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Research
Emotional memories are not all created equal: Evidence for selective memory enhancement

Adam K. Anderson^1,2,4, Yuki Yamaguchi³, Wojtek Grabski¹, and Dominika Lacka¹

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G3 Canada; ² Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Toronto, Ontario, M6A 2E1 Canada; ³ Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA

Human brain imaging studies have shown that greater amygdala activation to emotional relative to neutral events leads to enhanced episodic memory. Other studies have shown that fearful faces also elicit greater amygdala activation relative to neutral faces. To the extent that amygdala recruitment is sufficient to enhance recollection, these separate lines of evidence predict that recognition memory should be greater for fearful relative to neutral faces. Experiment 1 demonstrated enhanced memory for emotionally negative relative to neutral scenes; however, fearful faces were not subject to enhanced recognition across a variety of delays (15 min to 2 wk). Experiment 2 demonstrated that enhanced delayed recognition for emotional scenes was associated with increased sympathetic autonomic arousal, indexed by the galvanic skin response, relative to fearful faces. These results suggest that while amygdala activation may be necessary, it alone is insufficient to enhance episodic memory formation. It is proposed that a sufficient level of systemic arousal is required to alter memory consolidation resulting in enhanced recollection of emotional events.

⁴ Corresponding author.

E-mail anderson{at}psych.utoronto.ca; fax (416) 978-4811.

Article published online before print. Article and publication date are at http://www.learnmem.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/lm.388906

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