Staying cool when things get hot: emotion regulation modulates neural mechanisms of memory encoding.

Abstract

During times of emotional stress, individuals often engage in emotion regulation to reduce the experiential and physiological impact of negative emotions. Interestingly, emotion regulation strategies also influence memory encoding of the event. Cognitive reappraisal is associated with enhanced memory while expressive suppression is associated with impaired explicit memory of the emotional event. However, the mechanism by which these emotion regulation strategies affect memory is unclear. We used event-related fMRI to investigate the neural mechanisms that give rise to memory formation during emotion regulation. Twenty-five participants viewed negative pictures while alternately engaging in cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, or passive viewing. As part of the subsequent memory design, participants returned to the laboratory two weeks later for a surprise memory test. Behavioral results showed a reduction in negative affect and a retention advantage for reappraised stimuli relative to the other conditions. Imaging results showed that successful encoding during reappraisal was uniquely associated with greater co-activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus, amygdala, and hippocampus, suggesting a possible role for elaborative encoding of negative memories. This study provides neurobehavioral evidence that engaging in cognitive reappraisal is advantageous to both affective and mnemonic processes.

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Citation

Published Version (Please cite this version)

10.3389/fnhum.2010.00230

Publication Info

Hayes, Jasmeet Pannu, Rajendra A Morey, Christopher M Petty, Srishti Seth, Moria J Smoski, Gregory McCarthy and Kevin S Labar (2010). Staying cool when things get hot: emotion regulation modulates neural mechanisms of memory encoding. Front Hum Neurosci, 4. p. 230. 10.3389/fnhum.2010.00230 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/10888.

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Scholars@Duke

Smoski

Moria Joy Smoski

Associate Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

My research interests are focused on emotion regulation and reward processes in psychopathology, primarily in major depressive disorder.  I am interested in the translation of knowledge gleaned from cognitive neuroscience methods including functional neuroimaging to better understand and improve psychosocial interventions, including cognitive behavioral and mindfulness interventions.

LaBar

Kevin S. LaBar

Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience

My research focuses on understanding how emotional events modulate cognitive processes in the human brain. We aim to identify brain regions that encode the emotional properties of sensory stimuli, and to show how these regions interact with neural systems supporting social cognition, executive control, and learning and memory. To achieve this goal, we use a variety of cognitive neuroscience techniques in human subject populations. These include psychophysiological monitoring, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), machine learning,  and behavioral studies in healthy adults as well as psychiatric patients. This integrative approach capitalizes on recent advances in the field and may lead to new insights into cognitive-emotional interactions in the brain.


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