@article{VenturaBortWirknerWendtetal.2021,
  author    = {Ventura-Bort, Carlos and Wirkner, Janine and Wendt, Julia and Hamm, Alfons O. and Weymar, Mathias},
  title     = {Establishment of emotional memories is mediated by vagal nerve activation},
  series = {The journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience},
  volume    = {41},
  journal   = {The journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience},
  number    = {36},
  publisher = {Society for Neuroscience},
  address   = {Washington, DC},
  issn      = {1529-2401},
  doi       = {10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2329-20.2021},
  pages     = {7636 -- 7648},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Emotional memories are better remembered than neutral ones, but the mechanisms leading to this memory bias are not well under-stood in humans yet. Based on animal research, it is suggested that the memory-enhancing effect of emotion is based on central nor-adrenergic release, which is triggered by afferent vagal nerve activation. To test the causal link between vagus nerve activation and emotional memory in humans, we applied continuous noninvasive transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) during exposure to emotional arousing and neutral scenes and tested subsequent, long-term recognition memory after 1 week. We found that taVNS, compared with sham, increased recollection-based memory performance for emotional, but not neutral, material. These findings were complemented by larger recollection-related brain potentials (parietal ERP Old/New effect) during retrieval of emotional scenes encoded under taVNS, compared with sham. Furthermore, brain potentials recorded during encoding also revealed that taVNS facilitated early attentional discrimination between emotional and neutral scenes. Extending animal research, our behavioral and neu-ral findings confirm a modulatory influence of the vagus nerve in emotional memory formation in humans.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{WendtHufenbachKoenigetal.2020,
  author    = {Wendt, Julia and Hufenbach, Miriam Catrin and K{\"o}nig, J{\"o}rg and Hamm, Alfons O.},
  title     = {Effects of verbal instructions and physical threat removal prior to extinction training on the return of conditioned fear},
  series = {Scientific Reports},
  volume    = {10},
  journal   = {Scientific Reports},
  publisher = {Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature},
  address   = {London},
  issn      = {2045-2322},
  doi       = {10.1038/s41598-020-57934-7},
  pages     = {14},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {Instructions given prior to extinction training facilitate the extinction of conditioned skin conductance (SCRs) and fear-potentiated startle responses (FPSs) and serve as laboratory models for cognitive interventions implemented in exposure-based treatments of pathological anxiety. Here, we investigated how instructions given prior to extinction training, with or without the additional removal of the electrode used to deliver the unconditioned stimulus (US), affect the return of fear assessed 24 hours later. We replicated previous instruction effects on extinction and added that the additional removal of the US electrode slightly enhanced facilitating effects on the extinction of conditioned FPSs. In contrast, extinction instructions hardly affected the return of conditioned fear responses. These findings suggest that instruction effects observed during extinction training do not extent to tests of return of fear 24 hours later which serve as laboratory models of relapse and improvement stability of exposure-based treatments.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{WendtHufenbachKoenigetal.2020,
  author    = {Wendt, Julia and Hufenbach, Miriam Catrin and K{\"o}nig, J{\"o}rg and Hamm, Alfons O.},
  title     = {Effects of verbal instructions and physical threat removal prior to extinction training on the return of conditioned fear},
  series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  journal   = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  number    = {599},
  issn      = {1866-8364},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-44479},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-444796},
  pages     = {16},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {Instructions given prior to extinction training facilitate the extinction of conditioned skin conductance (SCRs) and fear-potentiated startle responses (FPSs) and serve as laboratory models for cognitive interventions implemented in exposure-based treatments of pathological anxiety. Here, we investigated how instructions given prior to extinction training, with or without the additional removal of the electrode used to deliver the unconditioned stimulus (US), affect the return of fear assessed 24 hours later. We replicated previous instruction effects on extinction and added that the additional removal of the US electrode slightly enhanced facilitating effects on the extinction of conditioned FPSs. In contrast, extinction instructions hardly affected the return of conditioned fear responses. These findings suggest that instruction effects observed during extinction training do not extent to tests of return of fear 24 hours later which serve as laboratory models of relapse and improvement stability of exposure-based treatments.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{SzeskaRichterWendtetal.2020,
  author    = {Szeska, Christoph and Richter, Jan and Wendt, Julia and Weymar, Mathias and Hamm, Alfons O.},
  title     = {Promoting long-term inhibition of human fear responses by non-invasive transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation during extinction training},
  series = {Scientific reports},
  volume    = {10},
  journal   = {Scientific reports},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {Nature Publishing Group},
  address   = {London},
  issn      = {2045-2322},
  doi       = {10.1038/s41598-020-58412-w},
  pages     = {16},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {Inhibiting fear-related thoughts and defensive behaviors when they are no longer appropriate to the situation is a prerequisite for flexible and adaptive responding to changing environments. Such inhibition of defensive systems is mediated by ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), limbic basolateral amygdala (BLA), and brain stem locus-coeruleus noradrenergic system (LC-NAs). Non-invasive, transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) has shown to activate this circuit. Using a multiple-day single-cue fear conditioning and extinction paradigm, we investigated long-term effects of tVNS on inhibition of low-level amygdala modulated fear potentiated startle and cognitive risk assessments. We found that administration of tVNS during extinction training facilitated inhibition of fear potentiated startle responses and cognitive risk assessments, resulting in facilitated formation, consolidation and long-term recall of extinction memory, and prevention of the return of fear. These findings might indicate new ways to increase the efficacy of exposure-based treatments of anxiety disorders.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{VenturaBortWirknerDolcosetal.2019,
  author    = {Ventura-Bort, Carlos and Wirkner, Janine and Dolcos, Florin and Wendt, Julia and Hamm, Alfons O. and Weymar, Mathias},
  title     = {Enhanced spontaneous retrieval of cues from emotional events: an ERP study},
  series = {Biological psychology},
  volume    = {148},
  journal   = {Biological psychology},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {Amsterdam},
  issn      = {0301-0511},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107742},
  pages     = {7},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Recent evidence points to enhanced episodic memory retrieval not only for emotional items but also for neutral information encoded in emotional contexts. However, prior research only tested instructed explicit recognition, and hence here we investigated whether memory retrieval is also heightened for cues from emotional contexts when retrieval is not explicitly probed. During the first session of a two-session experiment, neutral objects were presented on different background scenes varying in emotional and neutral contents. One week later, objects were presented again (with no background) intermixed with novel objects. In both sessions, participants were instructed to attentively watch the stimuli (free viewing procedure), and during the second session, ERPs were also collected to measure the ERP Old/New effect, an electrophysiological correlate of episodic memory retrieval. Analyses were performed using cluster-based permutation tests in order to identify reliable spatiotemporal ERP differences. Based on this approach, old relative to new objects, were associated with larger ERP positivity in an early (364-744 ms) and late time window (760-1148 ms) over distinct central electrode clusters. Interestingly, significant late ERP Old/New differences were only observed for objects previously encoded with emotional, but not neutral scenes (504 to 1144 ms). Because these ERP differences were observed in a non-instructed retrieval context, our results indicate that long-term, spontaneous retrieval for neutral objects, is particularly heightened if encoded within emotionally salient contextual information. These findings may assist in understanding mechanisms underlying spontaneous retrieval of emotional associates and the utility of ERPs to study maladaptive involuntary memories in trauma- and stress-related disorders.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{WeymarVenturaBortWirkneretal.2019,
  author    = {Weymar, Mathias and Ventura-Bort, Carlos and Wirkner, Janine and Genheimer, Hannah and Wendt, Julia and Hamm, Alfons O.},
  title     = {Effects of Transcutaneous Vagus Vagus Nerve Stimulation (TVNS) on selective attentions and emotional episodic memory : findings from ERP research},
  series = {Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research},
  volume    = {56},
  journal   = {Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research},
  publisher = {Wiley},
  address   = {Hoboken},
  issn      = {0048-5772},
  doi       = {10.1111/psyp.13501},
  pages     = {S12 -- S12},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Recent research indicates that non- invasive stimulation of the afferent auricular vagal nerve (tVNS) may modulate various cognitive and affec-tive functions, likely via activation of the locus coeruleus- norepinephrine (LC- NE) system. In a series of ERP studies we found that the attention- related P300 component is enhanced during continuous vagal stimula-tion, compared to sham, which is also related to increased salivary alpha amylase levels (a putative indirect marker for central NE activation). In another study, we investigated the effect of continuous tVNS on the late positive potential (LPP), an electrophysiological index for motivated atten-tion toward emotionally evocative cues, and the effects of tVNS on later recognition memory (1- week delay). Here, vagal stimulation prompted earlier LPP differences (300- 500 ms) between unpleasant and neutral scenes. During retrieval, vagal stimulation significantly improved memory performance for unpleasant, but not neutral pictures, compared to sham stimulation, which was also related to enhanced salivary alpha amylase levels. In line, unpleasant images encoded under tVNS compared to sham stimulation also produced enhanced ERP old/new differences (500- 800 ms) during retrieval indicating better recollection. Taken together, our studies suggest that tVNS facilitates attention, learning and episodic memory, likely via afferent projections to the arousal- modulated LC- NE system. We will, however, also show data that point to critical stimulation parameters (likely duration and frequency) that need to be considered when applying tVNS},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{WirknerVenturaBortSchwabeetal.2019,
  author    = {Wirkner, Janine and Ventura-Bort, Carlos and Schwabe, Lars and Hamm, Alfons O. and Weymar, Mathias},
  title     = {Chronic stress and emotion: Differential effects on attentional processing and recognition memory},
  series = {Psychoneuroendocrinology},
  volume    = {107},
  journal   = {Psychoneuroendocrinology},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {Oxford},
  issn      = {0306-4530},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.05.008},
  pages     = {93 -- 97},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Previous research indicates that acute stress around the time of learning facilitates attention and memory for emotionally salient information. Despite accumulating evidence for these acute stress effects, less is known about the role of chronic stress. In the present study, we therefore tested emotional and neutral scene processing and later recognition memory in female participants using hair cortisol concentrations as a biological marker for chronic stress. Event-related potentials recorded during picture viewing indicated enhanced late positive potentials (LPPs) for emotional, relative to neutral contents. These brain potentials varied as a function of long-term hair cortisol levels: hair-cortisol levels were positively related to overall LPP amplitudes. Results from recognition memory testing one week after encoding revealed better memory for emotional relative to neutral scenes. Hair-cortisol levels, however, were related to poorer memory accuracy. Taken together, our results indicate that chronic stress enhanced attentional processing during encoding of new stimuli and impaired later recognition memory. Results are discussed with regard to putatively opposite effects of chronic stress on certain brain regions (e.g., amygdala and hippocampus).},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{PahnkeMauMoellerJungeetal.2019,
  author    = {Pahnke, Rike and Mau-M{\"o}ller, Anett and Junge, Martin and Wendt, Julia and Weymar, Mathias and Hamm, Alfons O. and Lischke, Alexander},
  title     = {Oral Contraceptives Impair Complex Emotion Recognition in Healthy Women},
  series = {Frontiers in neuroscience},
  volume    = {12},
  journal   = {Frontiers in neuroscience},
  publisher = {Frontiers Research Foundation},
  address   = {Lausanne},
  issn      = {1662-453X},
  doi       = {10.3389/fnins.2018.01041},
  pages     = {9},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Despite the widespread use of oral contraceptives (OCs), remarkably little is known about the effects of OCs on emotion, cognition, and behavior. However, coincidental findings suggest that OCs impair the ability to recognize others' emotional expressions, which may have serious consequences in interpersonal contexts. To further investigate the effects of OCs on emotion recognition, we tested whether women who were using OCs (n = 42) would be less accurate in the recognition of complex emotional expressions than women who were not using OCs (n = 53). In addition, we explored whether these differences in emotion recognition would depend on women's menstrual cycle phase. We found that women with OC use were indeed less accurate in the recognition of complex expressions than women without OC use, in particular during the processing of expressions that were difficult to recognize. These differences in emotion recognition did not depend on women's menstrual cycle phase. Our findings, thus, suggest that OCs impair women's emotion recognition, which should be taken into account when informing women about the side-effects of OC use.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{DolcosKatsumiMooreetal.2019,
  author    = {Dolcos, Florin and Katsumi, Yuta and Moore, Matthew and Berggren, Nick and de Gelder, Beatrice and Derakshan, Nazanin and Hamm, Alfons O. and Koster, Ernst H. W. and Ladouceur, Cecile D. and Okon-Singer, Hadas and Ventura-Bort, Carlos and Weymar, Mathias},
  title     = {Neural correlates of emotion-attention interactions},
  series = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  journal   = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  issn      = {1866-8364},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-51621},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-516213},
  pages     = {45},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Due to their ability to capture attention, emotional stimuli tend to benefit from enhanced perceptual processing, which can be helpful when such stimuli are task-relevant but hindering when they are task-irrelevant. Altered emotion-attention interactions have been associated with symptoms of affective disturbances, and emerging research focuses on improving emotion-attention interactions to prevent or treat affective disorders. In line with the Human Affectome Project's emphasis on linguistic components, we also analyzed the language used to describe attention-related aspects of emotion, and highlighted terms related to domains such as conscious awareness, motivational effects of attention, social attention, and emotion regulation. These terms were discussed within a broader review of available evidence regarding the neural correlates of (1) Emotion-Attention Interactions in Perception, (2) Emotion-Attention Interactions in Learning and Memory, (3) Individual Differences in Emotion-Attention Interactions, and (4) Training and Interventions to Optimize Emotion-Attention Interactions. This comprehensive approach enabled an integrative overview of the current knowledge regarding the mechanisms of emotion-attention interactions at multiple levels of analysis, and identification of emerging directions for future investigations.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{DolcosKatsumiMooreetal.2019,
  author    = {Dolcos, Florin and Katsumi, Yuta and Moore, Matthew and Berggren, Nick and de Gelder, Beatrice and Derakshan, Nazanin and Hamm, Alfons O. and Koster, Ernst H. W. and Ladouceur, Cecile D. and Okon-Singer, Hadas and Ventura-Bort, Carlos and Weymar, Mathias},
  title     = {Neural correlates of emotion-attention interactions},
  series = {Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews},
  volume    = {108},
  journal   = {Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {Oxford},
  issn      = {0149-7634},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.08.017},
  pages     = {559 -- 601},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Due to their ability to capture attention, emotional stimuli tend to benefit from enhanced perceptual processing, which can be helpful when such stimuli are task-relevant but hindering when they are task-irrelevant. Altered emotion-attention interactions have been associated with symptoms of affective disturbances, and emerging research focuses on improving emotion-attention interactions to prevent or treat affective disorders. In line with the Human Affectome Project's emphasis on linguistic components, we also analyzed the language used to describe attention-related aspects of emotion, and highlighted terms related to domains such as conscious awareness, motivational effects of attention, social attention, and emotion regulation. These terms were discussed within a broader review of available evidence regarding the neural correlates of (1) Emotion-Attention Interactions in Perception, (2) Emotion-Attention Interactions in Learning and Memory, (3) Individual Differences in Emotion-Attention Interactions, and (4) Training and Interventions to Optimize Emotion-Attention Interactions. This comprehensive approach enabled an integrative overview of the current knowledge regarding the mechanisms of emotion-attention interactions at multiple levels of analysis, and identification of emerging directions for future investigations.},
  language  = {en}
}