CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 200Memory Processes and InfluencesMemory and Neural MechanismsIdentity, Memory, and Therapy

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 37 of the 37 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

How personal experience modulates the neural circuitry of memories of September 11

Open access
Sharot, Tali, Martorella, Elizabeth A., Delgado, Mauricio R., Phelps, Elizabeth A.·2007·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI 10.1073/pnas.0609230103PMC PMC1713166
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Brown and Kulik [Brown R, Kulik J (1977) Cognition 5:73-99] introduced the term "flashbulb memory" to describe the recall of shocking, consequential events such as hearing news of a presidential assassination. They proposed that the vivid detail of such memories results from the action of a unique neural mechanism. In the present study of personal recollections of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11) in New York City, we combine behavioral and brain imaging techniques, with two goals: (i) to explore the neural basis of such memories and (ii) to clarify the characteristics of the emotional events that may give rise to them. Three years after the terrorist attacks, participants were asked to retrieve memories of 9/11, as well as memories of personally selected control events from 2001. At the time of the attacks, some participants were in Downtown Manhattan, close to the World Trade Center; others were in Midtown, a few miles away. The Downtown participants exhibited selective activation of the amygdala as they recalled events from 9/11, but not while they recalled control events. This was not the case for the Midtown participants. Moreover, only the Downtown participants reported emotionally enhanced recollective experiences while recalling events from 9/11, as compared with control events. These results suggest that close personal experience may be critical in engaging the neural mechanisms that underlie the emotional modulation of memory and thus in producing the vivid recollections to which the term flashbulb memory is often applied.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1073/pnas.0609230103

Cites

37 of 37 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Show all 36 references

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. 10.1037/0096-3445.117.2.171 · DOI
  2. G Echterhoff, S Croll, W Hirst Memory, in press.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 101–199 of 199

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Sharot, T., Martorella, E. A., Delgado, M. R., & Phelps, E. A.
Affiliations
  • New York University (US)
  • Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US)
ORCID
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Published
2007-01-02
Volume
104
Issue
1
Pages
389-394
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
DOI
10.1073/pnas.0609230103
PMC
PMC1713166
OpenAlex
W2118059904
Cited by
200
References
36
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 10
FWCI
4.86
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Rutgers University Community Repository (Rutgers University) (submittedVersion)
  • Rutgers University Community Repository (Rutgers University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • Rutgers University Community Repository (Rutgers University)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (MH62104, R01MH062104)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
Keywords
flashbulb memory, September 11 attacks, memory vividness, amygdala, personal experience, memory retrieval, World Trade Center, neural basis of memory
MeSH terms
Adult, Amygdala, Brain, Emotions, Female, Humans, Male, Memory, Mental Recall, Terrorism

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review