Brief learning induces a memory bias for arousing-negative words: an fMRI study in high and low trait anxious persons

Frontiers in Psychology
Annuschka Salima EdenChristian Dobel

Abstract

Persons suffering from anxiety disorders display facilitated processing of arousing and negative stimuli, such as negative words. This memory bias is reflected in better recall and increased amygdala activity in response to such stimuli. However, individual learning histories were not considered in most studies, a concern that we meet here. Thirty-four female persons (half with high-, half with low trait anxiety) participated in a criterion-based associative word-learning paradigm, in which neutral pseudowords were paired with aversive or neutral pictures, which should lead to a valence change for the negatively paired pseudowords. After learning, pseudowords were tested with fMRI to investigate differential brain activation of the amygdala evoked by the newly acquired valence. Explicit and implicit memory was assessed directly after training and in three follow-ups at 4-day intervals. The behavioral results demonstrate that associative word-learning leads to an explicit (but no implicit) memory bias for negatively linked pseudowords, relative to neutral ones, which confirms earlier studies. Bilateral amygdala activation underlines the behavioral effect: Higher trait anxiety is correlated with stronger amygdala activation for n...Continue Reading

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Citations

Dec 20, 2017·Frontiers in Psychology·Florin DolcosSanda Dolcos
Nov 6, 2018·Scientific Reports·Qianqian YuMeng Zhang
Apr 1, 2020·F1000Research·Christabel E W ThngChoon Guan Lim

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