The current findings provide support for a time-dependent mechanism of reward-based memory enhancement. They also suggest that aging leaves intact the positive influence of reward anticipation on intentional long-term memory formation.

Two experiments designed to examine the specificity of emotional source memory are reported. In the encoding phase, participants saw faces along with emotional context information, that is, descriptions of cheating, trustworthy, or irrelevant behavior. In the test phase, participants were required to complete a source classification test and a cued recall test. In both experiments, the source memory advantage for faces characterized by negative context information (cheating) was replicated. Extending previous research, a multinomial source-monitoring model was applied to distinguish between specific source memory for individual behavior descriptions and partial source memory in the sense of only a rough classification of the behavior as belonging to a particular emotional category--cheating, trustworthy, or neither of these. The results indicate that the source memory advantage for the emotional context information is not always accompanied by enhanced recollection of the specific details of the learning episode and might rather reflect unspecific memory for categorical emotional information.

Simulation theories argue that humans simulate motor processes of others to gain information about intentions and emotional states of others. Mu-suppression is a valid electrophysiological correlate of these processes. Mu-activity can be measured via electroencephalography (EEG) in the alpha-band (8-13 Hz) above the sensorimotor cortex and is suppressed when actions are executed or observed. Based on a within-subject design, including 28 participants, it was tested whether the processes measured by mu-suppression could be modulated by empathic top-down-processes. Participants were asked to take the perspective of two actors, telling a story about a sad or neutral life event (video sequences). Afterwards, EEG was measured at central (C3, Cz, C4) and occipital (O1, Oz, O2) electrodes, while participants observed the actors drinking water (standardized video sequences, 8 s duration). Fast fourier transformation showed stronger suppression of power in the alpha-range (relative to baseline) at central and occipital electrodes while the actor with the sad story was observed relative to the actor with the neutral story. Furthermore, measures of state empathy correlated positively with the difference of mu-suppression between executed and observed movements, an indicator of self-other discrimination. Thus, mirror neuron activity measured by mu-suppression is modulated by empathic processes.

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