Autobiographical Memory in the Angry Self

The impact of anger on autobiographical recall was examined in two studies. In Experiment 1, 76 participants differing in trait anger completed an autobiographical memory task (AMT). In Experiment 2, 50 participants with elevated trait anger were either provoked or not provoked and subsequently completed an AMT. Across both studies, participants with high dispositional anger reported more anger-related memories, describing themselves as the primary agent of anger. In Experiment 2, provoked participants reported more memories describing themselves as the target of anger. These findings highlight the distinct patterns of memory recall associated with trait versus state anger. Findings are discussed in terms of retrieval biases operating in angry individuals and proposals stemming from self-memory system models of autobiographical memory.     

Quantitative Measurements of Autobiographical Memory Content

Autobiographical memory (AM), subjective recollection of past experiences, is fundamental in everyday life. Nevertheless, characterization of the spontaneous occurrence of AM, as well as of the number and types of recollected details, remains limited. The CRAM (Cue-Recalled Autobiographical Memory) test (http://cramtest.info) adapts and combines the cue-word method with an assessment that collects counts of details recalled from different life periods. The SPAM (Spontaneous Probability of Autobiographical Memories) protocol samples introspection during everyday activity, recording memory duration and frequency. These measures provide detailed, naturalistic accounts of AM content and frequency, quantifying essential dimensions of recollection. AM content (∼20 details/recollection) decreased with the age of the episode, but less drastically than the probability of reporting remote compared to recent memories. AM retrieval was frequent (∼20/hour), each memory lasting ∼30 seconds. Testable hypotheses of the specific content retrieved in a fixed time from given life periods are presented.     

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotional Autobiographical Recollection

Recollection of emotional autobiographical memories (AMs) is important to healthy cognitive and affective functioning ¹ - remembering positive AMs is associated with increased personal well-being and self-esteem ², whereas remembering and ruminating on negative AMs may lead to affective disorders ³. Although significant progress has been made in understanding the brain mechanisms underlying AM retrieval in general (reviewed in ^{4, 5}), less is known about the effect of emotion on the subjective re-experience of AMs and the associated neural correlates. This is in part due to the fact that, unlike the investigations of the emotion effect on memory for laboratory-based microevents (reviewed in ^{6, 7-9}), often times AM studies do not have a clear focus on the emotional aspects of remembering personal events (but see ¹⁰). Here, we present a protocol that allows investigation of the neural correlates of recollecting emotional AMs using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Cues for these memories are collected prior to scanning by means of an autobiographical memory questionnaire (AMQ), therefore allowing for proper selection of emotional AMs based on their phenomenological properties (i.e., intensity, vividness, personal significance). This protocol can be used in healthy and clinical populations alike.Download video file.^{(70M, mov)}     

The Effects of a Distracting N-Back Task on Recognition Memory Are Reduced by Negative Emotional Intensity

Memory performance is usually impaired when participants have to encode information while performing a concurrent task. Recent studies using recall tasks have found that emotional items are more resistant to such cognitive depletion effects than non-emotional items. However, when recognition tasks are used, the same effect is more elusive as recent recognition studies have obtained contradictory results. In two experiments, we provide evidence that negative emotional content can reliably reduce the effects of cognitive depletion on recognition memory only if stimuli with high levels of emotional intensity are used. In particular, we found that recognition performance for realistic pictures was impaired by a secondary 3-back working memory task during encoding if stimuli were emotionally neutral or had moderate levels of negative emotionality. In contrast, when negative pictures with high levels of emotional intensity were used, the detrimental effects of the secondary task were significantly attenuated.     

MRI-Based Volumetry Correlates of Autobiographical Memory in Alzheimer's Disease

The aim of the present volumetric study was to explore the neuro-anatomical correlates of autobiographical memory loss in Alzheimer''s patients and healthy elderly, in terms of the delay of retention, with a particular interest in the medial temporal lobe structures. Fifteen patients in early stages of the disease and 11 matched control subjects were included in the study. To assess autobiographical memory and the effect of the retention delay, a modified version of the Crovitz test was used according to five periods of life. Autobiographical memory deficits were correlated to local atrophy via structural MRI using Voxel Based Morphometry. We used a ‘lateralized index’ to compare the relative contribution of hippocampal sub-regions (anterior vs posterior, left vs right) according to the different periods of life. Our results confirm the involvement of the hippocampus proper in autobiographical memory retrieval for both recent and very remote encoding periods, with larger aspect for the very remote period on the left side. Contrary to the prominent left-sided involvement for the young adulthood period, the implication of the right hippocampus prevails for the more recent periods and decreases with the remotness of the memories, which might be associated with the visuo-spatial processing of the memories. Finally, we suggest the existence of a rostrocaudal gradient depending on the retention duration, with left anterior aspects specifically related to retrieval deficits of remote memories from the young adulthood period, whereas posterior aspects would result of simultaneous encoding and/or consolidation and retrieval deficit of more recent memories.     

Validity of Global Physical and Emotional SUDS

Despite the wide-spread use of Subjective Units of Discomfort Scales, or SUDS, to measure anxiety to specific stimuli, little information has been published on the validity of such scales and even less on their use as global measures of emotional and physical discomfort. Data was examined for 182 consecutive admissions to a psychology clinic to determine the relationship of self-rating of emotional and physical discomfort to one another and of the emotional self-rating to the clinician rating of general functioning (GAF). As expected, patients’ ratings of their emotional discomfort were significantly higher than ratings of their physical discomfort (t = 9.077, p < .001). Emotional SUDS were significantly and negatively related to clinicians’ GAF ratings (r = − 0.439, p < .001), indicating that the two ratings measured related global constructs. Data for the 53 patients who also completed the MMPI-2 was drawn from the larger sample to determine the nature of the relationship between SUDS and two measures of general emotional distress, with patients’ SUDS significantly related to both the A scale (r = 0.351, p < .05) and the neurotic index (r = 0.366, p < .01). Finally, there was a significant decrease in the emotional SUDS (t = 4.686, p < .001) but not the physical SUDS (t = 0.788, p = .434) after 3 months of psychotherapy. The data supports SUDS as global measures of both physical and emotional discomfort.     

自传体记忆与阈下抑郁关系的神经机制研究

情绪对记忆的影响是十分重要的,记忆与情绪存在很多的相互作用,主要包括积极和消极两方面。本文从神经机制的角度论述了自传体记忆与情绪的关系,不同情绪状况的自传体记忆的大脑神经机制特征,积极情绪状况下,记忆效果比较好;但消极情绪状态下,记忆效果比较差。其次,自传体记忆是关于个人自己生活事件的记忆;阈下抑郁一般指的是具有抑郁症状,但达不到抑郁诊断标准的个体。阈下抑郁作为一种常见的消极情绪状况对于记忆的影响也是很明显的,尤其是对于自传体记忆的干扰具有明显的情绪一致性效应,既消极情感的视角看待所有的自传体记忆。本文重点分析了阈下抑郁对自传体记忆影响的神经机制,包括脑成像、脑损伤以及临床研究方面的研究现状。最后对相关研究的不足和未来的展望做出了述评。     

Emotion Based Attentional Priority for Storage in Visual Short-Term Memory

A plethora of research demonstrates that the processing of emotional faces is prioritised over non-emotive stimuli when cognitive resources are limited (this is known as ‘emotional superiority’). However, there is debate as to whether competition for processing resources results in emotional superiority per se, or more specifically, threat superiority. Therefore, to investigate prioritisation of emotional stimuli for storage in visual short-term memory (VSTM), we devised an original VSTM report procedure using schematic (angry, happy, neutral) faces in which processing competition was manipulated. In Experiment 1, display exposure time was manipulated to create competition between stimuli. Participants (n = 20) had to recall a probed stimulus from a set size of four under high (150 ms array exposure duration) and low (400 ms array exposure duration) perceptual processing competition. For the high competition condition (i.e. 150 ms exposure), results revealed an emotional superiority effect per se. In Experiment 2 (n = 20), we increased competition by manipulating set size (three versus five stimuli), whilst maintaining a constrained array exposure duration of 150 ms. Here, for the five-stimulus set size (i.e. maximal competition) only threat superiority emerged. These findings demonstrate attentional prioritisation for storage in VSTM for emotional faces. We argue that task demands modulated the availability of processing resources and consequently the relative magnitude of the emotional/threat superiority effect, with only threatening stimuli prioritised for storage in VSTM under more demanding processing conditions. Our results are discussed in light of models and theories of visual selection, and not only combine the two strands of research (i.e. visual selection and emotion), but highlight a critical factor in the processing of emotional stimuli is availability of processing resources, which is further constrained by task demands.     

Origin of Emotion Effects on ERP Correlates of Emotional Word Processing: The Emotion Duality Approach

We distinguish two evaluative systems which evoke automatic and reflective emotions. Automatic emotions are direct reactions to stimuli whereas reflective emotions are always based on verbalized (and often abstract) criteria of evaluation. We conducted an electroencephalography (EEG) study in which 25 women were required to read and respond to emotional words which engaged either the automatic or reflective system. Stimulus words were emotional (positive or negative) and neutral. We found an effect of valence on an early response with dipolar fronto-occipital topography; positive words evoked a higher amplitude response than negative words. We also found that topographically specific differences in the amplitude of the late positive complex were related to the system involved in processing. Emotional stimuli engaging the automatic system were associated with significantly higher amplitudes in the left-parietal region; the response to neutral words was similar regardless of the system engaged. A different pattern of effects was observed in the central region, neutral stimuli engaging the reflective system evoked a higher amplitudes response whereas there was no system effect for emotional stimuli. These differences could not be reduced to effects of differences between the arousing properties and concreteness of the words used as stimuli.     

Gender-Specific Differences in the Relationship between Autobiographical Memory and Intertemporal Choice in Older Adults

As the population of older adults grows, their economic choices will have increasing impact on society. Research on the effects of aging on intertemporal decisions shows inconsistent, often opposing results, indicating that yet unexplored factors might play an essential role in guiding one''s choices. Recent studies suggest that episodic future thinking, which is based on the same neural network involved in episodic memory functions, leads to reductions in discounting of future rewards. As episodic memory functioning declines with normal aging, but to greatly variable degrees, individual differences in delay discounting might be due to individual differences in the vitality of this memory system in older adults. We investigated this hypothesis, using a sample of healthy older adults who completed an intertemporal choice task as well as two episodic memory tasks. We found no clear evidence for a relationship between episodic memory performance and delay discounting in older adults. However, when additionally considering gender differences, we found an interaction effect of gender and autobiographical memory on delay discounting: while men with higher memory scores showed less delay discounting, women with higher memory scores tended to discount the future more. We speculate that this gender effect might stem from the gender-specific use of different modal representation formats (i.e. temporal or visual) during assessment of intertemporal choice options.     

Modifications of EEG Related to Repeated Realizations of the Emotional Stroop Task

Multichannel recording of EEG in 11 subjects, who were three times subjected to the emotional Stroop task (in the presence of words with negative emotional loading, neutral words, and inhibitory verbal stimuli), demonstrated that the spectral power of the high-frequency subcomponent of the alpha-rhythm in the left hemisphere increased sequentially under these conditions. Modifications of EEG, in general, were indicative of noticeable transformation of informational flows related to the learning effect and decrease of the cognitive “pressure” due to habituation to the effects of emotionally neutral and inhibitory verbal stimuli. Data related to the EEG pattern agree with the results of measurements of a behavioral index (decrease in the time of sensorimotor reaction).     

Effects of Emotional Context on Memory for Details: The Role of Attention

It was repeatedly demonstrated that a negative emotional context enhances memory for central details while impairing memory for peripheral information. This trade-off effect is assumed to result from attentional processes: a negative context seems to narrow attention to central information at the expense of more peripheral details, thus causing the differential effects in memory. However, this explanation has rarely been tested and previous findings were partly inconclusive. For the present experiment 13 negative and 13 neutral naturalistic, thematically driven picture stories were constructed to test the trade-off effect in an ecologically more valid setting as compared to previous studies. During an incidental encoding phase, eye movements were recorded as an index of overt attention. In a subsequent recognition phase, memory for central and peripheral details occurring in the picture stories was tested. Explicit affective ratings and autonomic responses validated the induction of emotion during encoding. Consistent with the emotional trade-off effect on memory, encoding context differentially affected recognition of central and peripheral details. However, contrary to the common assumption, the emotional trade-off effect on memory was not mediated by attentional processes. By contrast, results suggest that the relevance of attentional processing for later recognition memory depends on the centrality of information and the emotional context but not their interaction. Thus, central information was remembered well even when fixated very briefly whereas memory for peripheral information depended more on overt attention at encoding. Moreover, the influence of overt attention on memory for central and peripheral details seems to be much lower for an arousing as compared to a neutral context.     

Impairment of Emotional Memory and Ability to Identify Emotional States in Patients with Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized not only by a progressive movement disorder but also by a variety of mental disorders, which can be arbitrarily divided into cognitive and emotional–personality disorders. The aim of this investigation was to study the relationship between cognitive and emotional–personality disturbances in patients with PD during learning of emotionally significant words and visual recognition of emotional states. The volume and stability of recall of neutral and expressive words were significantly lower in patients than in healthy subjects, whereas the parameters of word recognition were similar in both groups. Unlike in healthy subjects, the characteristics of recall of neutral and expressive words in patients did not differ considerably. Patients with PD significantly more often incorrectly interpreted emotional states shown in pictures, particularly negative emotions. Deficit in retention of expressive words and recognition of emotional states correlated with the severity of motor and cognitive disorders, particularly of attention and executive dysfunction. The results of our study can be explained by a dissociation of the cognitive and motivational–affective functions in PD because of a disconnection between the basal ganglia, the limbic structures, and the frontal cortex. This dissociation tended to increase with progress of the disease.     

心理疲劳对情绪图片注意偏向的研究

目的:探讨在实验室中诱发心理疲劳后是否会对带有负性情绪的图片产生注意偏向。方法:选取34名某军医大学本科生为被试者,记录被试者完成认知负荷任务后的主观情绪体验成绩及疲劳量表得分,并采集被试者对情绪性图片进行的点探测任务的反应时及错误率。结果:在主观报告上,被试者的负性情绪和躯体疲劳感得分显著高于完成认知任务前,在点探测任务的行为数据上,被试者对于带有负性情绪的图片的反应时长于带有正性情绪的图片,反应错误率也高于正性图片。结论:认知负荷任务能够有效诱发被试者的躯体疲劳感和负性情绪。具有疲劳感和负性情绪的被试者并未对带有负性情绪的图片产生注意偏向。     

On the Validity of Plasmodesmograms*

Because the operation of plasmodesmata is of paramount importance for the integrative action of tissues and organs, it is important to quantify the symplastic continuity. An attempt to visualize the intercellular communication pathways in plant tissues is the plasmodesmogram, a two-dimensional diagram of plasmodesmatal frequencies. Plasmodesmograms assume that the greater the frequency of plasmodesmata, the greater is the potential for symplasmic communication. In fact, however, the validity of plasmodesmograms hinges on the premise that plasmodesmata are uniform in structure and functioning. In view of recent findings that plasmodesmata are gatable channels with different functional diameters, a correlation between plasmodesmatal frequency and the rate of intercellular communication - including transport - is disputable and the concept of the plasmodesmogram needs to be re-examined. Its validity appears to vary with the developmental stage and the nature of the plant tissue. Our over-all conclusion is that plasmodesmograms are an acceptable device for coarse (qualitative) assessment of intercellular transport pathways in mature phloem tissues. Pathways identified by plasmodesmograms often correlate with the physiologically determined modes of photosynthate transport. Whether this applies to differentiated tissues, in general, remains to be elucidated. The value of plasmodesmograms for developmental phyisology seems to be limited, as developmental processes coincide with temporary or permanent closure of plasmodesmata.     

Facial Mimicry and Emotion Consistency: Influences of Memory and Context

This study investigates whether mimicry of facial emotions is a stable response or can instead be modulated and influenced by memory of the context in which the emotion was initially observed, and therefore the meaning of the expression. The study manipulated emotion consistency implicitly, where a face expressing smiles or frowns was irrelevant and to be ignored while participants categorised target scenes. Some face identities always expressed emotions consistent with the scene (e.g., smiling with a positive scene), whilst others were always inconsistent (e.g., frowning with a positive scene). During this implicit learning of face identity and emotion consistency there was evidence for encoding of face-scene emotion consistency, with slower RTs, a reduction in trust, and inhibited facial EMG for faces expressing incompatible emotions. However, in a later task where the faces were subsequently viewed expressing emotions with no additional context, there was no evidence for retrieval of prior emotion consistency, as mimicry of emotion was similar for consistent and inconsistent individuals. We conclude that facial mimicry can be influenced by current emotion context, but there is little evidence of learning, as subsequent mimicry of emotionally consistent and inconsistent faces is similar.     

Age-Related Changes in the Functional Network Underlying Specific and General Autobiographical Memory Retrieval: A Pivotal Role for the Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Age-related changes in autobiographical memory (AM) recall are characterized by a decline in episodic details, while semantic aspects are spared. This deleterious effect is supposed to be mediated by an inefficient recruitment of executive processes during AM retrieval. To date, contrasting evidence has been reported on the neural underpinning of this decline, and none of the previous studies has directly compared the episodic and semantic aspects of AM in elderly. We asked 20 young and 17 older participants to recall specific and general autobiographical events (i.e., episodic and semantic AM) elicited by personalized cues while recording their brain activity by means of fMRI. At the behavioral level, we confirmed that the richness of episodic AM retrieval is specifically impoverished in aging and that this decline is related to the reduction of executive functions. At the neural level, in both age groups, we showed the recruitment of a large network during episodic AM retrieval encompassing prefrontal, cortical midline and posterior regions, and medial temporal structures, including the hippocampus. This network was very similar, but less extended, during semantic AM retrieval. Nevertheless, a greater activity was evidenced in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) during episodic, compared to semantic AM retrieval in young participants, and a reversed pattern in the elderly. Moreover, activity in dACC during episodic AM retrieval was correlated with inhibition and richness of memories in both groups. Our findings shed light on the direct link between episodic AM retrieval, executive control, and their decline in aging, proposing a possible neuronal signature. They also suggest that increased activity in dACC during semantic AM retrieval in the elderly could be seen as a compensatory mechanism underpinning successful AM performance observed in aging. These results are discussed in the framework of recently proposed models of neural reorganization in aging.     

Effects of AKAP5 Pro100Leu Genotype on Working Memory for Emotional Stimuli

Recent investigations addressing the role of the synaptic multiadaptor molecule AKAP5 in human emotion and behavior suggest that the AKAP5 Pro100Leu polymorphism (rs2230491) contributes to individual differences in affective control. Carriers of the less common Leu allele show a higher control of anger as indicated by behavioral measures and dACC brain response on emotional distracters when compared to Pro homozygotes. In the current fMRI study we used an emotional working memory task according to the n-back scheme with neutral and negative emotional faces as target stimuli. Pro homozygotes showed a performance advantage at the behavioral level and exhibited enhanced activation of the amygdala and fusiform face area during working memory for emotional faces. On the other hand, Leu carriers exhibited increased activation of the dACC during performance of the 2-back condition. Our results suggest that AKAP5 Pro100Leu effects on emotion processing might be task-dependent with Pro homozygotes showing lower control of emotional interference, but more efficient processing of task-relevant emotional stimuli.     

Modulatory Effects of the Piccolo Genotype on Emotional Memory in Health and Depression

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been associated with biased memory formation for mood-congruent information, which may be related to altered monoamine levels. The piccolo (PCLO) gene, involved in monoaminergic neurotransmission, has previously been linked to depression in a genome-wide association study. Here, we investigated the role of the PCLO risk allele on functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) correlates of emotional memory in a sample of 89 MDD patients (64 PCLO risk allele carriers) and 29 healthy controls (18 PCLO risk allele carriers). During negative word encoding, risk allele carriers showed significant lower activity relative to non-risk allele carriers in the insula, and trend-wise in the anterior cingulate cortex and inferior frontal gyrus. Moreover, depressed risk allele carriers showed significant lower activity relative to non-risk allele carriers in the striatum, an effect which was absent in healthy controls. Finally, amygdalar response during processing new positive words vs. known words was blunted in healthy PCLO+ carriers and in MDD patients irrespective of genotype, which may indicate that signalling of salient novel information does not occur to the same extent in PCLO+ carriers and MDD patients. The PCLO risk allele may increase vulnerability for MDD by modulating local brain function with regard to responsiveness to salient stimuli (i.e. insula) and processing novel negative information. Also, depression-specific effects of PCLO on dorsal striatal activation during negative word encoding and the absence of amygdalar salience signalling for novel positive information further suggest a role of PCLO in symptom maintenance in MDD.     

The Cognitive Building Blocks of Emotion Regulation: Ability to Update Working Memory Moderates the Efficacy of Rumination and Reappraisal on Emotion

The ability to regulate emotions is a critical component of healthy emotional functioning. Therefore, it is important to determine factors that contribute to the efficacy of emotion regulation. The present article examined whether the ability to update emotional information in working memory is a predictor of the efficacy of rumination and reappraisal on affective experience both at the trait level (Study 1) and in daily life (Study 2). In both studies, results revealed that the relationship between use of reappraisal and high arousal negative emotions was moderated by updating ability. Specifically, use of reappraisal was associated with decreased high arousal negative emotions for participants with high updating ability, while no significant relationship was found for those with low updating ability. In addition, both studies also revealed that the relationship between rumination and high arousal negative emotions was moderated by updating ability. In general, use of rumination was associated with elevated high arousal negative emotions. However, this relationship was blunted for participants with high updating ability. That is, use of rumination was associated with less elevated high arousal negative emotions for participants with high updating ability. These results identify the ability to update emotional information in working memory as a crucial process modulating the efficacy of emotion regulation efforts.