Emotional memory: what is it and what is its biological basis?

We often believe that our memory is only composed of autobiographical memories; this is not so.

Memories are not only focused on the events that occurred, but also on the physiological responses that occurred simultaneously.In fact, the emotional intensity and relevance of a situation seem to be the key factors that explain why its imprint is maintained in the long term.

Sometimes the emotional memory of an event may even continue to exist after the facts have been forgotten; this is common in cases of phobia, where the traumatic experience that provoked the onset of fear is not always remembered.

In this article we will describe what is emotional memory and what are its Biological bases?The study also defines the nature and mechanisms of influence of the relationship between memory and emotions.

What is emotional memory?

In the field of Psychology we can define emotional memory as the learning, storage and events associated with the physiological responses that occurred at the time of the that were present at the time when those events took place. It is also related to the retrieval of other information and details associated with the specific event.

However, it is a very broad concept whose use varies depending on the context; for example, the famous theater pedagogue Konstantin Stanislavski called an acting technique of recalling events to evoke particular emotions "affective memory".

Emotional memory is one of the core aspects of human identity: our most vivid autobiographical memories are often associated with very are often associated with very intense emotions, whether positive or negative. It has been argued that we remember the physiological state we were in at a given moment rather than the events themselves.

From an evolutionary perspective, it is argued that emotional memory developed because it increased our capacity to adapt to the environment, allowing us to react quickly to situations that could imply a danger to survival. In fact, emotions can be understood as the foundations of motivation, that which predisposes us to want to achieve certain goals and avoid certain experiences.

In this sense, emotional memory is that which gives meaning to the emotions themselves, given that it allows our behavior to be articulated according to what we learn about the consequences of our actions. and our way of exposing ourselves to certain environments or situations. Without emotional memory, we would hardly have any reference about what to do, especially if we take into account that in our species, behavior depends much more on what we learn than on our instincts.

The relationship between emotions and memory

Memory and emotion are closely related processes; all stages of memory, from the encoding of information to its long-term retrieval, are facilitated by factors of the emotional type.are facilitated by emotional factors. This influence is bidirectional, so that memories often trigger the emergence of emotions, for example.

Emotion has modulating effects on both declarative or explicit memory and non-declarative or implicit memory. What makes us remember an event better or worse is not so much its relevance in our personal history as the intensity of the emotions we experienced when that moment took place.

Factors that influence memory

In general, we speak of two emotional factors that affect memory: the degree of activation and the valence of the emotion.. Emotional activation associated with a stimulus or situation focuses attention on it, so that it will be better remembered in the future, especially if our emotional state is similar to that of the learning context.

However, intense emotions can also interfere with other types of memory, namely procedural and working memory. This affects the consolidation of memories and is related to attention; for example, dissociative experiences that occur under intense stress make it difficult to consolidate information.

In the framework of the psychology of emotions, the word "valence" is used to designate the positive or negative quality. In general, memories associated with memories associated with pleasant emotions are remembered better and with more details and with more detail than negative ones, especially as we get older.

A phenomenon related to emotional valence is that of state dependence, proposed by Bower. State dependence consists in the fact that we remember emotionally positive events more easily if we are happy and more negative experiences if we feel sad.

Biological basis of emotional memory

The brain structure known as the amygdala plays a fundamental role in emotional memory. In addition to enabling learning the association between situations and emotions, the amygdala sends signals that facilitate memory-related operations in other areas of the brain, especially the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex.

Its central role is in learning by classical conditioning of emotional responses, by which we associate a stimulus with the emotions we feel while it is present, as happens in phobias. Amygdala activity has been related mainly to negative emotions, and more specifically to fear.

Although more research on this subject is needed, it is known that stress hormones, such as cortisol, interact with the amygdala.interact with the amygdala. These effects can be facilitative, but also inhibitory: for example, when we feel anxiety, the consolidation of memories worsens because working memory is partially occupied by stress.

Among the functions of the frontotemporal regions of the brain as a whole is the facilitation of retention, storage and retrieval of emotionally charged memories; in turn, feelings of emotional arousal promote long-term recall of these events.

Bibliographical references:

• Bower, G. H. (1981). Mood and memory. American Psychologist, 36(2): 129-148.
• D'Argembeau, A., Comblain, C. & Van der Linden, M. (2002). Phenomenal characteristics of autobiographical memories for positive, negative, and neutral events. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 17(3): pp. 281 - 294.
• Ekman, P. (2004). What does that gesture say? Barcelona: RBA202f: Integral, 2004. ISBN 978-84-7871-202-1.
• Hacking, I. (1996). Memory science, memory politics. En P. Antze & M. Lambek (Eds.), Tense past: Cultural essays in trauma and memory (pp. 67–87). New York & London: Routledge.
• LaBar, K. S. & Cabeza, R. (2006). Cognitive neuroscience of emotional memory. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7: 54-64.