The effects of valence and arousal on the neural activity leading to subsequent memory
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This study examined how valence and arousal affect the processes linked to subsequent memory for emotional information. While undergoing an fMRI scan, participants viewed neutral pictures and emotional pictures varying by valence and arousal. After the scan, participants performed a recognition test. Subsequent memory for negative or high arousal information was associated with occipital and temporal activity, whereas memory for positive or low arousal information was associated with frontal activity. Regression analyses confirmed that for negative or high arousal items, temporal lobe activity was the strongest predictor of later memory whereas for positive or low arousal items, frontal activity corresponded most strongly with later memory. These results suggest that the types of encoding processes relating to memory (e.g., sensory vs. elaborative processing) can differ based on the affective qualities of emotional information.
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Subsequent memory for negative or high arousal information is associated with occipital and temporal activity, whereas memory for positive or low arousal information is associated with frontal activity.
“Mickley et al. (2009) showed that subsequent memory for negative or high arousal information was associated with occipital and temporal activity, whereas memory for positive or low arousal information was associated with frontal activity.”
From Affective Cognition and its Disruption in Mood Disorders (2011) · cites this paper as Mickley et al. (2009)
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Dolcos, F., Iordan, A. D., & Dolcos, S. (2011) · Journal of Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1080/20445911.2011.594433 · Cited by 355 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Mickley Steinmetz, K. R., & Kensinger, E. A.
- Affiliations
- Boston College (US)
- Venue
- Psychophysiology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2009-10-12
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1190-1199
- ISSN
- 0048-5772 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-8986
- PMC
- PMC2875869
- OpenAlex
- W2139188684
- Cited by
- 106
- References
- 69
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 2.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychophysiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH080833, R01MH080833)
- 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
- emotional memory, valence, arousal, subsequent memory, recognition memory, neural correlates of memory, frontal lobe activity, emotional pictures
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Arousal, Emotions, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Functional Laterality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Memory, Psychomotor Performance, Regression Analysis, Recognition, Psychology, Young Adult
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