An fMRI study of the activation of the hippocampus by emotional memory

Matthew Bellace, Joseph Michael Williams, Feroze B. Mohamed, Scott H. Faro

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

The current study examined the role of the hippocampus in emotional memory encoding using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The present study examined the activation patterns of 12 healthy participants who were associated with memory for words and pictures with moderately high emotional tone. Results revealed significant activation in the temporal and frontal lobes for emotional and neutral stimuli. There was greater activation in the left hippocampus for emotional words and the right hippocampus for emotional pictures. However, a separate analysis of gender suggested that the emotional responses of the women accounted for the activation of the hippocampus; men did not have a pattern of hippocampus activation consistent with the type of stimuli. These findings have important implications for the design of a clinical memory assessment using fMRI.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)121-127
Number of pages7
JournalInternational Journal of Neuroscience
Volume123
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2013

Keywords

  • Emotion
  • FMRI
  • Hippocampus
  • Memory
  • Neuroimaging

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Neuroscience(all)

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