Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Emotional Memory Networks

描述：（申请人提供） 对情感事件的记忆与我们的 自传体的经验，但对大脑机制知之甚少 参与编码并在记忆中保留情感事件。拟议 研究使用现代认知神经科学技术来揭示 大规模大脑网络的组织，将情感刺激与 长期记忆功能。为了实现这一目标，心理生理学， 事件相关电位（ERP）和功能性磁共振成像（fMRI） 方法将被用来研究情绪的神经生理学影响， 在正常人类受试者的记忆编码和提取任务中的线索。新 技术将被应用于改善额叶边缘脑的fMRI信号 区域，并推断其激活的时间过程。的空间和时间 将结合并行ERP和fMRI研究获得的信息， 说明边缘前脑区域如何对情绪显著性敏感 操作动态地与专门用于 记忆和感知过程。据推测， 前额叶皮层和杏仁核会调节感觉联系的活动 皮层对唤醒刺激的反应。因此，情感事件将 接受增强的刺激结合和促进检索从记忆相关的 内侧颞叶和前额叶皮层。模态 情绪网络成分的特异性将被询问， 大脑激活模式将与外周变化相关， 自主生理学和个体受试者的记忆分数。 在药物成瘾人群中，先前药物摄入的情景记忆和 与毒品有关的环境线索引发的记忆联想， 在成瘾过程的动机方面发挥重要作用，并有助于 药物耐受性的生理适应。拟议的研究 可能会导致新的见解来理解这些影响，通过提供一个更 准确而详细地描述了情感和情感之间的动态相互作用， 人类大脑中的记忆系统。

DESCRIPTION: (provided by applicant) Memories for emotional episodes are intricately associated with our autobiographical experience, yet little is known about the brain mechanisms involved in encoding and retaining emotional events in memory. The proposed research uses modern cognitive neuroscience techniques to reveal insights into the organization of large-scale brain networks that link emotional stimuli to long-term memory functions. To achieve this aim, psychophysiological, event-related potential (ERP), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methods will be used to investigate the neurophysiological impact of emotional cues during memory encoding and retrieval tasks in normal human subjects. New techniques will be applied to improve the fMRI signal in frontolimbic brain areas and to infer their time course of activation. The spatial and temporal information obtained across parallel ERP and fMRI studies will be combined to specify how limbic forebrain areas sensitive to emotional salience manipulations dynamically interact with cortical networks specialized for mnemonic and perceptual processes. It is hypothesized that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala will modulate activity in sensory association cortex in response to arousing stimuli. As a result, emotional events will receive enhanced stimulus binding and facilitated retrieval from memory-related areas in the medial temporal lobe and prefrontal cortex. The modality specificity of the emotional network components will be interrogated, and the brain activation patterns will be correlated with peripheral changes in autonomic physiology and memory scores in individual subjects. In drug addiction populations, episodic memories for prior drug intake and mnemonic associations triggered by drug-related environmental cues play an important role in motivational aspects of the addictive process and contribute to physiological adaptations underlying drug tolerance. The proposed studies may lead to new insights into understanding these effects by providing a more accurate and detailed account of the dynamic interplay between emotion and memory systems in the human brain.