Cardiorespiratory fitness as protection against the development of memory intrusions: A prospective trauma analogue study

Voorendonk, Eline M.; Meyer, Thomas; Duken, Sascha Béla; Ast, Vanessa A. van

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108189

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Likewise, immediately after the experience of trauma, initial recognition of central trauma aspects conceivably does not require presence of the original encoding context either and can be remembered in any potential context, given the strength of trauma memories. Since reduced contextual dependency of memory has been related to increased number and distress of analogue traumatic intrusions (Meyer et al, 2017; Voorendonk et al, 2021), the risk of distressing intrusions immediately after the occurrence of a traumatic event should therefore be high. Indeed, trauma analogue studies (Rattel et al, 2019) and clinical observations (O'Donnell et al, 2007) show that shortly after an emotional event reexperiences occur frequently.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, a history of studying such context-dependent memory in our lab reveals that not all memories are equally sensitive to context: emotional memories are often retrieved irrespectively (van Ast et al, 2013, 2014). This could explain why negative memories often intrude involuntarily into consciousness (Meyer et al, 2017; Voorendonk et al, 2021). Dysregulation of hippocampal-dependent contextualization processes might even play a key role in the generation of PTSD symptoms (Koch et al, 2021).…”

Section: Context Of the Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Time-dependent emotional memory transformation: Divergent pathways of item memory and contextual dependency.

Cox¹,

Meeter²,

Kindt³

et al. 2023

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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Emotional memory can persist strikingly long, but it is believed that not all its elements are protected against the fading effects of time. So far, studies of emotional episodic memory have mostly investigated retention up to 24h postencoding and revealed that central emotional features (items) are usually strengthened, while contextual binding of the event is reduced. However, even though it is known for neutral memories that central versus contextual elements evolve differently with longer passage of time, the time-dependent evolution of emotional memories remains unclear. Hypothetically, compared to neutral memories, emotional item memory becomes increasingly stronger, accompanied by accelerated decay of-already fragile-links with their original encoding contexts, resulting in progressive reductions in contextual dependency. Here, we tested these predictions in a large-scale study. Participants encoded emotional and neutral episodes, and were assessed 30 minutes (N = 40), 1 day (N = 40), 1 week (N = 39), or 2 weeks (N = 39) later on item memory, contextual dependency, and subjective quality of memory. The results show that, with the passage of time, emotional memories were indeed characterized by increasingly stronger item memory and weaker contextual dependency. Interestingly, analyses of the subjective quality of memories revealed that stronger memory for emotional items with time was expressed in familiarity, whereas increasingly smaller contextual dependency for emotional episodes was reflected in recollection. Together, these findings uncover the timedependent transformation of emotional episodic memories, thereby shedding light on the ways healthy and maladaptive human memories may develop.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Context Of the Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time-dependent emotional memory transformation: Divergent pathways of item memory and contextual dependency.

Cox¹,

Meeter²,

Kindt³

et al. 2023

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Self Cite

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“…This may manifest itself in symptoms that are characteristic of anxiety disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) such as fear generalization and intrusive images 8 – 12 . In support of this idea, experimental studies have demonstrated that reductions in contextual dependency of episodic memory indeed predict the occurrence or distress of analogue trauma intrusions 13 – 15 . Human fear-conditioning studies have similary shown that contextual information regulates recall of danger and safety 7 , 16 , 17 (see Ref.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Context reexposure to bolster contextual dependency of emotional episodic memory

Cox,

Woelk,

de Vries

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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Contextual overgeneralization of emotional memory is a core aspect of anxiety disorders. Identifying methods to enhance contextual dependency of emotional memory is therefore of significant clinical interest. Animal research points to a promising approach: reexposure to the context in which fear is acquired reduces generalization to other contexts. However, the exact conditions for this effect are unknown, complicating translation to effective interventions. Most notably, exposure to a context that resembles—but is not identical to—the learning context may diminish contextual dependency of memory by integration of additional contextual cues. Here, we therefore assessed in a large-scale study (N = 180) whether context reexposure enhances contextual dependency of emotional episodic memory whereas exposure to a similar context impairs it. We also tested whether relatively strong memory retrieval during context (re)exposure amplifies these effects. We replicated prior research showing that correct recognition depends on context and contextual dependency is lower for emotional than neutral memories. However, exposure to the encoding context or a similar context did not affect contextual dependency of memory, and retrieval strength did not interact with such effects. Thorough insight into factors underlying the effects of context (re)exposure on contextual dependency seems key to eventually attain a memory recontextualization intervention.

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Cardiorespiratory fitness as protection against the development of memory intrusions: A prospective trauma analogue study

Cited by 2 publications

References 81 publications

Time-dependent emotional memory transformation: Divergent pathways of item memory and contextual dependency.

Time-dependent emotional memory transformation: Divergent pathways of item memory and contextual dependency.

Context reexposure to bolster contextual dependency of emotional episodic memory

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