Article

Over the past decade, fMRI techniques have been increasingly used to interrogate
the neural correlates of successful emotional memory encoding. These
investigations have typically aimed to either characterize the contributions of
the amygdala and medial temporal lobe (MTL) memory system, replicating results in
animals, or delineate the neural correlates of specific behavioral phenomena. It
has remained difficult, however, to synthesize these findings into a systems
neuroscience account of how networks across the whole-brain support the enhancing
effects of emotion on memory encoding. To this end, the present study employed a
meta-analytic approach using activation likelihood estimates to assess the
anatomical specificity and reliability of event-related fMRI activations related
to successful memory encoding for emotional versus neutral information. The
meta-analysis revealed consistent clusters within bilateral amygdala, anterior
hippocampus, anterior and posterior parahippocampal gyrus, the ventral visual
stream, left lateral prefrontal cortex and right ventral parietal cortex. The
results within the amygdala and MTL support a wealth of findings from the animal
literature linking these regions to arousal-mediated memory effects. The
consistency of findings in cortical targets, including the visual, prefrontal,
and parietal cortices, underscores the importance of generating hypotheses
regarding their participation in emotional memory formation. In particular, we
propose that the amygdala interacts with these structures to promote enhancements
in perceptual processing, semantic elaboration, and attention, which serve to
benefit subsequent memory for emotional material. These findings may motivate
future research on emotional modulation of widespread neural systems and the
implications of this modulation for cognition.
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Langue : ANGLAIS