Song Xinwei, Liu Qi, Zhang Xiaodong, Liu Can, Lan Chunmei, Zhang Xiaolu, Xu Ting, Zhang Ran, Kendrick Keith M, Becker Benjamin, Zhao Weihua
The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China.
School of Sport Training, Chengdu Sport University, Chengdu, 610041, China.
Int J Clin Health Psychol. 2024 Oct-Dec;24(4):100509. doi: 10.1016/j.ijchp.2024.100509. Epub 2024 Oct 10.
Individuals often actively suppress intrusive memories to alleviate the distress they cause and maintain mental well-being. However, those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often exhibit difficulties particularly in inhibiting or suppressing negative memories compared to individuals without PTSD. These memories can involve a physical threat either to the individual themselves or to others. Unfortunately, there is still limited understanding of the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underlie how suppression differs for self-related versus other-related memories. Here we capitalized on multivariate pattern analyses in combination with fMRI data acquired during a two-phase memory suppression paradigm where participants volitionally suppressed and subsequently recognized self-related and other-related stimuli. The results suggested that the recognition process following memory suppression demands more cognitive engagement for self-related stimuli than other-related stimuli, manifesting in increased activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). Furthermore, after memory suppression, we observed a stronger functional coupling between dACC identified during memory suppression, and both the middle frontal gyrus and the insula during self-related recognition compared to other-related recognition. An advanced multivariate pattern analysis substantiated that the limbic system and empathy network particularly contributed to accurately distinguishing between self-related and other-related recognition following memory suppression. Our findings demonstrated distinct neural representations of memory suppression related to self and others, suggesting that different strategies may be employed for suppressing intrusive memories originating from different sources.
个体常常积极抑制侵入性记忆，以减轻其带来的痛苦并维持心理健康。然而，与没有创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的个体相比，患有创伤后应激障碍的个体往往在抑制或压制负面记忆方面存在困难。这些记忆可能涉及对个体自身或他人的身体威胁。不幸的是，对于自我相关记忆与他人相关记忆的抑制差异背后的认知和神经机制，目前仍了解有限。在此，我们利用多变量模式分析，并结合在两阶段记忆抑制范式中获取的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）数据，在该范式中，参与者自愿抑制并随后识别自我相关和他人相关的刺激。结果表明，记忆抑制后的识别过程对自我相关刺激的认知参与度高于他人相关刺激，表现为背侧前扣带回皮质（dACC）的活动增加。此外，在记忆抑制后，我们观察到，与他人相关识别相比，在自我相关识别过程中，记忆抑制期间识别出的dACC与额中回和脑岛之间的功能耦合更强。一项先进的多变量模式分析证实，边缘系统和共情网络对记忆抑制后准确区分自我相关和他人相关识别尤其有帮助。我们的研究结果表明了与自我和他人相关的记忆抑制具有不同的神经表征，这表明可能会采用不同策略来抑制源自不同来源的侵入性记忆。
