Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-v2srd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-03-27T20:15:18.999Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Therapeutic affect reduction, emotion regulation, and emotional memory reconsolidation: A neuroscientific quandary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2015

Kevin S. LaBar
Kevin S. LaBar*
Affiliation:
Duke University, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0999. klabar@duke.edu http://www.labaratory.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Lane et al. emphasize the role of emotional arousal as a precipitating factor for successful psychotherapy. However, as therapy ensues, the arousal diminishes. How can the unfolding therapeutic process generate long-term memories for reconsolidated emotional material without the benefit of arousal? Studies investigating memory for emotionally regulated material provide some clues regarding the neural pathways that may underlie therapy-based memory reconsolidation.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 38 , 2015 , e10
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Agren, T., Engman, J., Frick, A., Björkstrand, J., Larsson, E.-M., Furmark, T. & Fredrikson, M. (2012) Disruption of reconsolidation erases a fear memory trace in the human amygdala. Science 337(6101):1550–52.Google Scholar
Besnard, A., Caboche, J. & Laroche, S. (2012) Reconsolidation of memory: A decade of debate. Progress in Neurobiology 99(1):61–80. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.pneurobio.2012.07.002.Google Scholar
Diergaarde, L., Anton, N. M. & DeVries, T. J. (2008) Pharmacological manipulation of memory reconsolidation: Towards a novel treatment of pathogenic memories. European Journal of Pharmacology 585:453–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dillon, D. G., Ritchey, M., Johnson, B. D. & LaBar, K. S. (2007) Dissociable effects of conscious emotion regulation strategies on explicit and implicit memory. Emotion 7(2):354–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dolcos, F., LaBar, K. S. & Cabeza, R. (2004) Dissociable effects of arousal and valence on prefrontal activity indexing emotional evaluation and subsequent memory: An event-related fMRI study. NeuroImage 23:64–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hayes, J. P., Morey, R. A., Petty, C. M., Seth, S., Smoski, M. J., McCarthy, G. & LaBar, K. S. (2010) Staying cool when things get hot: Emotion regulation modulates neural mechanisms of memory encoding. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 4:230.Google Scholar
Kross, E., Davidson, M., Weber, J. & Ochsner, K. N. (2009) Coping with emotions past: The neural bases of regulating affect associated with negative autobiographical memories. Biological Psychiatry 65(5):361–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lieberman, M. D., Eisenberger, N. I., Crockett, M. J., Tom, S. M., Pfeifer, J. H. & Way, B. M. (2007) Putting feelings into words: Affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli. Psychological Science 18(5):421–28.Google Scholar
McGaugh, J. L. (2000) Memory: A century of consolidation. Science 287:248–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nader, K. & Hardt, O. (2009) A single standard for memory: The case for reconsolidation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 10(3):224–234. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2590.Google Scholar
Ochsner, K. N., Silvers, J. A. & Buhle, J. T. (2012) Functional imaging studies of emotion regulation: A synthetic review and evolving model of the cognitive control of emotion. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1251:E1–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Phelps, E. A., LaBar, K. S. & Spencer, D. D. (1997) Memory for emotional words following unilateral temporal lobectomy. Brain and Cognition 35(1):85–109.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schiller, D., Kanen, J. W., LeDoux, J. E., Monfils, M.-H. & Phelps, E. A. (2013) Extinction during reconsolidation of threat memory diminishes prefrontal cortex involvement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 110(50):20040–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schiller, D. & Phelps, E. A. (2011) Does reconsolidation occur in humans? Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 5:24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Winecoff, A., LaBar, K. S., Madden, D., Cabeza, R. & Huettel, S. A. (2011) Cognitive and neural contributors to emotion regulation in aging. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 6:165–76.Google Scholar