Nava Esmeralda, Landau Daniela, Brody Stuart, Linder Lilly, Schächinger Hartmut
Clinical Research Center and Division of Psychosomatic Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland.
Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2004 May;81(3):167-71. doi: 10.1016/j.nlm.2004.02.001.
Experimental evidence has linked increased arousal to enhanced memory retention. There is also evidence that procedures reducing arousal, i.e., mental relaxation, might improve memory, but conflicting results have been reported. To clarify this issue, we studied the effects of a single session of relaxation training on incidental visual long-term memory. Thirty-two relaxation-naive subjects viewed 280 slides without being told that there would be subsequent memory testing. Afterwards, subjects listened to a 12 min relaxation tape; 16 subjects relaxed by following the instructions (relaxation group), and the other 16 subjects pressed a button whenever a body part was mentioned (control group). While listening to the relaxation tape, high frequency heart rate variability (HRV) was greater and low frequency HRV was lower in the relaxation group, implying effective relaxation and increasing parasympathetic activation. The relaxation group had superior memory retention 4 weeks later (p = .004), indicating enhancement of long-term memory performance. This effect could not be explained by retroactive interference experienced in the control group because short-term memory performance immediately after the tape was slightly better in the control group. Retention of materials acquired after the relaxation session remained unaffected, suggesting relaxation has retrograde effects on memory consolidation. Our data demonstrate a favorable influence of relaxation on at least this aspect of learning. Our data also extend previous knowledge on the beneficial effects of ascending parasympathetic stimulation on memory retention in that enhanced long-term memory consolidation may also occur in the presence of central and descending parasympathetic activation triggered by willful psychomotor activity.
实验证据表明，唤醒水平的提高与记忆保持的增强有关。也有证据表明，降低唤醒水平的程序，即心理放松，可能会改善记忆，但也有相互矛盾的报道。为了澄清这个问题，我们研究了单次放松训练对偶然视觉长期记忆的影响。32名从未接受过放松训练的受试者观看了280张幻灯片，且未被告知随后会有记忆测试。之后，受试者听了一段12分钟的放松磁带；16名受试者按照指示进行放松（放松组），另外16名受试者每当听到身体部位被提及就按下按钮（对照组）。在听放松磁带时，放松组的高频心率变异性（HRV）更高，低频HRV更低，这意味着有效的放松和副交感神经激活的增加。4周后，放松组的记忆保持情况更好（p = .004），表明长期记忆表现得到了增强。对照组经历的后向干扰无法解释这种效应，因为磁带播放后对照组的短期记忆表现略好。放松训练后获取材料的保持情况不受影响，这表明放松对记忆巩固有逆行效应。我们的数据证明了放松对学习的至少这一方面有积极影响。我们的数据还扩展了先前关于副交感神经刺激增强对记忆保持有益影响的知识，即增强的长期记忆巩固也可能发生在由有意的心理运动活动触发的中枢和下行副交感神经激活的情况下。
