Taylor S F, Liberzon I, Fig L M, Decker L R, Minoshima S, Koeppe R A
Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
Neuroimage. 1998 Aug;8(2):188-97. doi: 10.1006/nimg.1998.0356.
The emotional content of stimuli can enhance memory for those stimuli. This process may occur via an interaction with systems responsible for perception and memory or via the addition of distinct brain regions specialized for emotion which augment mnemonic processing. We performed an 15O PET study to identify neuroanatomical systems which encode visual stimuli with strong negative emotional valence compared to stimuli with neutral valence. Subjects also performed a recognition memory task for these same images, mixed with distracters of similar emotional valence. The experimental design permitted us to independently test effects of emotional content and recognition memory on regional activity. We found activity in the left amygdaloid complex associated with the encoding of emotional stimuli, although this activation appeared early in the scanning session and was not detectable during recognition memory. Visual recognition memory recruited the right middle frontal gyrus and the superior anterior cingulate cortex for both negative and neutral stimuli. An interaction occurred between emotional content and recognition in the lingual gyrus, where greater activation occurred during recognition of negative images compared to recognition of neutral images. Instead of distinct neuroanatomical systems for emotion augmenting memory, we found that emotionally salient stimuli appeared to enhance processing of early sensory input during visual recognition.
刺激的情感内容能够增强对这些刺激的记忆。这一过程可能通过与负责感知和记忆的系统相互作用而发生，或者通过增加专门用于情感的不同脑区来增强记忆处理。我们进行了一项¹⁵O正电子发射断层扫描（PET）研究，以确定与具有中性效价的刺激相比，对具有强烈负性情感效价的视觉刺激进行编码的神经解剖系统。受试者还对这些相同的图像进行了识别记忆任务，其中混入了具有相似情感效价的干扰物。该实验设计使我们能够独立测试情感内容和识别记忆对区域活动的影响。我们发现左侧杏仁复合体的活动与情感刺激的编码有关，尽管这种激活在扫描过程早期出现，在识别记忆期间无法检测到。视觉识别记忆在识别负性和中性刺激时均激活了右侧额中回和前扣带回上部皮质。在舌回，情感内容和识别之间存在相互作用，与识别中性图像相比，识别负性图像时激活更强。我们没有发现用于增强记忆的不同情感神经解剖系统，而是发现情感显著的刺激似乎在视觉识别过程中增强了早期感觉输入的处理。
