Effects of emotion and stress on mnemonic binding of contextual information: Brain dynamics and neural substrates

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An important aspect of episodic memory is the binding of contextual information (e.g., time, place, associative cues) that constitutes the many disparate features of a unified event, a binding mechanism that seems to be compromised in trauma and stress-related disorders (e.g. Acute or Posttraumatic Stress Disorder or Adjustment Disorders). Recent behavioral findings with healthy participants suggest that acute stress indeed impairs the integration of such contextual cues into an (emotional) episodic memory trace, indicating that stress hormones most likely mediate memory context functioning. The planned project builds upon these findings and aims to investigate brain dynamics and neural substrates of the mechanisms underlying long-term mnemonic binding of contextual emotional and neutral information (within and between item binding) in healthy volunteers using dense-array electrocortical (ERPs) and functional hemodynamic measures (fMRI) of human brain activity. The project will be divided into two phases investigating a) the basic neural mechanisms underlying context binding of emotional and neutral information during encoding and retrieval in healthy participants (Phase 1) and b) the role of stress on contextual binding (Phase 2) taking into account temporal dynamics of corticosteroid actions (rapid non-genomic vs slow gene-mediated) and the neural mechanisms underlying these effects.The outcome of this project will impact research on the relationship between emotion, stress and memory. Memory for events and for their associations with other information is essential in everyday life and knowing the factors mediating these processes is crucial particularly with regard to clinical populations, as deficits in linking the traumatic event with appropriate contextual information represents an important vulnerability factor for the development and maintenance of trauma and stressor related disorders.