Abstract
This study investigated the effect of arousal on short-term relational memory and its underlying cortical network. Seventeen healthy participants performed a picture by location, short-term relational memory task using emotional pictures. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure the blood-oxygenation-level dependent signal relative to task. Subjects’ own ratings of the pictures were used to obtain subjective arousal ratings. Subjective arousal was found to have a dose-dependent effect on activations in the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, and in higher order visual areas. Serial position analyses showed that high arousal trials produced a stronger primacy and recency effect than low arousal trials. The results indicate that short-term relational memory may be facilitated by arousal and that this may be modulated by a dose–response function in arousal-driven neuronal regions.
Highlights
Arousal is important for experiencing emotion (Russell and Barrett, 1999), and can be defined as giving intensity or individual strength to the emotion experienced (Hamann, 2003)
The results indicate that short-term relational memory may be facilitated by arousal and that this may be modulated by a dose–response function in arousal-driven neuronal regions
BEHAVIORAL RESULTS A general linear model (GLM) repeated measure revealed no significant difference in response times among conditions [high arousal: (m ± SD) 1191 ± 153 ms; medium arousal: 1190 ± 146 ms; low arousal: 1208 ± 179 ms; F (2,32) = 0.38, p = n.s.]
Summary
Arousal is important for experiencing emotion (Russell and Barrett, 1999), and can be defined as giving intensity or individual strength to the emotion experienced (Hamann, 2003). The effect of arousal has been debated with regard to combining different components of information to relational representations in memory (e.g., where you were when you heard the news). This is mainly due to divergent findings that indicate that high arousal can both facilitate (D’Argembeau and Van Der Linden, 2004; Hadley and MacKay, 2006; Kensinger et al, 2007; Mather and Nesmith, 2008) and impede (Mather et al, 2006; Mitchell et al, 2006; Cook et al, 2007) relational memory. Arousal could affect the processing of relational memory through a neuronal emotional system, such as the amygdala (Hadley and MacKay, 2006)
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