At the core of our sense of self and personal history are emotional memories. Although emotional or stressful experiences tend to be memorable, emotional arousal can also impair various aspects of memory. In recent years, research into arousal and memory has focused on the key role of the amygdala in enhancing perception and memory of emotionally arousing stimuli. But enhanced memory for arousing information is only part of the story-there is also abundant evidence that arousal enhances some aspects of memory while impairing other aspects. The novel arousal-biased competition (ABC) theory tested in this application states that arousal enhances high-priority neural representations but suppresses low-priority neural representations of stimuli. This can account for a broad range of arousal-induced selectivity effects in memory, including findings that initially appear contradictory such as retrograde amnesia vs. enhancement for neutral stimuli preceding arousing stimuli. The proposed studies will test the effect of arousal on low- and high-priority representations and examine how the effects of arousal differ for younger and older adults. Priority will be systematically manipulated both by bottom-up perceptual salience and by top-down goal relevance; studies will examine the nature of age differences in the effects of arousal on short-term memory, long-term memory and memory binding. One key question is whether arousal's enhancement of high priority and suppression of low priority information are two outcomes from the same competitive process, or whether they arise from independent mechanisms. Because older adults show a deficit in suppression, their performance will help address this question. Although the focus of the application is emotional memory, we are likely to learn about the basic mechanisms of enhancement vs. suppression in aging. Despite a long history of findings that older adults show inhibitory deficits, there have been only a few studies examining the neural mechanisms of older adults' impaired suppression. Our studies examine whether their suppression deficits are greater when stimuli priority is determined by top-down goals or by bottom-up salience and how suppression deficits affect long-term memory.

Public Health Relevance

Terrible accidents, declarations of love, schoolyard triumphs and humiliations-these emotional events create lifelong memories, but they can also drive less immediate concerns from our mind. This research aims to explain how emotional arousal stamps some things in memory while simultaneously rubbing other things out. A comprehensive understanding of the interplay between emotional arousal and memory could lead to advances such as new treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, changes in how the justice system handles eyewitness testimony and improved techniques for surgeons and other people who must rely on memory under stressful conditions.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AG025340-10
Application #
8850754
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1)
Program Officer
Nielsen, Lisbeth
Project Start
2004-09-01
Project End
2016-05-31
Budget Start
2015-06-01
Budget End
2016-05-31
Support Year
10
Fiscal Year
2015
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Southern California
Department
Type
Other Specialized Schools
DUNS #
072933393
City
Los Angeles
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
90032
Durbin, Kelly A; Clewett, David; Huang, Ringo et al. (2018) Age differences in selective memory of goal-relevant stimuli under threat. Emotion 18:906-911
Lee, Tae-Ho; Greening, Steven G; Ueno, Taiji et al. (2018) Arousal increases neural gain via the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system in younger adults but not in older adults. Nat Hum Behav 2:356-366
Clewett, David V; Huang, Ringo; Velasco, Rico et al. (2018) Locus Coeruleus Activity Strengthens Prioritized Memories Under Arousal. J Neurosci 38:1558-1574
Martins, Bruna; Sheppes, Gal; Gross, James J et al. (2018) Age Differences in Emotion Regulation Choice: Older Adults Use Distraction Less Than Younger Adults in High-Intensity Positive Contexts. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 73:603-611
Yoo, Hyun Joo; Thayer, Julian F; Greening, Steven et al. (2018) Brain structural concomitants of resting state heart rate variability in the young and old: evidence from two independent samples. Brain Struct Funct 223:727-737
Sutherland, Matthew R; Mather, Mara (2018) Arousal (but not valence) amplifies the impact of salience. Cogn Emot 32:616-622
Tang, Yuchun; Sun, Wei; Toga, Arthur W et al. (2018) A probabilistic atlas of human brainstem pathways based on connectome imaging data. Neuroimage 169:227-239
Aydogan, Dogu Baran; Shi, Yonggang (2018) Tracking and validation techniques for topographically organized tractography. Neuroimage 181:64-84
Martins, Bruna; Florjanczyk, Jan; Jackson, Nicholas J et al. (2018) Age differences in emotion regulation effort: Pupil response distinguishes reappraisal and distraction for older but not younger adults. Psychol Aging 33:338-349
Nashiro, Kaoru; Guevara-Aguirre, Jaime; Braskie, Meredith N et al. (2017) Brain Structure and Function Associated with Younger Adults in Growth Hormone Receptor-Deficient Humans. J Neurosci 37:1696-1707

Showing the most recent 10 out of 80 publications