Event Abstract Back to Event Negative emotional experiences during navigation enhance parahippocampal place memory Oliver Baumann1*, Edgar Chan1, Mark A. Bellgrove2 and Jason B. Mattingley1 1 The University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Australia 2 Monash University, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Australia i. Background Extensive research has shown that emotions can exert a powerful influence on memory, enhancing recall under some conditions and disrupting it under others. To date, however, the possible influence of emotions on spatial learning during navigation has not been investigated. It is known that the parahippocampal cortex codes for the navigational relevance of objects in the environment, but it remains unknown whether activity within this region is also modulated by the emotional salience of specific locations encountered during navigation. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the influence of emotional experiences on place memory formed during active navigation through a virtual environment. ii. Methods The experiment consisted of two phases. During the initial learning phase, participants undertook an active object location memory task within a virtual house in which each room was associated with a different schedule of task-irrelevant emotional events. The events varied in valence (positive, negative, or neutral) and in their rate of occurrence (intermittent vs. constant). A day later, we measured neural activity while participants were shown static images of the previously learned virtual environment and completed an object location retrieval task, now in the absence of any affective stimuli. iii. Results We found that memory related parahippocampal activity was modulated by the emotional salience associated with places visited in a virtual environment on the day before scanning. More specifically, activity within the posterior portion of the parahippocampal gyri was significantly enhanced when participants viewed images of previously visited locations at which consistently negative events had been encountered, relative to when the locations had been associated with positive images matched for arousal level or with emotionally neutral stimuli. iv. Discussion Our findings demonstrate that parahippocampal place representations are enhanced for places consistently associated with negative affect. We conclude that such enhancement of place representations by aversive emotional events might serve as an important adaptive mechanism for avoiding future threats. More broadly, our study demonstrates the significant influence of emotion on neural and behavioral memory processes during spatial navigation. Acknowledgements This work was supported by an ARC Thinking Systems grant (TS0669699). OB was supported by an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE120100535). JBM was supported by an ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship (FL110100103). Keywords: emotion, fMRI, navigation, parahippocampal cortex, place memory Conference: ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013. Presentation Type: Oral Topic: Memory Citation: Baumann O, Chan E, Bellgrove MA and Mattingley JB (2013). Negative emotional experiences during navigation enhance parahippocampal place memory. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.212.00175 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 15 Oct 2013; Published Online: 25 Nov 2013. * Correspondence: Dr. Oliver Baumann, The University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, St Lucia, Queensland, 4072, Australia, obaumann@bond.edu.au Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Oliver Baumann Edgar Chan Mark A Bellgrove Jason B Mattingley Google Oliver Baumann Edgar Chan Mark A Bellgrove Jason B Mattingley Google Scholar Oliver Baumann Edgar Chan Mark A Bellgrove Jason B Mattingley PubMed Oliver Baumann Edgar Chan Mark A Bellgrove Jason B Mattingley Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.