Positive Outcomes Enhance Incidental Learning for Both Younger and Older Adults

Previous studies suggest that memory encoding is enhanced when people are anticipating a potential reward, consistent with the idea that dopaminergic systems that respond to motivationally relevant information also enhance memory for that information. In the current study, we examined how anticipating and receiving rewards versus losses affect incidental learning of information. In addition, we compared the modulatory effects of reward anticipation and outcome on memory for younger and older adults. Forty-two younger (aged 18–33 years) and 44 older (aged 66–92 years) adults played a game involving pressing a button as soon as they saw a target. Gain trials began with a cue that they would win $0.25 if they pressed the button fast enough, loss trials began with a cue that they would avoid losing$0.25 if they pressed the button fast enough, and no-outcome trials began with a cue indicating no monetary outcome. The target was a different photo-object on each trial (e.g., balloon, dolphin) and performance outcomes were displayed after the photo disappeared. Both younger and older adults recalled and recognized pictures from trials with positive outcomes (either rewarding or loss avoiding) better than from trials with negative outcomes. Positive outcomes were associated with not only enhanced memory for the picture just seen in that trial, but also with enhanced memory for the pictures shown in the next two trials. Although anticipating a reward also enhanced incidental memory, this effect was seen only in recognition memory of positive pictures and was a smaller effect than the outcome effect. The fact that older adults showed similar incidental memory effects of reward anticipation and outcome as younger adults suggests that reward–memory system interactions remain intact in older age

How fMRI Can Inform Cognitive Theories

How can functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) advance cognitive theory? Some have argued that fMRI can do little beyond localizing brain regions that carry out certain cognitive functions (and may not even be able to do that). However, in this article, we argue that fMRI can inform theories of cognition by helping to answer at least four distinct kinds of questions. Which mental functions are performed in brain regions specialized for just that function (and which are performed in more general-purpose brain machinery)? When fMRI markers of a particular Mental Process X are found, is Mental Process X engaged when people perform Task Y? How distinct are the representations of different stimulus classes? Do specific pairs of tasks engage common or distinct processing mechanisms? Thus, fMRI data can be used to address theoretical debates that have nothing to do with where in the brain a particular process is carried out

Differential interference effects of negative emotional states on subsequent semantic and perceptual processing

Past studies have revealed that encountering negative events interferes with cognitive processing of subsequent stimuli. The present study investigates whether negative events affect semantic and perceptual processing differently. Presentation of negative pictures produced slower reaction times than neutral or positive pictures in tasks that require semantic processing, such as natural or man-made judgments about drawings of objects, commonness judgments about objects, and categorical judgments about pairs of words. In contrast, negative picture presentation did not slow down judgments in subsequent perceptual processing (e.g., color judgments about words, size judgments about objects). The subjective arousal level of negative pictures did not modulate the interference effects on semantic or perceptual processing. These findings indicate that encountering negative emotional events interferes with semantic processing of subsequent stimuli more strongly than perceptual processing, and that not all types of subsequent cognitive processing are impaired by negative events

Differential brain activity during emotional versus nonemotional reversal learning

The ability to change an established stimulus–behavior association based on feedback is critical for adaptive social behaviors. This ability has been examined in reversal learning tasks, where participants first learn a stimulus–response association (e.g., select a particular object to get a reward) and then need to alter their response when reinforcement contingencies change. Although substantial evidence demonstrates that the OFC is a critical region for reversal learning, previous studies have not distinguished reversal learning for emotional associations from neutral associations. The current study examined whether OFC plays similar roles in emotional versus neutral reversal learning. The OFC showed greater activity during reversals of stimulus–outcome associations for negative outcomes than for neutral outcomes. Similar OFC activity was also observed during reversals involving positive outcomes. Furthermore, OFC activity is more inversely correlated with amygdala activity during negative reversals than during neutral reversals. Overall, our results indicate that the OFC is more activated by emotional than neutral reversal learning and that OFC's interactions with the amygdala are greater for negative than neutral reversal learning

Age-related similarities and differences in brain activity underlying reversal learning

The ability to update associative memory is an important aspect of episodic memory and a critical skill for social adaptation. Previous research with younger adults suggests that emotional arousal alters brain mechanisms underlying memory updating; however, it is unclear whether this applies to older adults. Given that the ability to update associative information declines with age, it is important to understand how emotion modulates the brain processes underlying memory updating in older adults. The current study investigated this question using reversal learning tasks, where younger and older participants (age ranges 19-35 and 61-78 respectively) learn a stimulus–outcome association and then update their response when contingencies change. We found that younger and older adults showed similar patterns of activation in the frontopolar OFC and the amygdala during emotional reversal learning. In contrast, when reversal learning did not involve emotion, older adults showed greater parietal cortex activity than did younger adults. Thus, younger and older adults show more similarities in brain activity during memory updating involving emotional stimuli than during memory updating not involving emotional stimuli

Association learning for emotional harbinger cues: When do previous emotional associations impair and when do they facilitate subsequent learning of new associations?

Neutral cues that predict emotional events (emotional harbingers) acquire emotional properties and attract attention. Given the importance of emotional harbingers for future survival, it is desirable to flexibly learn new facts about emotional harbingers when needed. However, recent research revealed that it is harder to learn new associations for emotional harbingers than cues that predict non-emotional events (neutral harbingers). In the current study, we addressed whether this impaired association learning for emotional harbingers is altered by one’s awareness of the contingencies between cues and emotional outcomes. Across 3 studies, we found that one’s awareness of the contingencies determines subsequent association learning of emotional harbingers. Emotional harbingers produced worse association learning than neutral harbingers when people were not aware of the contingencies between cues and emotional outcomes, but produced better association learning when people were aware of the contingencies. These results suggest that emotional harbingers do not always suffer from impaired association learning and can show facilitated learning depending on one’s contingency awareness

Updating existing emotional memories involves the frontopolar/orbitofrontal cortex in ways that acquiring new emotional memories does not

In life, we must often learn new associations to people, places, or things we already know. The current fMRI study investigated the neural mechanisms underlying emotional memory updating. Nineteen participants first viewed negative and neutral pictures and learned associations between those pictures and other neutral stimuli, such as neutral objects and encoding tasks. This initial learning phase was followed by a memory updating phase, during which participants learned picture-location associations for old pictures (i.e., pictures previously associated with other neutral stimuli) and new pictures (i.e., pictures not seen in the first phase). There was greater frontopolar/orbito-frontal (OFC) activity when people learned picture–location associations for old negative pictures than for new negative pictures, but frontopolar OFC activity did not significantly differ during learning locations of old versus new neutral pictures. In addition, frontopolar activity was more negatively correlated with the amygdala when participants learned picture–location associations for old negative pictures than for new negative or old neutral pictures. Past studies revealed that the frontopolar OFC allows for updating the affective values of stimuli in reversal learning or extinction of conditioning [e.g., Izquierdo, A., & Murray, E. A. Opposing effects of amygdala and orbital PFC lesions on the extinction of instrumental responding in macaque monkeys. European Journal of Neuroscience, 22, 2341–2346, 2005]; our findings suggest that it plays a more general role in updating associations to emotional stimuli

Resting-state networks associated with cognitive processing show more age-related decline than those associated with emotional processing

Correlations in activity across disparate brain regions during rest reveal functional networks in the brain. Although previous studies largely agree that there is an age-related decline in the “default mode network,” how age affects other resting-state networks, such as motion-related networks, is still controversial. Here we used a dual regression approach to investigate age-related alterations in resting-state networks. The results revealed age-related disruptions in functional connectivity in all five identified cognitive networks, namely the default mode network, cognitive-auditory, cognitive-speech (or speech-related somatosensory) and right and left fronto-parietal networks, whereas such age effects were not observed in the three identified emotion networks. In addition, we observed age-related decline in functional connectivity in three visual and three motor/visuospatial networks. Older adults showed greater functional connectivity in regions outside four out of the five identified cognitive networks, consistent with the dedifferentiation effect previously observed in task-based fMRI studies. Both reduced within-network connectivity and increased out-of-network connectivity were correlated with poor cognitive performance, providing potential biomarkers for cognitive aging

GANEing traction: the broad applicability of NE hotspots to diverse cognitive and arousal phenomena

GANE proposes that local glutamate-norepinephrine interactions enable “winner-take-more” effects in perception and memory under arousal. A diverse range of commentaries addressed both the nature of this ‘hotspot’ feedback mechanism and its implications in a variety of psychological domains, inspiring exciting avenues for future research