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Neural mechanisms underlying subsequent memory for personal beliefs:An fMRI study.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Wing, EA; Iyengar, V; Hess, TM; LaBar, KS; Huettel, SA; Cabeza, R
Published in: Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience
April 2018

Many fMRI studies have examined the neural mechanisms supporting emotional memory for stimuli that generate emotion rather automatically (e.g., a picture of a dangerous animal or of appetizing food). However, far fewer studies have examined how memory is influenced by emotion related to social and political issues (e.g., a proposal for large changes in taxation policy), which clearly vary across individuals. In order to investigate the neural substrates of affective and mnemonic processes associated with personal opinions, we employed an fMRI task wherein participants rated the intensity of agreement/disagreement to sociopolitical belief statements paired with neural face pictures. Following the rating phase, participants performed an associative recognition test in which they distinguished identical versus recombined face-statement pairs. The study yielded three main findings: behaviorally, the intensity of agreement ratings was linked to greater subjective emotional arousal as well as enhanced high-confidence subsequent memory. Neurally, statements that elicited strong (vs. weak) agreement or disagreement were associated with greater activation of the amygdala. Finally, a subsequent memory analysis showed that the behavioral memory advantage for statements generating stronger ratings was dependent on the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Together, these results both underscore consistencies in neural systems supporting emotional arousal and suggest a modulation of arousal-related encoding mechanisms when emotion is contingent on referencing personal beliefs.

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Published In

Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience

DOI

EISSN

1531-135X

ISSN

1530-7026

Publication Date

April 2018

Volume

18

Issue

2

Start / End Page

216 / 231

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Prefrontal Cortex
  • Politics
  • Memory
  • Male
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Judgment
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
 

Citation

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MLA
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Wing, E. A., Iyengar, V., Hess, T. M., LaBar, K. S., Huettel, S. A., & Cabeza, R. (2018). Neural mechanisms underlying subsequent memory for personal beliefs:An fMRI study. Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 18(2), 216–231. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-018-0563-y
Wing, Erik A., Vijeth Iyengar, Thomas M. Hess, Kevin S. LaBar, Scott A. Huettel, and Roberto Cabeza. “Neural mechanisms underlying subsequent memory for personal beliefs:An fMRI study.Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience 18, no. 2 (April 2018): 216–31. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-018-0563-y.
Wing EA, Iyengar V, Hess TM, LaBar KS, Huettel SA, Cabeza R. Neural mechanisms underlying subsequent memory for personal beliefs:An fMRI study. Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience. 2018 Apr;18(2):216–31.
Wing, Erik A., et al. “Neural mechanisms underlying subsequent memory for personal beliefs:An fMRI study.Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, vol. 18, no. 2, Apr. 2018, pp. 216–31. Epmc, doi:10.3758/s13415-018-0563-y.
Wing EA, Iyengar V, Hess TM, LaBar KS, Huettel SA, Cabeza R. Neural mechanisms underlying subsequent memory for personal beliefs:An fMRI study. Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience. 2018 Apr;18(2):216–231.
Journal cover image

Published In

Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience

DOI

EISSN

1531-135X

ISSN

1530-7026

Publication Date

April 2018

Volume

18

Issue

2

Start / End Page

216 / 231

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Prefrontal Cortex
  • Politics
  • Memory
  • Male
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Judgment
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology