Download Emotions and Memory - Stanford Law School

Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotional
Memory
Kevin S. LaBar, Ph.D.
Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
Duke University
Stanford Law 2011
Outline of Talk
 Enhancing effects of emotion on declarative
memory: basic laboratory paradigms
 encoding, consolidation, and retrieval
 effects of emotion regulation
 Enhancing effects of emotion on declarative
memory: 'real-world' paradigms
 emotional memories of a complex sporting event
 emotional autobiographical memories
(A)
Psychological
Theories of Emotion
Categorical
(evolutionary)
(B)
Dimensional
(social-motivational)
(C)
Component Process
(cognitive)
APPRAISAL CRITERIA
Novelty
Pleasantness
Goal significance:
Outcome certainty
Conduciveness
Urgency
Coping potential:
Agency
Control
Power
Adjustment
JOY
high
high
ANGER
high
open
FEAR
high
low
SADNESS
low
open
high
very high
high
very high
conducive obstructive obstructive obstructive
low
high
very high
low
self/other
high
high
high
other
high
high
high
other
open
very low
low
open
very low
very low
medium
Neurobiological theories of emotional memory
Memory systems theories
Memory modulation theories
The amygdala mediates emotional arousal
influences on a variety of memory systems
LaBar & Cabeza, Nat Rev Neurosci, 2006
Experimental fMRI Encoding Paradigm
9=High
Arousal
High arousing
& Unpleasant
High arousing
& Pleasant
Low arousing
& Neutral
High Arousing &
1
Unpleasant [N=60] Unpleasant
1=Lo w
5
Neutral
9
Pleasant
Valence
Study: rate pleasantness
Test: cued recall
Low Arousing & Neutral
[N=60]
Dolcos, LaBar, & Cabeza, Neuron, 2004
High Arousing &
Pleasant [N=60]
Main Effect of Arousal on Amygdala Activation and
Memory
A.
35
# of pictures recalled
30
Z = -22
B. Left Amygdala
Right Amygdala
25
20
15
10
% signal change
5
0.25
0.25
0.15
0.15
0.05
0.05
-0.05
-0.05
0
1
2
Pleasant
3
4
5 TR
Pleasant
1
Unpleasant
2
3
4
5 TR
Neutral
Neutral
Unpleasant
Subsequent Memory Paradigm
Difference
Arousal
Modulation of
Subsequent
Memory (Dm)
Effect
Meta-analysis of emotional encoding success studies
Murty , Ritchey, Adcock & LaBar, Neuropsychologia, 2010
Emotion regulation and subsequent memory
 Encode negative pictures during fMRI under passive view,
suppress, and reappraise (reduce personal relevance)
conditions, as well as neutral (view) control pictures
 Test memory in 2-week delayed recognition test
Behavioral
results
*
Pannu Hayes et al., Front Human Neurosci, 2010
Emotion regulation and hippocampal subsequent memory
effect
Pannu Hayes et al., Front Human Neurosci, 2010
Remembering One Year Later:
Role of the MTL in Retrieving Emotional Memories
Does the MTL also participate in the successful retrieval of
emotional items from long-term storage?
• Successful Retrieval = Hits vs. Misses
• Divide into recollection- and familiarity-based retrieval
operations
• Compare Emotional Successful Retrieval vs. Neutral
Successful Retrieval
Emotional Modulation of Retrieval Success Activity in MTL
(Remember/Know combined)
Dolcos, LaBar, & Cabeza, PNAS, 2005
Recollection- vs. Familiarity-Based Emotional Retrieval
Success Activity
*
*
Moving from the lab to the real world…
“There should also be more interest in what people
actually do (eat, have political views, watch
television…), [and] more concern about whether the
paradigmatic instances we choose for experimental
analysis correspond to real-world events and are
both robust and generalizable”
Rozin, Perspectives Psychol. Sci., 2009
Retrieving emotional memories for a complex sporting event:
The Duke -UNC Basketball Study
Features of the experimental design
 Archived game (@UNC 2000)
 Valence is determined by opposing fan perspectives
 Select engaged fans of opposing teams
 Encoding conditions are controlled
 Assess memory for specific plays (detailed event
memory)
 each play has an emotional outcome that fluctuates widely
across trials
Sample retrieval trial
fMRI results: Arousal modulation
Amygdala and hippocampus
fMRI results: Arousal modulation
Social cognitive/self-referential network Sensorimotor
fMRI results: Valence effects
Positive valence effect
dorsal frontoparietal network
Spatiotemporal dissociation of emotional intensity and reliving in
autobiographical memory
retrieval
maintenance
time 
24 sec
“emotion” “reliving”
“cue word”
eyes closed
1 2 3 4
MRT = 12.3 s
Daselaar et al., Cereb Cortex, 2008
1 2 3 4
Emotion-specific variation
Reliving-specific variation
Amygdala
Visual Cortex
5.00
5.00
T values
3.00
2.00
1.00
3.00
Emotion
Reliving
2.00
1.00
0.00
0.00
-1.00
4.00
T values
Emotion
Reliving
4.00
retriev maint
retriev maint
phase1 phase2 phase1 phase2
-1.00
retriev maint retriev maint
phase1 phase2 phase1 phase2
Early Role of Emotion During Memory Retrieval
“When a subject is being asked to remember, very
often the first thing that emerges is something of
the nature of an attitude. The recall is then a
construction, made largely on the basis of this
attitude, and its general effect is that of a
justification of the attitude,” where for Bartlett
attitude is “very largely a matter of feeling, or
affect.”
Bartlett (1932/1995)
Conclusions
 Emotional memory is a multidimensional construct
 Amygdala-MTL interactions are important for long-term
encoding and retrieval of emotionally intense episodes, with
additional support from frontoparietal and sensory regions
 Emotion regulation strategies modify activity in this network
 These interactions extend to more complex, real-world
memories where emotion has a broader reach over social
cognitive and sensorimotor networks
 Emerging VR technologies may be beneficial to reveal how
real-world contexts regulate the expression of emotional
memories
Acknowledgements
 Research support:
 NIH R01 DA14094, R01 AG023123; NSF CAREER Award
 Collaborators:
 Alison Adcock, Anne Botzung, Rachael Brady, Roberto
Cabeza, Sander Daselaar, Florin Dolcos, Daniel
Greenberg, Amanda Miles, Gregory McCarthy, Rajendra
Morey, Jasmeet Pannu Hayes, Heather Rice, David
Rubin, Moria Smoski, Holton Thompson, David Zielinski
 LaBaratory:
 Jose Alba Hernandez, Matthew Fecteau, Nicole Huff, Phil
Kragel, Vishnu Murty, Maureen Ritchey
 No conflicts of interest to report
Future directions:
Virtual emotional memories
Duke immersive Virtual Environment
(DiVE)
MTL Activation During Retrieval of Emotional Autobiographical
Memories
• Pre-scan cue generation method
• Compare autobiographical vs. semantic retrieval
AM
SM
Anterior
Posterior
Anterior
Posterior
Greenberg, Rice, Cooper, Cabeza, Rubin & LaBar, Neuropsychologia, 2005
How
Can Cognitive
Neuroscience
Contribute?
Two
central
issues in emotional
memory
research
(Schooler & Eich, 2000)
1. Whether emotion enhances or diminishes the strength of
memory for an event
2. Whether special mechanisms are required to account for
the effects of emotion on memory
3. Whether emotion affects the subjective experience of
remembering
Historical interest: Emotion and memory
Francis Bacon: Facts connected with strong feelings
were easier remembered than indifferent facts
Descartes: Emergence of memories is brought about
by the passions
Rappaport, Emotions and Memory, 1950
S.P.
Arousal-Mediated Memory Consolidation
Deficits Following Bilateral Amygdala
Damage
# words recalled
LaBar & Phelps, Psychol Sci, 1998
R
L