Suppression of aversive memories associates with changes in early and late stages of neurocognitive processing

Chen, Chun-Ping; Liu, Chao; Huang, Ruiwang; Cheng, Dazhi; Wu, Haiyan; Xu, Pengfei; Mai, Xiaoqin; Luo, Yuejia

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.08.004

Cited by 48 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Previous studies that have reported a reduction in the LPP after retrieval suppression have not included a perceptual baseline condition and have instead contrasted the Think and the No-Think conditions (Bergström et al, 2007, Bergström et al, 2009, Bergström and de Fockert, 2009, Chen et al, 2012, Hanslmayr et al, 2009, Mecklinger et al, 2009, Waldhauser et al, 2012). When comparing voluntary retrieval and avoided retrieval ERPs, there was an LPP effect in the left posterior region in the 900–1300 ms time window (see Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of importance for the present study, this effect has also been shown in incidental retrieval (Curran, 1999, Kompus et al, 2011), suggesting that it is independent of retrieval intention. Interestingly, retrieval suppression attempts in the Think/No-Think paradigm have been related to a reduction of the LPP effect (Bergström and de Fockert, 2009, Bergström et al, 2009, Bergström et al, 2007, Chen et al, 2012, Depue et al, 2013, Hanslmayr et al, 2009, Mecklinger et al, 2009, Waldhauser et al, 2012). An interpretation of this finding is that recollection can be avoided via retrieval suppression.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tracking the intrusion of unwanted memories into awareness with event-related potentials

2016

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Involuntary retrieval of unwanted memories is a common symptom in several clinical disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder. With an aim to track the temporal dynamics of such memory intrusions, we recorded electrophysiological measures of brain activity while participants engaged in a Think/No-Think task. We presented the left hand word (the cue) of previously encoded word pairs in green or red font. We asked participants to think of the associated right hand word (the associate) when the cue appeared in green (Think condition) and to avoid thinking of the associate when the cue appeared in red (No-Think condition). To isolate cases when participants experienced an intrusive memory, at the end of each trial, participants judged whether the response had come to mind; we classified memories that came to mind during No-Think trials, despite efforts to stop retrieval, as intrusions. In an event-related potential (ERP) analysis, we observed a negative going slow wave (NSW) effect that indexed the duration of a trace in mnemonic awareness; whereas voluntary retrieval and maintenance of the associate was related to a sustained NSW that lasted throughout the 3-s recording epoch, memory intrusions generated short-lived NSWs that were rapidly truncated. Based on these findings, we hypothesize that the intrusion-NSW reflects the associate briefly penetrating working memory. More broadly, these findings exploit the high temporal resolution of ERPs to track the online dynamics of memory intrusions.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking the intrusion of unwanted memories into awareness with event-related potentials

2016

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“…Recent work using effective connectivity analysis has isolated a right dorsolateral–hippocampal network supporting the direct suppression of episodic traces via inhibitory modulation of hippocampal retrieval processes (Benoit & Anderson, 2012; see also Gagnepain, Henson, & Anderson, 2014), supporting earlier claims about the mechanistic origins of reduced hippocampal activity during no-think instructions (Anderson et al, 2004; Depue et al, 2007). Although this mechanism likely contributed to prior instances in which emotional memory was suppressed (e.g., Chen et al, 2012; Depue et al, 2007), those studies used general no-think instructions (Depue et al, 2006, 2007; Hertel & McDaniel, 2010; Joormann et al, 2005, 2009; Noreen & MacLeod, 2013), making it unclear to what extent direct suppression mediated forgetting. Further, all studies using direct suppression instructions have used verbal materials (e.g., Benoit & Anderson, 2012; Bergström et al, 2009; van Schie et al, 2013), making it unclear whether aversive visual memories could be disrupted via this mechanism.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct suppression as a mechanism for controlling unpleasant memories in daily life.

Küpper¹,

Benoit²,

Dalgleish³

et al. 2014

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

120

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Suppressing unwanted memories can impair their later recall. Recent work shows that this forgetting is achieved by at least two mechanisms supported by distinct neural systems: thought substitution and direct suppression (Benoit & Anderson, 2012). Here, we examined whether direct suppression, thought to be achieved by down-regulation of hippocampal activity, can disrupt memory of aversive scenes, and, if so, whether this disruption is linked to people’s perception of their ability to control intrusive thoughts. We presented participants with strong naturalistic reminders to aversive scenes and asked them to either covertly retrieve or directly suppress the associated scenes. Later, participants were cued with the reminders and asked to recall the scenes in detail. Direct suppression reduced recall probability of the scenes and also reduced the number of details recalled, even when scenes were remembered. Deficits in recall arose for minor details but also for details central to each scene’s gist. Participants with higher self-perceived control abilities over intrusive thoughts showed greater forgetting than did those reporting lower levels of control. These findings suggest that inhibitory processes underlying direct suppression can disrupt retention of aversive visual memories and link those processes to individual differences in control over intrusive thoughts in everyday life. These findings reinforce the possibility that inhibition may be less efficient in people likely to acquire posttraumatic stress disorder in the wake of a traumatic experience.

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“…Furthermore, the increased LPFC activity correlates with the decreased hippocampus activity, and this correlation predicts the behavioral success of memory suppression1920. When using emotional materials as cues or targets in the T/NT task, researchers observed in non-psychotic populations that "suppression-induced forgetting" is significant for memories associated with emotionally negative but not positive material21, and that, relative to memory for neutral items, memory for negative items is enhanced in both Think22 and No-Think conditions23.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The early T/NT effect lies in the frontal N2 component with a maximum between 200 and 300 ms after cue presentation; the N2 is enhanced for No-Think trials vs . Think trials and is proposed to be associated with an inhibitory process that attempts to avoid memory retrieval17232627282930. Since the T/NT paradigm is a modification of the Go/Nogo paradigm, this early negativity is thought by many researchers to have a shared neural basis with the Nogo-N2 component2629, the latter of which reflects an inhibitory control process that suppresses unwanted motor responses31.…”

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confidence: 99%

Neural correlates underlying impaired memory facilitation and suppression of negative material in depression

Zhang

Xie

Liu

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

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Previous behavioral studies demonstrated that depressed individuals have difficulties in forgetting unwanted, especially negative, event. However, inconsistent results still exit and the neural mechanism of this phenomenon has not been investigated. This study examined the intentional memory facilitation/suppression of negative and neutral materials in depression using Think/No-Think paradigm. We found that compared with nondepressed group, depressed group recalled more negative items, irrespective of either "Think" or "No-Think" instructions. Accordingly, the frontal N2 (reflecting voluntary memory inhibition) and parietal late positive component (LPC) (reflecting conscious recollection) showed deflection for negative items in depressed compared with nondepressed participants. On the one hand, the reduced N2 for negative "No-Think" items indicated that depressed individuals have low motivation to suppress negative items so intentional forgetting is less successful for mood-congruent events. On the other hand, the enhanced LPC for negative "Think" items suggested that negative memories are excessively revisited by depressed participants (compared with nondepressed ones) due to their mood-congruent and intrusive nature. Thus we demonstrated that depressed individuals show behavioral and ERP deviations from healthy controls for both voluntary suppression and conscious retrieval of negative memory; the two abnormalities of memory control together contribute to the difficulties in forgetting negative material in depression.

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Suppression of aversive memories associates with changes in early and late stages of neurocognitive processing

Cited by 48 publications

References 57 publications

Tracking the intrusion of unwanted memories into awareness with event-related potentials

Tracking the intrusion of unwanted memories into awareness with event-related potentials

Direct suppression as a mechanism for controlling unpleasant memories in daily life.

Neural correlates underlying impaired memory facilitation and suppression of negative material in depression

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