The cerebellum is primarily known for the regulation of movement. Researchers from the University of Basel have now discovered that the cerebellum also plays an important role in remembering emotional experiences. The study appears in the journal PNAS .
Meaning Enhanced memory for emotional stimuli is crucial for survival, but may also contribute to the development and maintenance of fear-related disorders in the case of highly aversive experiences. This large-scale functional brain imaging study identifies the cerebellum and cerebellar-cerebral connections involved in the phenomenon of superior memory for emotionally arousing visual information. These findings expand knowledge about the role of the cerebellum in complex cognitive and emotional processes and may be relevant to the understanding of psychiatric disorders with aberrant emotional circuits, such as post-traumatic stress disorder or autism spectrum disorder. |
Summary
Emotional information is remembered better than neutral information. Ample evidence indicates that the amygdala and its interactions with other brain regions play an important role in the memory-enhancing effect of emotional arousal. While the cerebellum has been found to be involved in fear conditioning, its role in the emotional enhancement of episodic memory is less clear. To address this issue, we used a whole-brain fMRI approach in 1418 healthy participants. First, we identified clusters significantly activated during enhanced memory encoding of negative and positive emotional images.
In addition to the known brain regions related to emotional memory, we identified a group in the cerebellum. We then used dynamic causal models and identified several cerebellar connections with increased connection strength corresponding to improved emotional memory, including one to a cluster covering the amygdala and hippocampus, and bidirectional connections to a cluster covering the anterior cingulate cortex. The current findings indicate that the cerebellum is an integral part of a network involved in the emotional enhancement of episodic memory.
Figure : The cerebellum (red activation) communicates with various areas of the brain (green activations) to improve the storage of emotional information.
Comments
Both positive and negative emotional experiences are stored particularly well in memory. This phenomenon is important for our survival, since we need to remember dangerous situations to avoid them in the future. Previous studies have shown that a brain structure called the amygdala, which is important in processing emotions, plays a central role in this phenomenon. Emotions activate the amygdala, which in turn facilitates the storage of information in various areas of the brain.
The current research, led by Professor Dominique de Quervain and Professor Andreas Papassotiropoulos from the University of Basel, investigates the role of the cerebellum in storing emotional experiences. In a large-scale study, researchers showed emotional and neutral images to 1,418 participants and recorded the subjects’ brain activity using magnetic resonance imaging.
In a later memory test, participants remembered the positive and negative images much better than the neutral images. Improved storage of emotional images was linked to an increase in brain activity in areas of the brain already known to play a role. However, the team also identified increased activity in the cerebellum.
The cerebellum in communication with the brain.
The researchers were also able to show that the cerebellum shows stronger communication with various areas of the brain during the process of enhanced storage of emotional images. It receives information from the cingulate gyrus, a region of the brain that is important in the perception and evaluation of feelings. Additionally, the cerebellum sends signals to several brain regions, including the amygdala and hippocampus. The latter plays a central role in memory storage.
“These results indicate that the cerebellum is an integral component of a network that is responsible for enhanced storage of emotional information,” says de Quervain. Although enhanced memory for emotional events is a crucial survival mechanism, it has its drawbacks: in the case of very negative experiences, it can lead to recurrent anxiety. This means that the findings, which have now been published, may also be relevant to understanding psychiatric conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Basel research on emotions and memory
The current study is part of a large-scale research project carried out by the Research Platform for Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences (MCN) at the University of Basel and the University Psychiatric Clinics (UPK) Basel. The goal of this project is to gain a better understanding of emotional and cognitive processes and transfer the results of basic research to clinical projects.
