This research program will employ behavioral, fMRI, and patient experiments to study the cognitive and neural processes by which emotion influences recognition. A series of experiments will address the following two questions: (1) Which recognition process (familiarity or recollection) is modulated by emotion?, and (2) Do subjective reports (remember/know judgments) reflect familiarity and recollective processes in recognition of emotional stimuli? The proposed experiments will use response deadline procedures and a source memory task that require subjects to either make old/new recognition judgments or remember/know judgments for emotional and neutral words. These methods will allow us to determine the recognition process modulated by emotion, and if the subjective experience of recognition reflects the underlying processes involved in recognition of emotional stimuli. FMRI and amygdala patient studies will allow us to characterize the neural processes that contribute to recognition of emotional stimuli. This research will have important implications for theoretical accounts of memory for emotional stimuli, and may provide the basis for new treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder and anxiety disorders.
