The neurobiology of human working memory for threat: A multi-method approach

这个项目将探索我们在感知信息后立即记忆和思考信息的能力如何受到信息情绪化程度的影响。班戈大学的科学家之前进行的研究表明，与威胁相关的图像，例如愤怒的脸，比起没有威胁的图像，例如中性表情的脸，更有可能在短时间内被记住。这个项目将以之前的研究为基础，探索情绪信息，包括引起恐惧的图像和声音，是如何被大脑优先处理的。这项研究将使用大脑成像技术来研究控制情绪信息如何影响短期记忆的大脑系统。它还将探索大脑中特定的生物化学物质，即神经递质，调节对情绪信息的认知反应的可能性。为了做到这一点，该项目将研究帕金森氏症患者的短期记忆以获取情感信息，因为已知他们缺乏一种特定的神经递质，这种神经递质很可能在短期记忆的情绪调节中发挥重要作用。问同样的问题，但使用不同的方法，该项目的其他部分将检查健康的成年人神经递质系统的遗传变异如何被用来解释情绪信息短期记忆的变异。该项目的结果将提供对大脑如何使用与动机相关的信息来控制记忆和有意识体验的洞察力。

This project will explore how our ability to remember and think about information immediately after perceiving it is affected by how emotional that information is. Previous research conducted by scientists a Bangor University showed that images associated with threat, e.g., angry faces, are more likely to be remembered over brief intervals than non-threatening images, e.g., faces with a neutral expression. This project will build on those previous studies by exploring how emotional information, including images and sounds that are fear evoking, gain preferential processing by the brain. The study will use brain-imaging techniques to investigate the brain systems that control how emotional information influences short term memory. It will also explore the possibility that specific bio-chemicals in the brain, called neurotransmitters, regulate cognitive responses to emotional information. To do this, the project will study short-term memory for emotional information in patients with Parkinson's disease because they are known to be deficient in a specific neurotransmitter that is highly likely to be important in emotional regulation of short-term memory. Asking the same question but using a different method, other parts of the project will examine how genetic variation in the neurotransmitter systems in healthy human adults can be used to account for variations in short term memory for emotional information. The results of the project will provide insight into how the brain uses motivationally relavent information to control memory and conscious experience.