An Explanation of Why Emotion Causes Stronger Memories

Picture a moment of your life that really scared you.  Did you picture it more vividly than you would a less fear-inducing memory? It is common knowledge in the psychological world that events in our lives that scared us or brought out another strong emotional response tend to be remembered more clearly.  Scientists have been searching for explanations of this phenomenon on a biological level for quite some time.  Research from the University of California in Berkeley provides a new way of understanding why this happens.

The high level of activation in the amygdala, the part of the brain centered on the fear and emotional response, actually will cause activity occur in a separate area of the brain called the hippocampus.  The hippocampus is a relay area for memory and the home of many immature stem cells.  If the emotional reaction to a situation is strong enough, the amygdala will cause the hippocampus to use a unique population of stem cells and create new memory-related neurons.  The implication is that these new neurons may be an important cause for the vivid encoding of memory.

In disorders revolving around emotional memories, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or, in some cases, depression and other forms of anxiety, there may be faulty regulation of the functionality of these young cells.  Perhaps by knowing this, developments in the psychiatric world can be made in an attempt to correct this problem. 


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110614131958.htm