Journal article
Amygdala damage impairs emotional memory for gist but not details of complex stimuli
Nature neuroscience, Vol.8(4), pp.512-518
04/2005
DOI: 10.1038/nn1413
PMID: 15735643
Abstract
Neurobiological studies demonstrate the amygdala's role in emotional memory, and psychological studies suggest a particular pattern: enhanced memory for the gist but not the details of complex stimuli. We hypothesized that these two findings are related. Whereas normal (n = 52) and brain-damaged (n = 22) controls showed the expected enhancement of gist memory when the encoding context was emotional, persons with unilateral damage to the medial temporal lobe including the amygdala (n = 16) did not show this pattern. Furthermore, amygdala volume showed a significant positive correlation with gist memory but not with overall memory. A further study in four subjects with selective medial temporal damage sparing the amygdala, and one with selective damage confined to the amygdala, confirmed the specificity of this effect to the amygdala. The data support a model whereby the amygdala focuses processing resources on gist, possibly accounting for features of traumatic memories and eyewitness testimony in real life.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Amygdala damage impairs emotional memory for gist but not details of complex stimuli
- Creators
- Ralph Adolphs - Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology Department of Neurology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Iowa College of MedicineDaniel Tranel - Department of Neurology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Iowa College of MedicineTony W Buchanan - Department of Neurology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Iowa College of Medicine
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Nature neuroscience, Vol.8(4), pp.512-518
- DOI
- 10.1038/nn1413
- PMID
- 15735643
- NLM abbreviation
- Nat Neurosci
- ISSN
- 1097-6256
- eISSN
- 1546-1726
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/2005
- Academic Unit
- Neurology; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984002457402771
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