Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3, Canada.
J Neurosci. 2012 Aug 15;32(33):11201-12. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0155-12.2012.
Highly emotional events are associated with vivid "flashbulb" memories. Here we examine whether the flashbulb metaphor characterizes a previously unknown emotion-enhanced vividness (EEV) during initial perceptual experience. Using a magnitude estimation procedure, human observers estimated the relative magnitude of visual noise overlaid on scenes. After controlling for computational metrics of objective visual salience, emotional salience was associated with decreased noise, or heightened perceptual vividness, demonstrating EEV, which predicted later memory vividness. Event-related potentials revealed a posterior P2 component at ∼200 ms that was associated with both increased emotional salience and decreased objective noise levels, consistent with EEV. Blood oxygenation level-dependent response in the lateral occipital complex (LOC), insula, and amygdala predicted online EEV. The LOC and insula represented complimentary influences on EEV, with the amygdala statistically mediating both. These findings indicate that the metaphorical vivid light surrounding emotional memories is embodied directly in perceptual cortices during initial experience, supported by cortico-limbic interactions.
高度情绪化的事件与生动的“闪光灯”记忆有关。在这里，我们研究闪光灯隐喻是否描述了初始感知体验期间先前未知的情绪增强生动性（EEV）。使用幅度估计程序，人类观察者估计了叠加在场景上的视觉噪声的相对幅度。在控制了客观视觉显著性的计算指标后，情绪显著性与降低的噪声或增强的感知生动性相关，表明存在 EEV，这预测了后来的记忆生动性。事件相关电位显示出约 200 毫秒的后 P2 成分，与增加的情绪显著性和降低的客观噪声水平相关，与 EEV 一致。外侧枕叶复合体（LOC）、岛叶和杏仁核中的血氧水平依赖性反应预测了在线 EEV。LOC 和岛叶对 EEV 有互补的影响，杏仁核在统计学上介导了这两者。这些发现表明，情绪记忆周围的生动光的隐喻直接体现在初始体验期间的感知皮层中，这得到了皮质-边缘相互作用的支持。
