimuli (Sharot et al.”

“…in initial emotion processing and memory, it remains unclear what the exact relationship between the immediate and long-term effects is, and how this relationship may change as a function of manipulations at perception favoring the engagement of either more automatic or mediated mechanisms.”

“…control and regulation of both positive and negative emotions, while emotionally arousing memory is mediated by an amygdala-based neural substrate (for discussions see Bechara et al., 2000; Dolcos et al., 2004; Hurlemann et al., 2005; Kensinger and Corkin, 2004; Rolls, 2000; Piefke et al., 2003).”

“The emotional memory is tagged with ‘arousal’ and ‘valence’ [14] tags analogous to the Emotional Tagging concept [15], which recorded the guide’s emotional states for an event.”

“…(Dolcos et al., 2004; Murty, Ritchey, Adcock, & LaBar, 2010), but other studies have shown emotion-related decreases (Horner, Hørlyck, & Burgess, 2016) or no change (Hamann, Ely, Grafton, & Kilts, 1999; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Kensinger & Schacter, 2006) in hippocampal encoding activity.”

“For example, Kensinger and colleagues (e.g., Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Kensinger & Schacter, 2007) have explored negative emotion extensively by comparing negative, arousing stimuli to neutral stimuli, demonstrating greater true memory for negative, arousing items compared with neutral items.”

“It has been demonstrated that people process emotional information differently from neutral information (Bradley & Baddeley, 1990; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004), with emotional items typically receiving a benefit in memory.”

“Memory for arousing items may rely on a neural network involving the amygdala and the hippocampus, whilst memory for valenced information may be supported by a prefrontal-hippocampal network [7].”

“First, given that swear words observed in isolation can increase arousal (Kensinger and Corkin 2004) and that arousal can affect product preferences (Di Muro and Murray 2012), these effects may be driven by readers’ arousal.”

“(Burke, Heuer, & Reisberg, 1992; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Valentin, Dickinson, & O’Doherty, 2007) Also associated with the development of a reward system and goal representation are motives, or psychological adaptations for achieving particular kinds of goals.”

“It has been shown that emotional and cognitive details may enhance attentional mechanisms when events occur and hence facilitate their automatic encoding (Kensinger and Corkin, 2004).”

“Given that both valence and arousal could influence false memories (Corson & Verrier, 2007; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004), in order to examine the effect of valence per se (i.e. happy or sad), it is important to hold arousal constant.”

“This provides support for the hypothesis that prefrontal structures are particularly important during the processing of valence [41,43,44,46] early in the processing stream [13].”

“Kensinger and Corkin (2004) found that another region of the frontal lobes interacts with the hippocampus to boost memory for less-arousing emotional stimuli and that this effect bypasses the amygdala.”

“, taboo versus neutral words or images of carnage (Bush and Geer, 2001; Kensinger and Corkin, 2004; Kensinger and Schacter, 2006; Mackay and Ahmetzanov, 2005).”

“Furthermore, the emotional mechanisms responsible for this advantage remain unknown, the major debate centering on the importance of the affective dimensions of valence versus arousal (e.g., Kensinger, 2009; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; LaBar & Cabeza, 2006; McGaugh, 2000).”

“In particular, studies manipulating both arousal and valence suggest that the two dimensions have varying neural correlates and rely on different mental processes (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“Indeed previous research has shown that positive and negative stimuli have differential effects on the breadth of attention selectivity (e.g., Schmitz et al., 2009) and encoding processes (e.g., Kensinger and Corkin, 2004).”

“…cortex for successful recall and the amygdala for successful recognition suggest that emotional processes may contribute to accurate and successful memory formation for younger adults (Dolcos et al., 2004; Kensinger and Corkin, 2004; Murty et al., 2010), but not for older adults in this task.”

“…emotional relevance are more likely to be processed in the presence of competing distracters than non-emotional items (Öhman et al., 2001), and studies report that emotional memory enhancement is stronger when attentional resources are restricted (Kensinger and Corkin, 2004; Talmi et al., 2007).”

“These substances act, at least in part, by influencing amygdala function, which then modulates the memory consolidation processes (Adolphs, Tranel, & Buchanan, 2005; Canli, Zhao, Brewer, Gabrieli, & Cahill, 2000; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; McGaugh, 2004).”

“Van Lancker (1987) and others use the term nonpropositional to refer to reflexive or automatic speech, or ictal speech, which are highly overlearned and conventionalized (e.g., greetings, clichés, epithets, and exclamations).”

“Recent human imaging studies show that the LPFC appears to be an important region for integrating motivation with cognitive operations such as working memory (Gray et al., 2002; Perlstein et al., 2002; Pochon et al., 2002; Kensinger and Corkin, 2004).”

“Arousing information is processed by an amygdala – hippocampus circuit, while valenced non-arousing information is processed by a PFC-hippocampus circuit, indicating two separate routes for arousal and valence (Kensinger and Corkin, 2004).”

“Activation of the amygdala is correlated with subsequent memory for emotionally arousing stimuli, independent of their valence (positive or negative) (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“In a recent behavioral study by Kensinger and Corkin (2004) , half of the participants were asked to view a series emotional arousal and memory 87”

“The crucial role of arousal in EEM has been widely accepted in the literature on adult populations (Kensinger and Corkin 2004; Kensinger and Schacter 1 3 2016).”

“Emotional or affective experiences can be described along the axes of two dimensions: valence and arousal (Kensinger, 2004).”

“This view is in line with the prevailing concept that BLA-dependent arousal signals transmitted to anterior hippocampus render it susceptible to valence input from specific prefrontal cortex (PFC) subregions (Dolcos et al. 2004; Kensinger 2004; Kensinger and Corkin 2004).”

“Behavioral data using negative words by Kensinger and Corkin (2004) supported this associative pattern.”

“…semantic elaboration, and autobiographical association rather than from automatic orienting or prioritised consolidation (discussed by Anderson, Wais, & Gabrieli, 2006; Buchanan, Etzel, Adolphs, & Tranel, 2006; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Koenig & Mecklinger, 2008; Talmi & Moscovitch, 2004).”

“This is not surprising as emotionally arousing information tends to be moved into memory relatively automatically (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004) and has been shown to contribute to greater memory enhancement than emotional valence (Szőllősi & Racsmány, 2020).”

“…is associated with previously established autobiographical memories, whereas semantic elaboration refers to the association of newly encoded information to semantically related memories (Kensinger, 2004; Macrae, Moran, Heatherton, Banfield, & Kelley, 2004; Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977).”

“long-term interactions with a virtual agent, it appears to be necessary to consider an autobiographical memory [23] and an emotional memory [25].”