Emotional memories can be suppressed with practice
A new University of Colorado at Boulder study shows people have the ability to suppress emotional memories with practice, which has implications for those suffering from conditions ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder to depression.
The study, which measured brain activity in test subjects who were trained to suppress memories of negative images, indicated two mechanisms in the prefrontal region of the brain were at work, said CU-Boulder doctoral candidate Brendan Depue, lead study author. The study may help clinicians develop new therapies for those unable to suppress emotionally distressing memories associated with disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder, phobias, depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive syndrome, he said.
The study was published in the July 13 issue of Science. Co-authors on the study included CU-Boulder Associate Professor Tim Curran and Professor Marie Banich of the psychology department. All three authors are affiliated with CU-Boulder's Center for Neuroscience and the Institute of Cognitive Sciences, and Banich also is affiliated with the CU-Denver and Health Sciences Center.
"We have shown in this study that individuals have the ability to suppress specific memories at a particular moment in time through repeated practice," Depue said. "We think we now have a grasp of the neural mechanisms at work, and hope the new findings and future research will lead to new therapeutic and pharmacological approaches to treating a variety of emotional disorders."
During the training phase of the study, subjects were asked to learn 40 different pairs of pictures, each pair consisting of a ,neutral, human face and a disturbing picture such as a car crash, a wounded soldier, a violent crime scene or an electric chair, Depue said.
After memorizing each associated pair, the subjects were fitted with special viewing goggles and placed in MRI scanners at CU's Health Sciences Center in Denver. Subjects were shown only the face images and asked to either think about, or not think about, the disturbing image previously associated with each face, he said.
The functional brain imaging scans taken during the study indicated the coordination for memory suppression occurred in the brain's prefrontal cortex, considered by neuroscientists to be the 'seat of cognitive control," he said. The team found that two specific regions of the prefrontal cortex appear to work in tandem to suppress particular posterior brain regions like the visual cortex, the hippocampus and amygdala, which are involved in tasks like visual recall, memory encoding and retrieval, and emotional output, he said.
"These results indicate memory suppression does occur, and, at least in nonpsychiatric populations, is under the control of prefrontal regions," the researchers wrote in Science. The most anterior portion of the prefrontal cortex highlighted in the study is a relatively recent feature in brain evolution and is greatly enlarged in humans when compared to great apes, said Depue.
Science：研究人员发现大脑的记忆抑制机制
摘要：发表在7月13日的《科学》杂志上的一篇研究报告说，神经科学家在人类大脑中发现了一个主动地抑制记忆的机制并揭示了一个两个步骤的抑制过程。
心理学家对是否真能抑制记忆的争论已经有 100年了。Brendan E. Depue和论文共同作者用功能磁共振成像(fMRI)来监测大脑中支持记忆处理的区域。被测试者被要求主动地记住一个记忆或主动地抑制一个记忆，研究人员发现被测试着能抑制记忆。然后他们检查了控制记忆的大脑区域前额叶皮层的fMDI图像，发现前额叶皮层的一个部分与记忆的感觉方面有关，而前额叶皮层的另一个部分抑制支持记忆过程以及支持与记忆有关的感情的大脑区域。这项研究延伸了对控制记忆和思想的大脑机制、尤其是对比如创伤后应激症和强迫综合症患者所遭受的感情记忆和思想失控的机制的了解。
原文出处：
SCIENCE 13 JULY 2007 VOL 317, ISSUE 5835
作者简介：
Marie T. Banich
Director, Institute of Cognitive Science
Professor, Department of Psychology
University of Colorado at Boulder
Profile
Marie Banich received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1985. She is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Colorado at Boulder and in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado health Science Center. She is also the director of the Institute of Cognitive Science. Her fields of professsional interest are cognitive neuroscience and human neuropsychology. She has published many research papers as well as a leADIng textbook in the field.
Honors and Awards
Fulbright Senior Scholar (Italy, 2007)
Member, MacArthur Foundation Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice (2002-present)
Justine & Yves Sergent Prize (2005)
University Scholar Award (1996)
A.O. Beckman Research Award (1994 and 1986)
Beckman Fellow, Center for Advanced Study (1989).
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