Neural Systems Involved in Affective Experience over Time: Commonalities and Distinctions
Poster No:
840
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Yuan Zhang1, Wenyi Dong2, Shuxia Yao3, Keith Kendrick3, Benjamin Becker4
Institutions:
1University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuang, 2University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China, 3University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, 4The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Overarching conceptualizations propose a role of the default mode network (DMN) in self-relevant internal representations, in particular remembering the autobiographical past and envisioning the future. Initial task-based fMRI studies confirmed some aspects of the role of cortical midline and temporal DMN nodes in these domains (Addis et al., 2007; Schacter et al., 2007). However, accumulating evidence from recent studies indicates that the DMN may also subserve affective processes. Against this background the present fMRI study aimed at determining the shared and distinct neural systems underlying autobiographical episodic processing across time, including episodic memory retrieval (EMR) and episodic future thinking (EFT), and interactions with affective experience, including positive, neutral, and negative experiences.
Methods:
N = 52 participants were enrolled in the study (26 males, M±SD = 21.56±2.13). On Visit 1, participants were instructed to complete a series of validated questionnaires and an autobiographical interview task (cf., Speer et al., 2021). In the autobiographical interview task, they were asked to recall 5 personal memories per valence condition (i.e. positive, neutral, and negative) that happened in the past 5 years and imagine 5 affective events for each valence that would possibly happen in the future 5 years and also to write down event details (e.g., what, when, and where happened). Subsequently, 3 words were derived for each event as event cues to guide a vivid recall or imagination on Visit 2 (2-3 days later). During MRI acquisition during Visit 2, the event cues from the 3 most positive, neutral, and negative autobiographical events were displayed and participants were asked to EMR and EFT with a focus on imagining the event and immersing in the affective experience. Subjective ratings of valence and arousal were collected. Each run included 9 affective events (i.e. 3 events per valence) for EMR or EFT tasks and this run was repeated 3 times.
Results:
Behavioral analysis showed a significant main effect of valence and time and a significant valence × time interaction effect both for valence and arousal scores (all ps < 0.01). During both, EMR and EFT the paradigm induced strong affective experiences in terms of both valence (i.e. positive > neutral > negative) and arousal (i.e. positive > negative > neutral), with the EMR being characterized by lower valence ratings but higher arousal ratings relative to the EFT. Examining the main effect of time indicated that the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) extending into the precuneus showed a stronger activity during EMR relative to EFT (Figure 1A, results at pFDR < 0.05). Valence-specific effects were observed in medial frontal, PCC, and temporal areas (pFDR < 0.05) across EMR and EFT. Subsequent conjunction analyses confirmed shared activation between EMR and EFT across the time domain with significant clusters centered in the anterior medial frontal cortex, PCC, and temporal area (Figure 1B). A searchlight-based representational similarity analysis (RSA) among neural representational dissimilarity matrix (RDM) and 2 behavioral RDMs using valence and arousal ratings as input was conducted and further identified the right hippocampus is involving the processing for valence and arousal.
·Figure 1. (A) Time-specific brain regions on contrast ‘EMR > EFT’ tasks using a paired sample t-test. (B) The conjunction analysis results show valence-specific regions both involved in EMR and EFT ta
Conclusions:
The findings demonstrated that engagement in both, autobiographic episodic memory and episodic future thinking is associated with activity in the core components of the cortical midline default mode network. The PCC was strongly engaged during the memory as compared to future thinking task. Valence was encoded in medial prefrontal and posterior midline regions. Finally, RSA decoding implied that the hippocampus contributes to differential valence and arousal processing across the time domain.
Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:
Emotion and Motivation Other
Learning and Memory:
Long-Term Memory (Episodic and Semantic) 1
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Activation (eg. BOLD task-fMRI) 2
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
BOLD fMRI
Keywords:
Emotions
Memory
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Provide references using APA citation style.
Schacter, D.L., Addis, D.R., and Buckner, R.L. (2007). Remembering the past to imaging the future: the prospective brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 8, 657–661.
Speer, M.E., Ibrahim, S., Schiller, D., Delgado, M.R. (2021). Finding positive meaning in memories of negative events adaptively updates memory. Nature Communications. Nov 15;12(1):6601.