Effects of emotional arousal on multiple memory systems: evidence from declarative and procedural learning.
Extensive evidence documents emotional modulation of hippocampus-dependent declarative memory in humans. However, little is known about the emotional modulation of striatum-dependent procedural memory. To address how emotional arousal influences declarative and procedural memory, the current study utilized (1) a picture recognition and (2) a weather prediction (WP) task (a probabilistic classification learning task), which have been shown to rely on hippocampal- and striatum-based memory systems, respectively. Observers viewed arousing or neutral pictures after (Experiment 1) or during (Experiment 2) WP training trials. A 1-wk delayed picture recognition memory test revealed enhanced declarative memory for arousing compared with neutral pictures. Arousal during encoding impaired initial WP acquisition but did not influence retention when tested after a 1-wk delay. Data from a subsequent 3-mo delayed test, however, suggested that arousal during acquisition may enhance remote WP retention. These results suggest a potential dissociation between how readily emotional arousal influences hippocampus-dependent and striatum-dependent memory systems in humans.
Steidl
Stephan
S
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3, Canada.
Mohi-uddin
Salwa
S
Anderson
Adam K
AK
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D017072:Neostriatum / Q000502:physiology*; D011337:Probability Learning; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology