Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. E-mail: ekensing alum. Edited by Marcus E. Louis, MO, and approved December 30, Prior investigations have demonstrated that emotional information is often better remembered than neutral information, but they have not directly contrasted effects attributable to valence and those attributable to arousal.
By using functional MRI and behavioral studies, we found that distinct cognitive and neural processes contribute to emotional memory enhancement for arousing information versus valenced, nonarousing information. The former depended on an amygdalar-hippocampal network, whereas the latter was supported by a prefrontal cortex-hippocampal network implicated in controlled encoding processes.
A behavioral companion study, with a divided-attention paradigm, confirmed that memory enhancement for valenced, nonarousing words relied on controlled encoding processes: concurrent task performance reduced the enhancement effect. Enhancement for arousing words occurred automatically, even when encoding resources were diverted to the secondary task.
Why do we remember some experiences while forgetting others? Neuroimaging has provided a tool to probe this question. Functional MRI studies have indicated that activation in prefrontal cortex PFC , hippocampus, and parahippocampal gyrus underlies successful encoding, such that greater activation in these regions increases the probability that information will be remembered.
In most functional MRI studies examining memory formation, stimuli are chosen deliberately to preclude an emotional response.
