TITLE:
Effect of emotional valence on episodic memory stages as indexed by event-related potentials
AUTHORS:
Marc E. Lavoie, Kieron P. O’Connor
KEYWORDS:
Emotion; Memory; Familiarity; Recollection; Old/New Effect; Event-Related Potentials
JOURNAL NAME:
World Journal of Neuroscience,
Vol.3 No.4,
September
23,
2013
ABSTRACT: Several investigations have shown that emotional
events show superior recall than non-emotional ones. However, the cortical
mechanisms underlying the episodic recall of emotional scenes are still poorly
understood. Our main aim was to compare the magnitude of the Event-Related brain
Potentials (ERP) old-new effect related to emotionally unpleasant, pleasant and
neutral photographic images. As expected, correct recognition of all types of
images elicited three topographically distinct ERP components sensitive to the
classical old-new recognition effect. The results revealed that the behavioral
performances were mainly sensitive to arousal, while the ERP old/new effect
over posterior regions (300 - 1000 ms) was exclusively affected by
unpleasantness. A later component (1000 - 1400 ms) showed an inverted old/ new
effect at parietal sites, which was also sensitive to unpleasantness. These
results imply that ERP reflecting episodic conscious recollection and post-retrieval
monitoring are clearly affected both by valence and arousal.