TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ventura-Bort, Carlos
A1  - Wirkner, Janine
A1  - Dolcos, Florin
A1  - Wendt, Julia
A1  - Hamm, Alfons O.
A1  - Weymar, Mathias
T1  - Enhanced spontaneous retrieval of cues from emotional events: an ERP study
JF  - Biological psychology
N2  - 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.
KW  - Event-related potentials
KW  - ERP
KW  - Emotion
KW  - Retrieval
KW  - Spontaneous memory
KW  - Old/New effect
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107742
SN  - 0301-0511
SN  - 1873-6246
VL  - 148
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wirkner, Janine
A1  - Ventura-Bort, Carlos
A1  - Schwabe, Lars
A1  - Hamm, Alfons O.
A1  - Weymar, Mathias
T1  - Chronic stress and emotion: Differential effects on attentional processing and recognition memory
JF  - Psychoneuroendocrinology
N2  - 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).
KW  - Chronic stress
KW  - Emotion
KW  - Event-related potential
KW  - Late positive potential
KW  - Memory
KW  - Hair cortisol
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.05.008
SN  - 0306-4530
VL  - 107
SP  - 93
EP  - 97
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Oxford
ER  -