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

“Several studies conducted in laboratory settings have shown that both positive and negative emotional stimuli are remembered better and more vividly than non-emotional stimuli (i.e., neutral stimuli; Kensinger, 2004; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Palumbo et al., 2023).”

“47,48 They play important roles in emotionally neutral neurocognitive performance.”

“Therefore, one potential difficulty in interpretation of the present findings is that valence effects cannot be distinguished from arousal effects, even though prior studies suggest that these might rely on distinct neural process (e.g., Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“1999) and arousal are considered reliable dimensions by which to quantify emotional reactions (Barrett 1998; Kensinger and Corkin 2004).”

“Preferential encoding of emotional stimuli results immediately in enhanced memory and is based on their tendency to attract greater attention, resulting in deeper processing (Kensinger and Corkin 2004; Kang et al. 2014).”

“Most studies to date have manipulated emotion or arousal before or during learning (e.g., Buchanan & Lovallo, 2001; Corson & Verrier, 2007; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Mather et al., 2006; Storbeck & Clore, 2005; Van Damme, 2013).”

“Further, the results in the present experiments are consistent with the findings reported by other researchers (Clark-Foos & Marsh, 2008; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Kern et al., 2005).”

“Emotional stimuli have the capacity to alter both attention and memory (Anderson, 2005; LaBar and Cabeza, 2006) and typically enhance declarative memory and MTL activation (Dolcos et al., 2004, 2005; Kensinger and Corkin, 2004).”

“Previous studies have shown that EEM occurs over both short (several minutes) (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Sergerie, Lepage, & Armony, 2006) and long (one day to weeks) time periods (Adolphs, Tranel, & Denburg, 2000; Cahill et al., 2004; Canli, Zhao, Brewer, Gabrieli, & Cahill, 2000), corresponding…”

“The strong emotionality of taboo words may derive from their high arousal level (e.g. Jay, 2000; Kensinger & Corkin, 2003, 2004).”

“In addition, Kensinger and Corkin (2004) revealed that the effect of arousing negative stimuli was mediated by the activation of automatic brain networks, such that the processing of nonarousing negative stimuli was supported by a controlled encoding process.”

“In contrast, the effect of arousal on word processing and memory performance was found to be either mixed or less consequential (e.g., Adel-man & Estes, 2013; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Kousta et al., 2009; Vinson et al., 2014).”

“…음악(Gomez & Danuser, 2004; Kim et al., 2017; Kim & Wedell, 2016), 비디오 및 영화(Botien, 1998; Gomez et al., 2005; Kim et al., 2017), 안내 이미지/기억 회상(Chanel et al., 2007; Gomes et al., 2013; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004), 얼굴 (Kim, 2021) 등 일반적인 정서관련 자극은 많은 과학적 연구가 진행된 반면, 아직 국내에는 ASMR에 대한 행 동, 생리, 뇌 영상 등의…”

“One possibility is that when full cognitive resources are less available, such as under divided attention, the main neural pathway supporting the EEM is the more automatic route, the amygdalar-hippocampal route (Dolcos et al., 2004a; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; for review, Kensinger & Schacter, 2008).”

“Thus we were not able to distinguish attentional mechanisms at encoding from post-encoding consolidation processes [67,93,94].”

“The arousal response is related to activity of the autonomic nervous system (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004), and may be promptly driven by the stimulus and environment (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“Kensinger and Corkin (2004) found that while memory for high-arousal information depended on the amygdala, memory for moderately arousing information depended on the prefrontal cortex.”

“We speculate that the upregulation of control in schizophrenia was due to the special activation of limbic structures [28, 53], which effectively link inputs with the dorsolateral PFC [16, 35, 78, 86].”

“5-HT: 5-hydroxytrypatamine; ACTH: Adrenocorticotrophic hormone; ADD: Antiglucocorticoid augmentation of anti-depressants in depression; ANT: Attentional Network Test; BDI: Beck Depressive Inventory; BDNF: Brain derived neurotropic factor; CAR: Cortisol awakening response; CAS: Clinical Anxiety Scale; CRF: Corticotroph…”

“…palavras como estímulos, têm investigado a influência das emoções na distorção de memórias, com destaque para a distorção mnemônica, denominada de falsas memórias (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004a; Maratos, Allan, & Rugg, 2000; Pesta, Sanders, & Murphy, 2001; McNeely, Dywan, & Segalowitz, 2004).”

“Similarly, stimuli eliciting high arousal are remembered better than low arousal, and this effect is mediated by the amygdala (e.g., Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“…investigations of mood-depen-dent memory (Eich and Macaulay, 2006), dissociable influences of affective valence and arousal on memory vividness (Kensinger and Corkin, 2004; Kensinger and Schacter, 2006), and neural systems underlying the encoding and retrieval of emotional events in animals…”

“The emotional enhancement of memory (EEM) describes the tendency for emotional information to be remembered better than non-emotional information (Barnacle et al., 2016; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Talmi et al., 2007; Talmi & McGarry, 2012).”

“Arousal-based memory enhancement seems to rely more on medial temporal lobes, whereas valence-based enhancement appears primarily mediated by frontal brain structures (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Ken-singer & Schacter, 2006) which were intact in our patients.”

“…al., 2001): areas of the amygdala and hippocampus that contribute to the encoding, consolidation, and retrieval of emotional memories (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; McGaugh, 2004; Ritchey et al., 2008; Kensinger & Schacter, 2005) and prefrontal cortex that benefits executive, attentional, and…”

“For example, using functional MRI, Kensinger and Corkin (2004) demonstrated that the enhanced memory of a negative arousing stimulus (e.g. rape, slaughter) was mediated by the amygdala-hippocampal network, and associated with relatively automatic encoding processes, whereas, the enhanced memory of…”

“In support of this model, studies have indicated separate neural routes for the processing of valence and arousal (e.g., Colibazzi et al., 2010; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; LaBar & Cabeza, 2006; Nielen et al., 2009), and have shown that valence and arousal can be conditioned independently (Gawronski…”

“In the experiments reported by Pesta et al. (2001) and Kensinger and Corkin (2004a), after studying lists of non-emotional words orthographically associated with a nonpresented neutral lure (e.g., link, mink, and sink were related with rink) or an emotional lure (e.g. cape, nape, tape, related to…”

“While arousal can strengthen a valenced (positive/negative) response there are distinct cognitive and neural processes for arousing information versus valenced, non-arousing information (Kensinger and Corkin 2004).”

“Many prior studies have shown that emotional valence does not influence memory formation as much as the event’s emotional strength, also known as arousal, and the timing of the activation (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Nielson & Lorber, 2009).”

“Changes in arousal level and valence – the affective signed value associated with a stimulus or context, are crucial for the manifestation of motivational states 31 , and therefore likely play an important role in regulating interactions with the environment.”

“Kensinger and Corkin (2004) reported that— compared to neutral words— improved memory capacity for (negative) emotional words relied on distinct neural networks depending on whether the words were arousing: memory capacity for highly arousing, as opposed to non-arousing words, was specifically…”

“Emotion can increase the likelihood of remembering the stimulus itself, as well as provide more detailed and vivid contextual memories for the stimulus (Kensinger & Corkin, 2003, 2004; Ochsner, 2000).”

“These findings are in line with studies showing that memory is better for stimuli that evoked arousal (e.g., Cahill and McGaugh 1995; Kensinger and Corkin 2004) and that interference resolution benefits from emotional arousal (Levens et al. 2011; Levens and Phelps 2008).”

“Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and behavioral studies, Kensinger and Corkin [17] found that different cognitive and neural processes were associated with enhancing emotional memory to arouse facts compared with valenced nonarousing facts.”

“As it was shown in an fMRI study, the detection of valence was mainly supported by prefrontal cortex-hippocampal networks, whereas the emotional arousal mainly depends on amygdala-hippocampal networks (Elizabeth A. Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“In these studies, the valence dimension (ranging from positive to negative) of emotional information is actively manipulated, while the arousal dimension (ranging from exciting to calming) along which emotional stimuli can vary as well (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004) is generally unchanged.”

“For instance, memory has been found to be better for negative stimuli than for neutral ones (e.g. Callahan, Laforce, Dugas, & Hudon, 2017; Doerksen & Shimamura, 2001; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Meng et al., 2017; Palmiero & Piccardi, 2017).”

“Additionally, memory processes associated with negative stimuli are considered to be more rapid and automatic resulting in better memory for negative pictures compared to neutral (e.g., Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Ochsner, 2000).”

“…dans le sens d’une intégration de la récompense, d’autres équipes ont présenté des interactions entre l’attente du renforcement et la mémoire de travail au sein du CPFL (Gray et al., 2002, Perlstein et al., 2002, Pochon et al., 2002, Kensinger and Corkin, 2004, Amemori and Sawaguchi, 2006).”

“…of emotion in directing attention to potentially relevant information in our environment (Öhman, Flykt, & Esteves, 2001; Vuilleumier, 2005) and enhancing the representation of such information in memory (Bradley, Greenwald, Petry, & Lang, 1992; Buchanan & Lovallo, 2001; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“However, with notable exceptions in the work of Kensinger and colleagues (e.g., Kensinger & Corkin, 2003, 2004), they have frequently been confounded in memory and metamemory research: Emotional words in many studies differ from neutral words in having both more extreme valence (i.e., more negative…”

“Arousal evaluates the level of emotional excitement or drowsiness, both of which can detrimentally affect driving performance if excessive (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“Although our approach cannot be considered training, as the exposure to the information of the unknown social lives of sharks was very brief, the use of this information may have worked as a sort of counter-stereotype, as it does not negate the stereotype per se but rather activates positive and unrelated associations…”

“This is suggested by ample empirical evidence that emotions facilitate content encoding in virtue of their affective properties such as valence (e.g. Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Phelps et al., 2006; Schupp et al., 2003).”

“Furthermore, results suggest that arousal and valence may operate using distinct neural pathways to mediate the effect of emotion enhancement on memory formation (46, 47).”

“…效 应 (Kensinger & Corkin, 2003; Kensinger, 2004; LaBar, 2007)。 近年来, 越来越多神经成像的研究(McGaugh, 2004; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Kensinger & Schacter, 2005; 2006; 2008; Steinmetz & Kensinger, 2009; Jacques, Dolcos, & Cabeza, 2009; Pape & Pare, 2010; Murty, Ritchey, Adcock, & LaBar, 2010)关注…”

“Memory can be enhanced for events of both positive and negative valence as well as by arousal irrespective of valence, but the effects seem to depend on different neural mechanisms (c.f. Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“Some investigators have characterized the emotional aspects of information in terms of valence (positive for rewards, negative for punishments) and arousal (how exciting they are) (see Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“Emotion strongly influences how we encode and retrieve episodic memories, including events from our lives (Kensinger and Corkin, 2004).”

“…was introduced through the items, authors have often proposed explanations in terms of attentional mechanisms: information with a high emotional content captures attention more effectively and is therefore remembered better than nonemotional information (Bower, 1981; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“, hippocampus, HC) in memory enhancement by emotion, in neurologically intact human brain (e.g., Canli et al. 2000; Dolcos et al. 2004b; Hamann et al. 1999; Kensinger and Corkin 2004; Kensinger and Schacter 2006a; Kilpatrick and Cahill 2003; Richardson et al. 2004; Ritchey et al. 2008; Sergerie et al. 2006), and that…”

“Whereas the role of the amygdalae in the EEM is to help boost memory for emotion-laden stimuli through bottom-up automatic processing of their survival value in terms of the emotional arousal that they evoke, the PFC seems to contribute via top-down controlled processing of their value in terms of emotional valence [2…”

“There are different mechanisms for processing high- and low-arousing stimuli (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“Emotional information may be conceptualized in two orthogonal dimensions: valence (positive or negative) and arousal (high or low), which utilize somewhat distinct neural processes (Kensinger and Corkin, 2004).”

“Moreover, evidence suggests that two-dimensionalmodels of emotion influence memory performance via distinct cognitive and neural processes [19, 20].”

“Other studies have found similar results [123, 124], demonstrating that hippocampal-amygdala activity supports successful retrieval of emotional memory [10, 125], and that bidirectional communication between hippocampus and amygdala facilitates accurate emotional mnemonic discrimination [126].”

“It is well established that both dimensions contribute to emotional memory enhancement through distinct cognitive and neural processes (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“Specifically, low-arousing stimuli activated prefrontal-hippocampal neural network for controlled processing, whereas highly arousing information activated the amygdalar-hippocampal neural network for automatic processing (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“Another possible explanation for why we did not observe a standard emotional memory enhancement effect is that arousal was not sufficiently high enough to enhance processing of negative items (e.g., Kensinger and Corkin, 2004).”

“Emotional valence, which is cognitively and neurally distinct from emotional arousal (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004), can lead to increased recollection (e.g., Argembeau et al., 2005; Kensinger & Choi, 2009).”

“While both arousal and valence information contribute to enhancing memory, they rely on distinct neural processes (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004).”

“These findings would also chime with previous work demonstrating that arousal is processed earlier and more automatically than valence (e.g., Dresler et al., 2009; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Schimmack, 2005).”

“Previous studies have found that the interaction between the hippocampus and amygdala during memory processing is the neural mechanism that promotes emotional memory enhancement (Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; Kensinger & Schacter, 2007; Smith et al., 2006).”