Savoring the Past: Positive Memories Evoke Value Representations in the Striatum

Abstract

Summary Reminders of happy memories can bring back pleasant feelings tied to the original experience, suggesting an intrinsic value in reminiscing about the positive past. However, the neural circuitry underlying the rewarding aspects of autobiographical memory is poorly understood. Using fMRI, we observed enhanced activity during the recall of positive relative to neutral autobiographical memories in corticostriatal circuits that also responded to monetary rewards. Enhanced activity in the striatum and medial prefrontal cortex was associated with increases in positive emotion during recall and striatal engagement further correlated with individual measures of resiliency. Striatal response to the recall of positive memories was greater in individuals whose mood improved after the task. Notably, participants were willing to sacrifice more tangible monetary rewards in order to reminisce about positive past experiences. Our findings suggest that recalling positive autobiographical memories is intrinsically valuable, which may be adaptive for regulating positive emotion and promoting better well-being.

Fornix deep brain stimulation circuit effect is dependent on major excitatory transmission via the nucleus accumbens

“…The PFC, AM, and NAc, in particular, have been shown to contribute to cognitive control of memory consolidation and recall (Badre et al, 2014; Hamann et al, 1999; Lisman and Grace, 2005; Schedlbauer et al, 2014; Scimeca and Badre, 2012; Speer et al, 2014). In the present study fornix DBS resulted in increased BOLD response within the NAc, PFC, and AM, and this result may help to explain the improvement in memory recall as well as play a role in the observed improvements in cognition with fornix DBS.…”

“…Communication between regions of the medial limbic and corticolimbic circuits, including the HP, NAc, amygdala (AM), and prefrontal cortex (PFC), are known to be critical for memory consolidation and retrieval (Badre et al, 2014; Carr et al, 2011; Hamann et al, 1999; Horner et al, 2015; Lisman and Grace, 2005; Schedlbauer et al, 2014). The ventral striatum in particular, which includes the NAc, is involved in cognitive control during memory retrieval (Scimeca and Badre, 2012; Speer et al, 2014). Moreover, functional MRI (fMRI) studies have shown that AD patients show decreased resting state activity in HP, PFC, and increased ventral striatum activity compared to age-matched controls (Buckner et al, 2005; Greicius et al, 2004; Zhou and Seeley, 2014).…”

Positive interventions: An emotion regulation perspective.

“…Reminiscing about past positive events can be so pleasant that people opt to recall positive rather than neutral memories even if they are offered more money to recall neutral memories (Speer, Bhanji, & Delgado, 2014). Below, we have reviewed how the five families of emotion regulation strategies can be applied to boost one's positive emotions after a positive event.…”

Goal- and retrieval-dependent activity in the striatum during memory recognition

“…Although the current results clearly show that the unique striatal perceived oldness does not reflect goal-dependent motivational factors such as experienced pleasantness, one cannot automatically infer that this striatal signal must hence be related to retrieval processes. However, there is indeed evidence that rulebased facilitated memory retrieval (Badre et al, 2014) and retrieval of positive autobiographical memories (Speer et al, 2014) is linked with striatal activity. Moreover, memory retrieval impairments in disorders affecting the basal ganglia and the nigra-striatal dopamine system suggest that the striatum contributes to cognitive control processes during episodic memory retrieval (Cohn et al, 2010;Solomon et al, 2007;Van Oostrom et al, 2003).…”