Interaction Between Affect and Memory in the Brain: from Basic Mechanisms to Clinical Implications

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Background

Stressful and arousing experiences produce strong and lasting memories. This selectivity of memory is thought to occur due to immediate effects of affective arousal acting on neural systems involved in attentional (e.g., frontoparietal regions), sensory (e.g., visual, auditory, or other regions depend on the type of memories), and mnemonic and affective processes (e.g., medial temporal lobe and amygdala). However, memories for arousing events are also further strengthened by preferential consolidation after a delay. Selective encoding and consolidation of memories for arousing events have profound clinical implications. For instance, in stress and trauma-related disorders typically characterized by persistent vivid and mostly unwanted memories of traumatic events (e.g., rumination and flashback). These symptoms could be regarded as spontaneous memory reactivation and indeed, at the neural level, characterized by memory-specific pattern reinstatements in memory or sensory regions. Better understanding of the effects of affective arousal on memory formation will ultimately help understand the development of such disorders and potentially pave the way for better treatment.

Recent advances in clinical neuroscience focused on the development of interventional techniques that could ameliorate the negative effects of affect and in turn, reduce its associated adverse symptomatology. However, these techniques are rather scarce, and little is known about the neural mechanisms associated with the beneficial effects of these interventions.

Available evidence emerging from neuroimaging studies links the negative affect with memory to both selective activation of the amygdala and a diminished engagement of prefrontal regions which in turn modulate the activity of medial temporal structures thought to be critical for these memory processes. Indeed, this activation pattern--observed in healthy volunteers performing tasks-- seems to be more pronounced in people suffering from stress-related and affective disorders. However, this pattern can also be reversed by means of cognitive interventions that result in reduced negative effects of affect on learning and memory. Similarly, recent studies utilizing neurostimulation techniques showing positive effects on memory and learning may also be promising intervention tools.

This Research Topic aims to showcase emerging evidence regarding the interconnected neural systems and networks involved in processes related to affect and memory, their dysfunctional alterations in clinical conditions, as well as potential modulations/interventions to alleviate these dysfunctional mechanisms.

We will focus on the following three main topics:
(1) Basic investigations using novel experimental paradigms and/or advanced analytic approaches to gain a deeper understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms associated with the underlying encoding, consolidation, and retrieval of memories for affective events;
(2) investigations identifying promising interventional approaches (e.g. cognitive, brain stimulation, pharmacological) to modulate the neural mechanisms associated with affect and memory for the future therapeutic development;
(3) investigations mapping the complex relationships between clusters of affective/memory-related symptoms, large-scale brain networks, and real-life/clinical outcomes in healthy, high-risk and clinical samples with one or more comorbidity.

We aim to initiate an exchange between cognitive neuroscientists, psychiatrists and clinicians bringing together recent empirical findings (spanning from behavioral and lesion to pharmacological, brain imaging and stimulation), meta-analysis, reviews, and commentaries of the literature to date, and opinion pieces.

Keywords: Memory, encoding, consolidation, network

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