Abstract
Efforts to exclude past experiences from conscious awareness can lead to forgetting. Memory suppression is central to affective disorders, but we still do not really know whether emotions, including their physiological causes, are also impacted by this process in normal functioning individuals. In two studies, we measured the after-effects of suppressing negative memories on cardiac response in healthy participants. Results of Study 1 revealed that efficient control of memories was associated with long-term inhibition of the cardiac deceleration that is normally induced by disgusting stimuli. Attempts to suppress sad memories, by contrast, aggravated the cardiac response, an effect that was closely related to the inability to forget this specific material. In Study 2, electroencephalography revealed a reduction in power in the theta (3–8 Hz), alpha (8–12 Hz) and low-beta (13–20 Hz) bands during the suppression of unwanted memories, compared with their voluntary recall. Interestingly, however, the reduction of power in the theta frequency band during memory control was related to a subsequent inhibition of the cardiac response. These results provide a neurophysiological basis for the influence of memory control mechanisms on the cardiac system, opening up new avenues and questions for treating intrusive memories using motivated forgetting.
Highlights
Efforts to exclude past experiences from conscious awareness can lead to forgetting
We focused on changes in the intervals between successive heartbeats, referred to as heart rate variability (HRV), which are representative of both sympathetic and parasympathetic influences associated with affective responses[53]
We found that this difference may be due to greater memory control abilities over disgust compared with sadness
Summary
Efforts to exclude past experiences from conscious awareness can lead to forgetting. Memory suppression is central to affective disorders, but we still do not really know whether emotions, including their physiological causes, are impacted by this process in normal functioning individuals. Interindividual differences in the ability to engage the control system to adequately combat intrusive memories may mean the difference between precipitating or dampening psychopathological symptoms This idea has recently been supported by a study highlighting the potentially vital role of memory suppression in promoting resilience following a traumatic experience[16]. It remains unknown, whether the adequate deployment of control resources during memory suppression might influence emotional responses. Several different studies have since supported and built on Sociology and Political Science (CESSP), Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne, HESAM Université, EHESS, CNRS, Scientific Reports | (2020) 10:15008 This broad framework of embodiment, positing that bodily afferent and autonomic nervous system signals form the basis of emotional construction[18,19]. Autonomous activity is communicated via projections to the brainstem, which project to memory brain regions, including the hippocampus and amygdala complex[33]
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