The neurobiology of human working memory for threat: A multi-method approach
Lead Research Organisation:
Bangor University
Department Name: Sch of Psychology
Abstract
This project will explore how our ability to remember and think about information immediately after perceiving it is affected by how emotional that information is. Previous research conducted by scientists a Bangor University showed that images associated with threat, e.g., angry faces, are more likely to be remembered over brief intervals than non-threatening images, e.g., faces with a neutral expression. This project will build on those previous studies by exploring how emotional information, including images and sounds that are fear evoking, gain preferential processing by the brain. The study will use brain-imaging techniques to investigate the brain systems that control how emotional information influences short term memory. It will also explore the possibility that specific bio-chemicals in the brain, called neurotransmitters, regulate cognitive responses to emotional information. To do this, the project will study short-term memory for emotional information in patients with Parkinson's disease because they are known to be deficient in a specific neurotransmitter that is highly likely to be important in emotional regulation of short-term memory. Asking the same question but using a different method, other parts of the project will examine how genetic variation in the neurotransmitter systems in healthy human adults can be used to account for variations in short term memory for emotional information. The results of the project will provide insight into how the brain uses motivationally relavent information to control memory and conscious experience.
Technical Summary
The proposal addresses emotion effects on visual cognition, using the example of working memory for faces. Emotional expression is crucial to face processing, and it is slightly surprising that its effect in face working memory has not been investigated more. In the first study of this topic we showed an angry benefit in working memory. It will be conceptually important to decide whether this benefit is confined to angry, as opposed to other negative or generally emotional faces, whether it transfers to other types of non-social and social stimuli and to identity memory. In a novel design, we will also explore the effects of emotional WM on selective attention. The differential emotion effects on face working memory will allow for an interpretation in the context of evolutionary biology (e.g., the threat associated with angry faces, or fearful faces signalling imminent danger). However, for a truly comprehensive biology of emotion/cognition interactions we will also need to investigate the neural mechanisms at the systems and molecular level. The analysis of specific neurotransmitter effects, especially of the dopamine system, is the primary aim of a patient study in Parkinson's disease and a genetic study. Parkinson's disease provides a lesion model for the study of dopaminergic effects, and the genetic study will specifically investigate a small number of functional polymorphisms of the dopamine and serotonin systems in order to unravel the functional and molecular neuroanatomy of the emotion benefits. This will ultimately result in a cellular model of memory enhancement through recruitment of emotion-related areas and neurotransmitter systems in the service of working memory. We will thus be able to follow the chain of molecular events from the initial perceptual response to an expressive face down to the match-to-sample response that ends a trial, providing the first instance of such 'biology of cognition'.
Organisations
Publications
Wolf C
(2011)
Brain activity supporting working memory accuracy in patients with paranoid schizophrenia: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.
in Neuropsychobiology
Wolf C
(2011)
Dysbindin-1 genotype effects on emotional working memory.
in Molecular psychiatry
Thomas PM
(2014)
A threatening face in the crowd: effects of emotional singletons on visual working memory.
in Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance
Thomas PM
(2016)
Value conditioning modulates visual working memory processes.
in Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance
Subramanian L
(2010)
Dopamine boosts memory for angry faces in Parkinson's disease.
in Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society
Röder CH
(2011)
Retention of identity versus expression of emotional faces differs in the recruitment of limbic areas.
in Neuropsychologia
Linden SC
(2011)
Sad benefit in face working memory: an emotional bias of melancholic depression.
in Journal of affective disorders
Linden SC
(2010)
Emotion-cognition interactions in schizophrenia: Implicit and explicit effects of facial expression.
in Neuropsychologia
Linden DE
(2013)
ZNF804A genotype modulates neural activity during working memory for faces.
in Neuropsychobiology
LANGESLAG, SJE
(2011)
Working Memory : Capacity, Developments and Improvement Techniques.
Description | This project discovered that the ability of humans to remember a person's face, even for a very short time, depends on the face's emotional expression. It also discovered that this emotional influence on face memory depends on the level of particular neurotransmitters in the brain. |
Exploitation Route | These findings suggest that emotional expressions may be important to control when face memory is required in for example security situations; face expressions may explain why some people with neurological problems have difficulty with face memory sometimes; particular face expressions or tone of voice may help improve short term memory for elderly people. |
Sectors | Creative Economy,Healthcare,Security and Diplomacy |
Description | Findings from this project have been used primarily by academic researchers to further explore the role of emotional information on cognitive processing in healthy adults, the elderly, and in those with schizophrenia, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease or Alcoholism. |
First Year Of Impact | 2010 |
Sector | Healthcare |
Impact Types | Societal |
Description | Dividing Lines: A Brain Science view on Landscape Paintings |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A discussion of a artwork exhibited at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts centred around principles of Vision Science. The presentation provided an opportunity to educate and illuminate the general public about brain mechanisms underlying scene perception and aesthetic responses. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://barber.org.uk/arts-science-festival-evening-lecture/ |
Description | Psychological Science and communication in the legal professions |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A presentation about Psychological Science and how it can be exploited to improve communication in the legal professions |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |