Reducing future fears by suppressing the brain mechanisms underlying episodic simulation

Benoit, Roland G.; Davies, Daniel; Anderson, Michael C.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1606604114

Cited by 78 publications

(110 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…One finding with important implications is the observation in Study 1 of substantial individual differences in the affective consequences of retrieval suppression. This observation, along with similar prior findings (Benoit, Davies, & Anderson, 2016;Gagnepain, Hulbert, & Anderson, 2017), highlights the existence of inter-individual differences in using suppression as an effective regulation and coping strategy. Thus, it would be crucial to clarify whether the large inter-individual differences observed in the inhibition of the cardiac response following memory suppression relate to differences in the neural mechanisms supporting inhibitory control.…”

Section: Results Studysupporting

confidence: 84%

Does the heart forget? Modulation of cardiac activity induced by inhibitory control over emotional memories

Legrand

Vandevelde

Pierre

et al. 2018

Preprint

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The subjective construction surrounding the perception of negative experiences is partly built upon bodily afferent information, comprising heart, gut or respiratory signals. While this bottom-up influence has been extensively described, the opposite pathway, the putative influence of cognitive processes over autonomic response, is still debatable. Emotion regulation and the ability to control maladjusted physiological response associated with thoughts and memories is a recurrent concern for most psychiatric disorders and mental health as a whole. Memory suppression (i.e. exerting inhibitory control toward unwanted memories) has been proposed as a possible solution to perform such regulation. This method, however, also holds debates as it could putatively worsen distressing reactions when unsuccessful, or simply be ineffective on the physiological roots of emotions. Here, we tested the hypothesis that memory suppression can influence the physiological marker of emotions in two studies using the "Think/No-Think" paradigm. We measured in healthy participants the aftereffect of suppressing negative memories on their cardiac reaction toward the excluded memories. Results of Study 1 revealed that an efficient control of memories was associated with a long-term inhibition of the cardiac deceleration normally induced by disgusting stimuli. Attempts to suppressing sad memories, on the opposite, aggravated cardiac response, an effect that was largely related to the inability to forget this specific material. Study 2 recorded concurrent electroencephalographic (EEG) response during the TNT task to track the oscillatory dynamics supporting the inhibitory control of memories and estimate their role in the inhibition of the later cardiac response. We found that the decrease of the 5-9 Hz frequency band, a prominent electrophysiological marker of memory suppression, was indeed related to the subsequent inhibition of the cardiac response toward disgusting stimuli. These results show that the modulation of cognitive representations can have long-term effects on the cardiac system. They further support the notion that cognitive control over unwanted emotional memories, when successful, can reduce the autonomic aversive processes to achieve emotional regulation. Our findings open new avenues for possible interventions focused on training this suppression mechanism to reduce the impact of distressing intrusive memories on mental health.

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Section: Results Studysupporting

confidence: 84%

Does the heart forget? Modulation of cardiac activity induced by inhibitory control over emotional memories

Legrand

Vandevelde

Pierre

et al. 2018

Preprint

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“…Recent evidence indicates that administering the ESI procedure described earlier just before individuals simulate possible solutions to personally worrisome future events has beneficial effects on emotion regulation: following ESI versus a control induction, participants generated more constructive steps to address a future worrisome event, were better able to reappraise the event, and showed improvements on several measures of subjective well-being (85). However, other evidence indicates that it can also be beneficial to instead s uppress simulations of events that people fear may happen in their life (86): such suppression caused forgetting of details typically associated with the dreaded events, hindered the ability to subsequently imagine the events and, critically, also reduced apprehensiveness. People that were particularly efficient at down-regulating their fears of the future by suppression were also less trait-anxious, suggesting that suppression constitutes a natural coping mechanism.…”

Section: Functions Of Episodic Future Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Episodic future thinking: mechanisms and functions

Schacter

Benoit

Szpunar

2017

Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences

564

421

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Episodic future thinking refers to the capacity to imagine or simulate experiences that might occur in one’s personal future. Cognitive, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging research concerning episodic future thinking has accelerated during recent years. This article discusses research that has delineated cognitive and neural mechanisms that support episodic future thinking as well as the functions that episodic future thinking serves. Studies focused on mechanisms have identified a core brain network that underlies episodic future thinking and have begun to tease apart the relative contributions of particular regions in this network, and the specific cognitive processes that they support. Studies concerned with functions have identified several domains in which episodic future thinking produces performance benefits, including decision making, emotion regulation, prospective memory, and spatial navigation.

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“…To some extent, we have the ability to choose which future thoughts we keep revisiting and which we forget. This ability can be enabled through control mechanisms similar to those engaged when we recall our past memories (Benoit et al, 2016). Intentional control of past memories comprises two distinct processes: active retrieval (positive control) and active suppression (negative control), which subsequently leads to the enhancement or impairment of memory, respectively (Anderson and Green, 2001; for meta-analyses, see Anderson and Huddleston, 2012;Stramaccia et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impairing effect of acute stress on the intentional forgetting of future fears and its moderation by working memory capacity

Ashton¹,

Cw²

2020

Preprint

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Unwanted imaginations of future fears can, to some extent, be avoided. This is achieved by control mechanisms similar to those engaged to intentionally forget unwanted memories. Intentional forgetting relies on the executive control network, whose functioning is impaired after exposure to acute stress. This study investigates whether acute stress affects the ability to intentionally control future fears and, furthermore, whether individual differences in executive control predict a susceptibility to these effects. The study ran over two consecutive days. On day 1, the working memory capacity of one hundred participants was assessed. Thereafter, participants provided descriptions and details of fearful episodes that they imagined might happen in their future. On day 2, participants were exposed to either the stress or no-stress version of the Maastricht Acute Stress Test, after which participants performed the Imagine/No-Imagine task. Here, participants repeatedly imagined some future fears and suppressed imaginings of others. Results demonstrated that, in unstressed participants, suppression successfully induced forgetting of the episodes’ details compared to a baseline condition. However, the observed reduction in anxiety toward these events remained unchanged. Acute stress was found to selectively impair intentional forgetting and, further, this effect was moderated by working memory capacity. Specifically, low working memory predicted a susceptibility to these detrimental effects. These findings provide novel insights into conditions under which our capacity to actively control future fears is reduced, which may have considerable implications for understanding stress-related psychopathologies and symptomatologies characterized by unwanted apprehensive thoughts.

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Reducing future fears by suppressing the brain mechanisms underlying episodic simulation

Cited by 78 publications

References 89 publications

Does the heart forget? Modulation of cardiac activity induced by inhibitory control over emotional memories

Does the heart forget? Modulation of cardiac activity induced by inhibitory control over emotional memories

Episodic future thinking: mechanisms and functions

The impairing effect of acute stress on the intentional forgetting of future fears and its moderation by working memory capacity

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