Division of Medical Psychology, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Strasse 25, D-53105 Bonn, Germany.
Neuropsychologia. 2010 Mar;48(4):989-96. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.11.022. Epub 2009 Nov 27.
Emotions can enhance memory which is on the one hand advantageous, but on the other hand may be detrimental in the long term, for example in the case of traumatic events. Although cognitive emotion regulation may reduce emotion experience and corresponding neural activation, at present little is known about its influence on long-term memory. We investigated memory for emotional pictures in healthy female subjects 1 year after voluntary emotion regulation using fMRI. Whereas memory performance was not affected by regulation, our data revealed a dissociation of brain regions involved in memory encoding and recognition depending on whether emotional engagement during encoding had been downregulated. Emotional engagement during encoding resulted in a long-term subsequent memory effect in mesolimbic brain regions and hippocampus, and in recognition-related activation in the amygdala. In contrast, when negative emotions had been downregulated during encoding memory performance was predicted by prefrontal activation. Our data suggest that memory for emotionally encoded stimuli is supported by emotional re-activation, whereas memory for successfully encoded items during emotion regulation is rather supported by recognition of features and cognitive contents. These results contribute to research on long-term effects of emotion regulation in everyday life and open new avenues to understand and possibly influence traumatic memory traces.
情绪可以增强记忆，这在一方面是有利的，但从长远来看，在某些情况下，例如在创伤性事件中，情绪可能会产生负面影响。虽然认知情绪调节可以减少情绪体验和相应的神经激活，但目前对于其对长期记忆的影响知之甚少。我们使用 fMRI 研究了健康女性受试者在自愿进行情绪调节 1 年后对情绪图片的记忆。虽然调节对记忆表现没有影响，但我们的数据显示，记忆编码和识别所涉及的大脑区域存在分离，这取决于编码期间的情绪参与是否被下调。编码期间的情绪参与导致中脑边缘区域和海马体的长期后续记忆效应，以及杏仁核的识别相关激活。相比之下，当编码期间的负性情绪被下调时，记忆表现则取决于前额叶的激活。我们的数据表明，情绪编码刺激的记忆受到情绪再激活的支持，而在情绪调节期间成功编码项目的记忆则更多地受到特征和认知内容的识别的支持。这些结果有助于研究日常生活中情绪调节的长期影响，并为理解和可能影响创伤性记忆痕迹开辟了新的途径。
