title: Arousal Modulates Activity in the Medial Temporal Lobe during a Short-Term Relational Memory Task.
abstract: This study investigated the effect of arousal on short-term relational memory and its underlying cortical network. Seventeen healthy participants performed a picture by location, short-term relational memory task using emotional pictures. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure the blood-oxygenation-level dependent signal relative to task. Subjects' own ratings of the pictures were used to obtain subjective arousal ratings. Subjective arousal was found to have a dose-dependent effect on activations in the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, and in higher order visual areas. Serial position analyses showed that high arousal trials produced a stronger primacy and recency effect than low arousal trials. The results indicate that short-term relational memory may be facilitated by arousal and that this may be modulated by a dose-response function in arousal-driven neuronal regions.
authors.affiliation: Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thoresen
authors.forename: Jimmy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: Niels Petter B
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Sigvartsen
authors.forename: Ingeborg
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bolstad
authors.forename: Andres
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Server
authors.forename: Per H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Nakstad
authors.forename: Ole A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Andreassen
authors.forename: Tor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Endestad