Division of Bio-X Interdisciplinary Sciences, National Laboratory for Physical Science at Microscale, Department of Neurobiology and Biophysics, School of Life Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026, PR China.
Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2010 Jan;93(1):1-7. doi: 10.1016/j.nlm.2009.07.009. Epub 2009 Aug 4.
A new focus in the field of emotional memory is the study of sex-related differences. Whether the sex-related lateralization of amygdala function (i.e., the female-left/male-right effect) in the emotional enhancement of memory (EEM) is time-dependent remains unclear. To evaluate this phenomenon, we conducted a two time-point study (20 min vs. 24h) using fMRI and behavioral paradigms. We found that the right amygdala predicted 20-min EEM, while the left amygdala predicted 24-h EEM. The sex-related lateralization of amygdala function was not detected in either the 20-min or the 24-h EEM. Our results further confirm and extend the idea that the amygdala exhibits a lateralized and time-dependent dissociation, occurring even in the 24-h EEM relative to the 20-min EEM. The present and previous studies indicate that sex-related lateralization of amygdala function occurs in the 2- to 3-week EEM, but it does not occur in the 1-week, 24-h, or less than 30-min EEM, suggesting that this effect on emotional memory may also be time-dependent.
情感记忆领域的一个新焦点是研究与性别相关的差异。杏仁核功能的性别相关偏侧化（即女性左/男性右效应）是否与记忆的情绪增强（EEM）有关，目前尚不清楚。为了评估这种现象，我们使用 fMRI 和行为范式进行了两项时间点研究（20 分钟与 24 小时）。我们发现，右杏仁核预测了 20 分钟的 EEM，而左杏仁核预测了 24 小时的 EEM。在 20 分钟或 24 小时的 EEM 中，都没有检测到杏仁核功能的性别相关偏侧化。我们的研究结果进一步证实和扩展了这样一种观点，即杏仁核表现出偏侧化和时间依赖性分离，即使在与 20 分钟 EEM 相比的 24 小时 EEM 中也是如此。目前和以前的研究表明，杏仁核功能的性别相关偏侧化发生在 2 到 3 周的 EEM 中，但在 1 周、24 小时或少于 30 分钟的 EEM 中并不发生，这表明这种对情绪记忆的影响可能也是时间依赖性的。
