What Is the Effect of Basic Emotions on Directed Forgetting? Investigating the Role of Basic Emotions in Memory

Effects of cognitive reappraisal on directed forgetting of negative emotional memory: an ERP study

This study aimed to adopt the item-method directed forgetting (DF) paradigm to explore the effects of cognitive reappraisal on intentional forgetting of negative emotional pictures. Behavioral results showed that the recognition of to-be-forgotten but remembered (TBF-r) was significantly greater than that of to-be-remembered and remembered (TBR-r) in the recognition test, which was the opposite result to the DF effect. Event-related potential (ERP) results showed that in the 450-660 ms (ms) of cue presentation, the F-cue of the cognitive reappraisal condition (imagining the upcoming pictures to be "fake or performed by actors" to avoid or reduce the intensity of negative emotions caused by the pictures) elicited more positive late positive potential (LPP) than passive viewing (participants watched freely and paid attention to the characters, scenes, and other details in the picture). This indicated that cognitive reappraisal required stronger inhibition than passive viewing for the to-be- forgotten (TBF) items. In the test phase, both the TBR-r and TBF-r items in the cognitive reappraisal condition evoked more positive ERP than correctly rejected (CR) unseen items in the study phase, which induced the frontal old/new effect (P200, 160-240 ms). In addition, this study also found that the LPP amplitudes of 450-660 ms in the frontal area induced by F-cues in cognitive reappraisal were significantly negatively correlated with the LPP amplitudes of 300-3500 ms induced by cognitive reappraisal instructions, and positive waves in the frontal area were significantly positively correlated with the TBF-r behavioral results. However, these results were not observed in the passive viewing group. The above results show that cognitive reappraisal enhances the retrieval ability for TBR and TBF items, and TBF-r is associated with cognitive reappraisal in the study phase and inhibitory control of F-cues.

Effects of emotion and sex difference on item-method directed forgetting

It is crucial to remember or forget others' faces in daily life. People can intentionally forget things they wish to forget, a phenomenon called directed forgetting (DF). This study examined the effects of stimuli's emotions and sex differences in participants and stimuli on DF. We used happy and angry faces as the items in a typical item-method paradigm and conducted three behavioral experiments. In Experiment 1, we recruited 60 participants to examine how emotions of stimuli and sex differences in participants and stimuli affected DF. In Experiment 2, we recruited 60 female participants and manipulated the durations of items presented during the study phase to examine whether the selective rehearsal theory was held. In Experiment 3, we recruited 50 female participants and attached recognition cues to the items presented during the test phase to examine whether the inhibitory control theory was held. We treated the sex of participants in Experiment 1, the durations of items presented during the study phase in Experiment 2 as the between-subject factors, and emotion and sex of stimuli as the with-subject factors. We conducted the mixed-design ANOVA for corrected hit rate, sensitivity, and bias based on the signal detection theory. As a result, we found that DF occurred easily for male participants, whereas not for female participants because of females' superior memorial performances and stronger sensitivities. Furthermore, we found that female participants owned the best and worst recognition rates for angry female faces and happy male faces, respectively. Our results supported the selective rehearsal theory, suggesting manipulations during the study phase had the potential to help females forget what they wished to forget. We presumed that psychologists and therapists should pay attention to the roles of sex difference in twofold, self and others, when studying people's memory and forgetting. Furthermore, the sensitivity of self and the emotion of others should be considered as well.

Obliviate! Reviewing Neural Fundamentals of Intentional Forgetting from a Meta-Analytic Perspective

Intentional forgetting (IF) is an important adaptive mechanism necessary for correct memory functioning, optimal psychological wellbeing, and appropriate daily performance. Due to its complexity, the neuropsychological processes that give birth to successful intentional forgetting are not yet clearly known. In this study, we used two different meta-analytic algorithms, Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) & Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to quantitatively assess the neural correlates of IF and to evaluate the degree of compatibility between the proposed neurobiological models and the existing brain imaging data. We found that IF involves the interaction of two networks, the main “core regions” consisting of a primarily right-lateralized frontal-parietal circuit that is activated irrespective of the paradigm used and sample characteristics and a second less constrained “supportive network” that involves frontal-hippocampal interactions when IF takes place. Additionally, our results support the validity of the inhibitory or thought suppression hypothesis. The presence of a neural signature of IF that is stable regardless of experimental paradigms is a promising finding that may open new venues for the development of effective clinical interventions.

Effect of the congruity of emotional contexts at encoding on source memory: Evidence from ERPs

Emotion's influence on source memory has proven more elusive and the lack of studies investigates the effect of the congruent emotional contexts on source memory. Here, we investigated these issues using event-related potentials (ERPs) to assess emotional-induced neural correlates. During encoding, congruent word-picture (a word 'shoes' - a picture described shoes) and incongruent word-picture (a word 'pepper' - a picture described shoes) with a prompt (Common? or Natural?) were presented. At retrieval, participants indicated which prompts were concomitantly presented with the word during encoding. Behavioral results revealed that source memory accuracy was enhanced in the neutral contexts compared to the negative contexts, and enhanced in the incongruent condition relative to the congruent condition, suggesting that emotional contexts impaired source memory performance, and incongruent information enhanced source memory. ERPs results showed that early P2 old/new effect (150-250 ms) and FN400 old/new effect (300-450 ms) were observed for words with correct source that had been encoded in the congruent emotional contexts, and that a larger parietal old/new effect, between 500 and 700 ms, was observed for words with correct source that had been encoded in the incongruent condition than in the congruent condition, irrespective the nature of context. The ERPs results indicate that retrieval of source details for the associated emotionally congruent information supports the idea that emotional events could attract more attentional resources, and reflects the contribution of familiarity-based process. Meanwhile, retrieval of source details for the associated incongruent information reflects a stronger contribution of recollection-based process.

Affective Episodic Memory System for Virtual Creatures: The First Step of Emotion-Oriented Memory

Episodic memory and emotions are considered essential functions in human cognition. Both allow us to acquire new knowledge from the environment, ranging from the objects around us to how we feel towards them. These qualities make them crucial functions for systems trying to create human-like behaviour. In the field of cognitive architectures (CAs), there are multiple studies covering memory and emotions. However, most of them treat these subjects in an isolated manner, considering emotions only as a reward signal unrelated to a retrieved experience. To address this lack of direct interaction, we propose a computational model that covers the common processes that are related to memory and emotions. Specifically, this proposal focuses on affective evaluations of episodic memories. Neurosciences and psychology are the bases of this model. That is, the model's components and the processes that they carry out on the information they receive are designed based on evidence from these cognitive sciences. The proposed model is a part of Cuáyóllótl, a cognitive architecture for cybernetic entities such as virtual creatures and robots. Case studies validate our proposal. They show the relevance of the integration of emotions and memory in a virtual creature. The virtual creature endowed with our emotional episodic model improves its learning and modifies its behaviour according to planning and decision-making processes.

"A Sustained, Productive, Constructive Relationship with Someone Who Can Help"-A Qualitative Exploration of the Experiences of Help Seekers and Support Persons Using the Emergency Department during a Suicide Crisis

For Australians experiencing a suicide crisis, the emergency department (ED) is the recommended point of contact for intervention and to ensure personal safety. However, negative ED experiences can deter individuals from returning, thus impacting future suicide risk. In order to improve the ED environment for individuals in suicidal crisis, an in-depth understanding of this experience is needed. In-depth semi-structured interviews with 17 help seekers and 16 support persons were conducted. A grounded theory approach uncovered a core organising concept—all participants wanted a “a sustained, productive, constructive relationship with someone who can help” during the ED visit—which guided analysis. Thematic analysis resulted in two themes and four subthemes exploring the systemic and interpersonal aspects of the ED visit and the roadblocks and pathways to development of the relationship. Interpersonal factors included aspects of staff interaction and presence of a support person. Systemic factors related to aspects controlled by the physical space and internal policies and procedures and included aspects such as the chaotic environment, long waiting times, and access to staff. Overwhelmingly, there were more roadblocks than pathways reported by participants. Improving the ED environment, increasing staff training and encouraging the presence of support persons may help mitigate some of these roadblocks.

Functional connectivity between right-lateralized ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and insula mediates reappraisal's link to memory control

BACKGROUND

Memory control (MC) ability is critical for people's mental and physical health. Previous research had conceptually demonstrated that MC ability has close relationship with reappraisal. However, experimental evidence supporting the relationship was limited. Thus, in the present study, we investigated how MC and reappraisal are linked, both in behavior and in the brain.

METHODS

The habitual use of reappraisal was assessed by Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and memory control ability was measured through directed forgetting task. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to test the seed-based functional connectivity in 181 healthy subjects.

RESULTS

Behavioral results revealed that more frequent reappraisal was associated with an enhanced ability to control negative memories. Resting-state seed-based functional connectivity showed that habitual use of reappraisal was positively related to the strength of functional connectivity between the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and right insula. Most importantly, this functional connectivity mediated the effect of habitual use of reappraisal on control over negative memories.

LIMITATIONS

Present results mainly showed the habitual use of reappraisal was related with MC ability in negative items. Future study could further explore the relationship between MC ability of different categories of negative emotional memories and other kinds of ER strategies.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results support the notion that reappraisal provides opportunities for individuals to practice and enhance inhibitory control-a relationship underpinned by connectivity between the right VLPFC and right insula.

Emotional memories are (usually) harder to forget: A meta-analysis of the item-method directed forgetting literature

The current meta-analysis explored whether emotional memories are less susceptible to item-method directed forgetting than neutral memories. Basic analyses revealed superior memory for remember (R) than forget (F) items in both the neutral, M = 19.6%, CI_95% [16.1, 23.1], and the emotional, M = 15.1%, CI_95% [12.4, 17.7], conditions. Directed forgetting in either valence condition was larger for (a) words than for other stimuli; (b) recall than recognition tests; (c) studies that used recall prior to recognition testing; (d) shorter lists; and (e) studies that included buffer items. Direct comparison of the magnitude of the directed forgetting effect across neutral and emotional conditions within studies revealed relatively diminished directed forgetting of emotional items compared to neutral items, with an average difference of 4.2%, CI_95% [2.0, 6.4]. However, the nature of this finding varied broadly across studies, meaning that whether - and to what degree - emotional memories are more resilient than neutral memories likely depends on the methodological features of the study in question. Moderator analyses revealed larger differences (a) in studies for which the emotional items were more arousing than the neutral items, and (b) when buffer items were included. Together, these findings suggest that emotional memories are often more resilient to intentional forgetting than neutral memories, although further research is necessary to characterize the circumstances under which these differences emerge.

Could L2 Lexical Attrition Be Predicted in the Dimension of Valence, Arousal, and Dominance?

The current study attended to predict L2 lexical attrition by means of a Decision Tree model (DT model) in three emotional dimensions, that is, the valence dimension, the arousal dimension, and the dominance dimension. A sample of 188 participants whose L1 was Chinese and L2 was English performed a recognition test of 500 words for measuring the L2 lexical attrition. The findings explored by the Decision Tree model indicated that L2 lexical attrition could be predicted in all the three emotional dimensions in two aspects: (1) among the three emotional dimensions, the valence dimension was the most powerful in predicting L2 lexical attrition, followed successively by the dominance dimension and the arousal dimension; (2) most of the neutral words in the three emotional dimensions were predicted to be inferior to emotional words in L2 attrition. In addition, the modified Revised Hierarchical Model for emotion could be adopted to justify the modulation of the emotion–memory effects upon L2 lexical attrition.

Investigating the replicability and boundary conditions of the mnemonic advantage for disgust

Research has demonstrated that people remember emotional information better than neutral information. However, such research has almost exclusively defined emotion in terms of valence and arousal. Discrete emotions may affect memory above and beyond such dimensions, with recent research indicating that disgusting information is better remembered than frightening information. We initially sought to determine whether participants are sensitive to the effects of discrete emotions when predicting their future memory performance. Participants in Experiment 1 were more confident in their memory for emotional (both frightening and disgusting) images relative to neutral images, but confidence did not differ between frightening and disgusting images. However, because we did not replicate the mnemonic advantage of disgust, subsequent experiments were concerned with testing the replicability of this effect. Because metamemorial judgments sometimes eliminate memory effects, participants in Experiment 2 did not make such judgments. Even so, the effect did not replicate. The disgust advantage was ultimately replicated in Experiment 3, where participants completed a secondary task at encoding. The disgust advantage is replicable but appears less robust than previously recognised. A single-paper meta-analysis indicated that the effect is more likely under divided attention, perhaps because the mechanisms which mediate disgust-memory are relatively automatic.

The Influence of Discrete Negative and Positive Stimuli on Recognition Memory of Younger vs. Older Adults

Background: The effects of emotional stimuli on memory in older adults are often addressed in terms of socio-emotional selectivity theory and the valence dimension. Older adults usually remember positive stimuli better than negative stimuli. However, studies examining the effects of discrete emotions on the elderly are still limited. The present study examined the effects of negative and positive discrete emotions (fear, disgust, and happiness) on recognition memory of older and younger adults. Method: In the encoding phase, participants studied happiness-, disgust-, fear-, and neutral- related photos while doing a line discrimination task that assessed their attention. After 45 minutes, they completed an old/new recognition memory test on a confidence rating scale and also rated self-relevance of photos. Results: Younger participants showed a more liberal response bias for disgust- and fear-related stimuli, and were also more accurate in recognizing disgust-related photos compared to others. Older adults showed a more liberal bias only for disgust-related stimuli, however, their recognition accuracy did not differ across emotion categories. Conclusion: These results suggested that the effect of disgust-related stimuli on recognition memory may decrease with age and emotion effects cannot solely be accounted for by the valence/arousal dimensions.

Long-term modulation of cardiac activity induced by inhibitory control over emotional memories

Efforts to exclude past experiences from conscious awareness can lead to forgetting. Memory suppression is central to affective disorders, but we still do not really know whether emotions, including their physiological causes, are also impacted by this process in normal functioning individuals. In two studies, we measured the after-effects of suppressing negative memories on cardiac response in healthy participants. Results of Study 1 revealed that efficient control of memories was associated with long-term inhibition of the cardiac deceleration that is normally induced by disgusting stimuli. Attempts to suppress sad memories, by contrast, aggravated the cardiac response, an effect that was closely related to the inability to forget this specific material. In Study 2, electroencephalography revealed a reduction in power in the theta (3-8 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz) and low-beta (13-20 Hz) bands during the suppression of unwanted memories, compared with their voluntary recall. Interestingly, however, the reduction of power in the theta frequency band during memory control was related to a subsequent inhibition of the cardiac response. These results provide a neurophysiological basis for the influence of memory control mechanisms on the cardiac system, opening up new avenues and questions for treating intrusive memories using motivated forgetting.

Is internal source memory recognition modulated by emotional encoding contexts?

The influence of emotion on memory has been mainly examined by manipulating the emotional valence and/or arousal of critical items. Few studies probed how emotional information presented during the encoding of critical neutral items modulates memory recognition, particularly when considering source memory features. In this study, we specified the role of emotional encoding contexts in internal source memory performance (discrimination between encoding tasks) using a mixed (Experiment 1) and a blocked design (Experiment 2). During the study phase, participants were required to evaluate a set of neutral words, using either a self-referential or a semantic (common judgment) encoding strategy. Prior and concomitantly with each word, negative, neutral or positive pictures were presented in the background. The beneficial effect of self-referential encoding was observed for both item and internal source memory in both experiments. Remarkably, item and internal source memory recognition was not modulated by emotion, even though a secondary analysis indicated that the consistent exposure to negative (vs. positive) information led to worse source memory performance. These findings suggest that internal source memory of neutral items is not always affected by changing or repetitive emotional encoding contexts.

Many ways to forget - Neurophysiology of directed forgetting mechanisms in schizophrenia

Numerous studies have shown dysfunctional mechanism of interaction between bottom-up emotional and top-down cognitive processes in persons with schizophrenia (SCZ). During the emotional directed forgetting (DF) paradigm participants have to apply volitional mechanisms to resist automatic emotional enhancement of the memory. Here we sought to compare mechanisms underlying emotional DF in SCZ and in healthy persons (HC). Eighteen SCZ and eighteen HC completed a DF paradigm with neutral and negative pictures. EEG was recorded during study and test phase of the task. We analyzed both the behavioral outcomes and event-related potential components, indicating emotional enhancement of memory (Late Positive Potential elicited by pictures) and DF strategies (N2/P3 elicited by forget/remember cues during study-phase; "old/new" and "reversed old/new" effects during test-phase of the task). Directed forgetting effects and emotional enhancement of memory were observed in both groups, even despite overall lower recognition rates in SCZ. Furthermore, cue presentation elicited similar pattern of N2/P3s in SCZ and in HC. However, "reversed old/new" effect was observed only in HC for negative stimuli. Patients may show similar reaction to affective stimuli as healthy controls during the emotional DF task. However, further investigation is needed to elicit the specific mechanisms underlying the DF strategies in SCZ.

Do different salience cues compete for dominance in memory over a daytime nap?

Information that is the most salient and important for future use is preferentially preserved through active processing during sleep. Emotional salience is a biologically adaptive cue that influences episodic memory processing through interactions between amygdalar and hippocampal activity. However, other cues that influence the importance of information, such as the explicit direction to remember or forget, interact with the inherent salience of information to determine its fate in memory. It is unknown how sleep-based processes selectively consolidate this complex information. The current study examined the development of memory for emotional and neutral information that was either cued to-be-remembered (TBR) or to-be-forgotten (TBF) across a daytime period including either napping or wakefulness. Baseline memory revealed dominance of the TBR cue, regardless of emotional salience. As anticipated, napping was found to preserve memory overall significantly better than remaining awake. Furthermore, we observed a trending interaction indicating that napping specifically enhanced the discrimination between the most salient information (negative TBR items) over other information. We found that memory for negative items was positively associated with the percentage of SWS obtained during a nap. Furthermore, the magnitude of the difference in memory between negative TBR items and negative TBF items increased with greater sleep spindle activity. Taken together, our results suggest that although the cue to actively remember or intentionally forget initially wins out, active processes during sleep facilitate the competition between salience cues to promote the most salient information in memory.

Cognitive mechanisms of disgust in the development and maintenance of psychopathology: A qualitative review and synthesis

A growing body of research has implicated disgust in various psychopathologies, especially anxiety-related disorders. Although the observed role of disgust in many disorders is robust, the mechanisms that may explain this role are unclear. Cutting-edge research in cognitive science has the potential to elucidate such mechanisms and consequently improve our understanding of how disgust contributes to the etiology and maintenance of psychopathology. In this qualitative review, we systematically assess cognitive bias mechanisms that have been linked to disgust and its disorders. This review suggests that disgust-related biases may be observed in memory, interpretation, judgment of expectancies, and attention, as well as at implicit levels. Of these cognitive domains, the most robust bias appears to be observed at the level of attention. However, reliable moderators of attentional biases for disgust have not yet been identified, and this bias has not been systematically linked to other levels of analysis. Despite these limitations, the available research indicates that attentional avoidance rather than orienting or maintenance may be the most characteristic of disgust. Attentional avoidance of disgust may have important implications for etiological and treatment models of disorders characterized by excessive disgust reactions. The implications for advancing such models are discussed in the context of a combined cognitive bias hypothesis.

Cognitive control over memory - individual differences in memory performance for emotional and neutral material

It is widely accepted that people differ in memory performance. The ability to control one’s memory depends on multiple factors, including the emotional properties of the memorized material. While it was widely demonstrated that emotion can facilitate memory, it is unclear how emotion modifies our ability to suppress memory. One of the reasons for the lack of consensus among researchers is that individual differences in memory performance were largely neglected in previous studies. We used the directed forgetting paradigm in an fMRI study, in which subjects viewed neutral and emotional words, which they were instructed to remember or to forget. Subsequently, subjects’ memory of these words was tested. Finally, they assessed the words on scales of valence, arousal, sadness and fear. We found that memory performance depended on instruction as reflected in the engagement of the lateral prefrontal cortex (lateral PFC), irrespective of emotional properties of words. While the lateral PFC engagement did not differ between neutral and emotional conditions, it correlated with behavioural performance when emotional – as opposed to neutral – words were presented. A deeper understanding of the underlying brain mechanisms is likely to require a study of individual differences in cognitive abilities to suppress memory.

Dynamic Changes in Amygdala Psychophysiological Connectivity Reveal Distinct Neural Networks for Facial Expressions of Basic Emotions

The quest to characterize the neural signature distinctive of different basic emotions has recently come under renewed scrutiny. Here we investigated whether facial expressions of different basic emotions modulate the functional connectivity of the amygdala with the rest of the brain. To this end, we presented seventeen healthy participants (8 females) with facial expressions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and emotional neutrality and analyzed amygdala's psychophysiological interaction (PPI). In fact, PPI can reveal how inter-regional amygdala communications change dynamically depending on perception of various emotional expressions to recruit different brain networks, compared to the functional interactions it entertains during perception of neutral expressions. We found that for each emotion the amygdala recruited a distinctive and spatially distributed set of structures to interact with. These changes in amygdala connectional patters characterize the dynamic signature prototypical of individual emotion processing, and seemingly represent a neural mechanism that serves to implement the distinctive influence that each emotion exerts on perceptual, cognitive, and motor responses. Besides these differences, all emotions enhanced amygdala functional integration with premotor cortices compared to neutral faces. The present findings thus concur to reconceptualise the structure-function relation between brain-emotion from the traditional one-to-one mapping toward a network-based and dynamic perspective.

Arousal Rather than Basic Emotions Influence Long-Term Recognition Memory in Humans

Emotion can influence various cognitive processes, however its impact on memory has been traditionally studied over relatively short retention periods and in line with dimensional models of affect. The present study aimed to investigate emotional effects on long-term recognition memory according to a combined framework of affective dimensions and basic emotions. Images selected from the Nencki Affective Picture System were rated on the scale of affective dimensions and basic emotions. After 6 months, subjects took part in a surprise recognition test during an fMRI session. The more negative the pictures the better they were remembered, but also the more false recognitions they provoked. Similar effects were found for the arousal dimension. Recognition success was greater for pictures with lower intensity of happiness and with higher intensity of surprise, sadness, fear, and disgust. Consecutive fMRI analyses showed a significant activation for remembered (recognized) vs. forgotten (not recognized) images in anterior cingulate and bilateral anterior insula as well as in bilateral caudate nuclei and right thalamus. Further, arousal was found to be the only subjective rating significantly modulating brain activation. Higher subjective arousal evoked higher activation associated with memory recognition in the right caudate and the left cingulate gyrus. Notably, no significant modulation was observed for other subjective ratings, including basic emotion intensities. These results emphasize the crucial role of arousal for long-term recognition memory and support the hypothesis that the memorized material, over time, becomes stored in a distributed cortical network including the core salience network and basal ganglia.