FSW - Self-regulation models for health behavior and Psychopathology - Ou

Elzinga, B.M.

Hout, M.A. van den

Leiden University Scholary Publications

Editorial Special Issue: Learning, memory and psychopathology.Elzinga, B.M.; Hout, M.A. van denCitationElzinga, B. M., & Hout, M. A. van den. (2008). Editorial Special Issue: Learning, memoryand psychopathology. Acta Psychologica, 127, 511-512. Retrieved fromhttps://hdl.handle.net/1887/15008 Version: Not Applicable (or Unknown)License: Leiden University Non-exclusive licenseDownloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/15008 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable).EditorialSpecial issue: Learning, memory and psychopathologyMany clinical populations show a variety of memorypeculiarities, two marked examples being ‘‘hypermnesia”(i.e., intrusions, flashbacks, as in Posttraumatic Stress Dis-order (PTSD)) and ‘‘hypomnesia” (disturbances in declar-ative (autobiographical) memory, mostly for neutralinformation). For example, patients with PTSD experienceinvoluntary, vivid flashbacks in which they relive the trau-matic event(s), but the same individuals may not be able tovoluntarily retrieve detailed or vivid memories from (other)autobiographical events surrounding the trauma. In anxi-ety disorders like panic disorder, social phobia, and specificphobia’s non-threatening cues may activate memory repre-sentations of catastrophies, and overgeneral autobiograph-ical memories have been reported in many stress-relateddisorders, including depression. Moreover, these memoryderailments may severely impair social and professionalfunctioning.During the past years significant progress has been madein several research areas shedding new light on the pro-cesses underlying these dysfunctions. First, there is a strongresearch tradition relating stress and stress hormones toemotional memory. In the past 10 years, it has been shownthat hormone related influences can lead to temporary andperhaps even structural changes in neural circuits (e.g., hip-pocampus, amygdale, and PFC) critically important formemory functioning. Second, exciting developments havetaken place in the field of Pavlovian fear conditioning.Memorizing the probabilistic relation between a neutralstimulus (CS) and an aversive and potentially traumaticstimulus (US) is the nucleus of Pavlovian fear conditioning.In this, attention has shifted towards individual differences,the use of context cues in the acquisition and extinction ofconditioned fear, and pharmacological facilitation ofextinction learning. Third, from a hedonic perspective itmay not be surprising that humans are motivated to blockpainful memories from conscious. Intriguing paradigmshave been developed that allow for experimental unravel-ing how people are able to intentionally forget specific,emotional information (motivated forgetting). These devel-opments, although so far mainly investigated in healthyindividuals, could be specifically relevant in understandingmemory disturbances in clinical populations.This special issue focuses on these three lines of memoryresearch, all three being highly relevant to the understand-ing of some psychopathological conditions. To each ofthese three research lines, four papers are devoted, docu-menting the state-of-the-art.The first contribution on the effects of stress and stresshormones on memory functioning is from Oliver Wolfwho provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art review onthe influence of stress hormones (related to the noradrener-gic system and the HPA axis) on emotional memory, anddiscusses the relevance of these findings for psychopatho-logical disorders, such as PTSD, depression, and specificphobia. Anda van Stegeren summarizes the elegant lineof studies she conducted on the role of the noradrenergicsystem in emotional memory, and the relevance for under-standing memory processes related to PTSD. As a clearexample of how stress exposure may affect memory perfor-mance, Marieke Tollenaar and colleagues present datafrom an experimental study among healthy subjects onthe acute effects of exposure to a public speaking task onmemory retrieval, and how this may be mediated by stresshormones. Finally, Emily Holmes and Corin Bourne pro-vide an excellent review on the studies Holmes and col-leagues conducted using the Trauma film paradigm, as ananalogue to study memories in PTSD.As to classical conditioning, Susan Mineka and Kather-ine Oehlberg provide a scholarly overview of the contribu-tion of classical conditioning research, concentrating onrecent developments in animal and human studies and ni-cely detailing the clinical relevance of the insights gained.Joke Baas et al. and Iberico et al. both demonstrate the ele-gance of conditioning studies and their importance forunderstanding both the acquisition and extinction of cuedfear. Both focus on individual differences and ‘‘context-conditioning” in the acquisition and extinction of condi-tioned fear. The most prevalent disorders in mental healthcare are the anxiety disorders, while the most prominentpsychological treatment is ‘‘exposure therapy”, a clinical0001-6918/$ - see front matter  2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2007.12.012www.elsevier.com/locate/actpsyAvailable online at www.sciencedirect.comActa Psychologica 127 (2008) 511–512application of extinction procedures. Bram Vervliet pro-vides an overview of the fascinating studies, both animaland human, showing that extinction is facilitated by a singledose of D-cycloserine to be administered before or immedi-ately after the extinction trial.The section on motivated forgetting sets out with a com-prehensive review by Elke Geraerts and Richard McNallyon the various paradigms to measure directed forgettingand thought suppression, concentrating on laboratorystudies involving attempts by individuals reporting traumahistories to forget emotionally negative material. Second,Benjamin Levy and Michael Anderson review their excel-lent basic research that addresses the cognitive and neuro-biological mechanisms by which people try to controlmemory, and which individual differences may be relatedto these processes. Finally, two empirical contributionsby Paula Hertel and Ali Moradi and colleagues nicely illus-trate individual differences related to emotional memory,with Paula Hertel presenting a study on depression-relateddifferences in learning and forgetting, while Ali Moradi andcolleagues studied the specificity of autobiographical mem-ory in relation to symptoms of posttraumatic Stress Disor-der (PTSD).Taken together, we think that the authors succeeded inproviding beautiful examples and excellent overviews ofthe developments that, over the last decade have takenplace in the field of the neurobiology of emotional memory,fear conditioning, and the empirical study on motivatedforgetting. We hope that the state-of-the-art papers fromthese three research domains will inspire researchers tofresh new research lines. Some avenues are mentionedbelow.First and perhaps most importantly, the three researchdomains of the neurobiology of emotional memory, fearconditioning, and the empirical study on motivated forget-ting/overgeneral memory, are three independent fields,whereas the phenomena they are trying to explain are over-lapping. Note that classical conditioning is a memory phe-nomenon, and this special issue deals with the interfacebetween memory research and psychopathology. Integrat-ing knowledge from the three research domains would bea fascinating next step, for example, by investigating brainregions related to motivated forgetting in clinical samples,by further specifying the relation between intrusions andgeneral autobiographical memories, by investigating inmore detail the role of stress hormones in enhanced fearconditioning in clinical patients, just to name a fewexamples.One promising direction that will, no doubt, be followedin the next 10 years is the clinical relevance and implica-tions of the theoretical models that are put forward in thisspecial issue. For example, can clinical interventions basedon the model on intrusions provided by Holmes et al. im-prove the treatment of PTSD? Can black outs in clinicalsamples indeed be explained by enhanced cortisol levelsduring acute stress, as suggested by Tollenaar and Wolf?Can we enhance the effectiveness of behavior therapy foranxiety disorders by applying knowledge on the (neurobio-logical and environmental) variables that play a role inextinction learning (see Vervliet, Baas, Mineka, Vans-teenwegen)? Can individual differences with regard to for-getting (as put forward by Anderson, Hertel, Dalgleish)tell us something about vulnerability to developpsychopathology?The editors hope to have illustrated that the experimen-tal study of psychopathology is not only an intrinsicallyintriguing, but also an important endeavour.Bernet M. ElzingaLeiden University, Institute for Psychological Research,Section of Clinical, Health, and Neuropsychology,Wassenaarseweg 15,2300 RB Leiden, The NetherlandsE-mail address: elzinga@fsw.leidenuniv.nlMarcel van den HoutUtrecht University, Clinical and Health Psychology,P.O. Box 80.140, 3508 TC Utrecht, The NetherlandsE-mail addresses: m.vandenhout@uu.nlAvailable online 12 February 2008512 Editorial / Acta Psychologica 127 (2008) 511–512

Editorial Special Issue: Learning, memory and psychopathology.

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Editorial Special Issue: Learning, memory and psychopathology.

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