Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
Neuropsychologia. 2010 Oct;48(12):3459-69. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.07.030. Epub 2010 Aug 3.
Over the past decade, fMRI techniques have been increasingly used to interrogate the neural correlates of successful emotional memory encoding. These investigations have typically aimed to either characterize the contributions of the amygdala and medial temporal lobe (MTL) memory system, replicating results in animals, or delineate the neural correlates of specific behavioral phenomena. It has remained difficult, however, to synthesize these findings into a systems neuroscience account of how networks across the whole-brain support the enhancing effects of emotion on memory encoding. To this end, the present study employed a meta-analytic approach using activation likelihood estimates to assess the anatomical specificity and reliability of event-related fMRI activations related to successful memory encoding for emotional versus neutral information. The meta-analysis revealed consistent clusters within bilateral amygdala, anterior hippocampus, anterior and posterior parahippocampal gyrus, the ventral visual stream, left lateral prefrontal cortex and right ventral parietal cortex. The results within the amygdala and MTL support a wealth of findings from the animal literature linking these regions to arousal-mediated memory effects. The consistency of findings in cortical targets, including the visual, prefrontal, and parietal cortices, underscores the importance of generating hypotheses regarding their participation in emotional memory formation. In particular, we propose that the amygdala interacts with these structures to promote enhancements in perceptual processing, semantic elaboration, and attention, which serve to benefit subsequent memory for emotional material. These findings may motivate future research on emotional modulation of widespread neural systems and the implications of this modulation for cognition.
在过去的十年中，功能磁共振成像(fMRI)技术被越来越多地用于探究成功的情绪记忆编码的神经相关性。这些研究通常旨在描述杏仁核和内侧颞叶(MTL)记忆系统的贡献，复制动物研究的结果，或者描绘特定行为现象的神经相关性。然而，将这些发现综合成一个关于整个大脑网络如何支持情绪对记忆编码增强作用的系统神经科学解释仍然很困难。为此，本研究采用基于激活似然估计的元分析方法，评估与情绪信息相比，成功记忆编码相关的事件相关 fMRI 激活的解剖学特异性和可靠性。该元分析揭示了双侧杏仁核、前海马体、前和后海马旁回、腹侧视觉流、左侧外侧前额叶皮层和右侧腹侧顶叶皮层内一致的簇。杏仁核和 MTL 内的结果支持了大量来自动物文献的发现，这些发现将这些区域与唤醒介导的记忆效应联系起来。皮质靶区（包括视觉、前额叶和顶叶皮层）的一致性发现强调了提出关于它们参与情绪记忆形成的假设的重要性。特别是，我们提出杏仁核与这些结构相互作用，以促进感知加工、语义细化和注意力的增强，从而有利于随后对情绪材料的记忆。这些发现可能会激发对广泛神经系统的情绪调节以及这种调节对认知的影响的未来研究。
