Investigating Functional Connectivity of the Amygdala as a Function of Valence and Subsequent Memory Open Access
Dahlgren, Kristina (Summer 2018)
Published
Abstract
The amygdala has been shown to support emotional processing and emotional memory enhancement. Neuroimaging studies investigating the emotional enhancement of memory have found reliable activation in the amygdala as well as the prefrontal cortex, ventral visual stream, and the hippocampus. A remaining question is whether the prefrontal cortex, ventral visual stream, and hippocampus are interacting directly with the amygdala or whether they are operating independently of the amygdala. Recently, functional connectivity has been used to assess the degree to which these regions are interacting with the amygdala. However, few studies have analyzed functional connectivity for positive stimuli or functional connectivity between the amygdala and the whole brain. To investigate how regional activations and functional connectivity between the amygdala and the whole brain differ as a function of valence, this study examined emotional processing of and subsequent memory for positive, negative, and neutral pictures using a combined univariate analysis and beta series functional connectivity analysis. Widespread functional connectivity was observed between the amygdala and the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, ventral visual stream, frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe, subcortical structures, and cerebellum for positive, negative, and neutral pictures. Despite predictions, no significant differences in functional connectivity between the amygdala and any other brain regions were observed as either a function of valence or subsequent memory. As expected, increased amygdala activation was observed for both positive and negative subsequently remembered pictures compared to neutral pictures. Further, increased activation was also observed in the left hippocampus for subsequently remembered positive pictures, and for all positive, negative, and neutral pictures that were subsequently remembered combined. Taken together, these results do not show differences in functional connectivity between the amygdala and the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, or visual processing regions during successful encoding of emotional information as a function of valence; nor do they replicate previous findings of increased functional connectivity between the amygdala and the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and visual processing regions during successful encoding of emotional information. Further research is needed to delineate how functional connectivity during the emotional enhancement of memory may differ as a function of valence.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Methods 17
Results 26
Discussion 31
References 38
Figures 50
Figure 1 50
Figure 2 51
Figure 3 51
Figure 4 52
Figure 5 52
Figure 6 53
Figure 7 53
Figure 8 54
Figure 9 54
Tables 55
Table 1 55
Table 2 57
Table 3 58
Table 4 60
Table 5 62
Table 6 63
Table 7 65
Table 8 67
Table 9 69
Table 10 70
Table 11 71
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