Unwanted reminders: The effects of emotional memory suppression on subsequent neuro-cognitive processing

•The effects of memory suppression on subsequent cognitive processing are unknown.•We examined this using a think/no think task, followed by exposure to memory cues.•Exposure to cues to suppressed memories activated the anterior insula (AI).•AI activation also predicted reduced performance on a conc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Consciousness and cognition 2016-08, Vol.44, p.103-113
Main Authors: Smith, Ryan, Alkozei, Anna, Lane, Richard D., Killgore, William D.S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Brain - physiology
Brain Mapping - methods
Cognition - physiology
Cognitive control
Cues
Emotional interference
Emotions
Emotions - physiology
Female
Humans
Information processing
Insula
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Memory
Memory - physiology
Middle Aged
Neuropsychology
Retrieval suppression
Task Performance and Analysis
Think/No-Think
Young Adult
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Summary:•The effects of memory suppression on subsequent cognitive processing are unknown.•We examined this using a think/no think task, followed by exposure to memory cues.•Exposure to cues to suppressed memories activated the anterior insula (AI).•AI activation also predicted reduced performance on a concurrent arithmetic task.•Cue exposure may have a distracting influence on cognitive task performance. The neural basis of voluntarily suppressing conscious access to one’s own memories (retrieval suppression [RS]) has recently received considerable attention. However, to date there has been limited research examining the effects of RS on subsequent processing of associated retrieval cues. In this study 47 healthy participants completed a Think/No Think task for memories of emotionally unpleasant visual scenes. While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), participants were then presented with cues associated with both suppressed (“no-think-cues”) and non-suppressed (“think-cues”) memories, and then asked to perform simple arithmetic problems. We observed that, compared to think-cues, no-think-cues were associated with greater left mid/anterior insula activation and with greater insula-anterior cingulate functional connectivity; left insula activation also predicted worse arithmetic performance. These results suggest that cues associated with suppressed negative memories may lead to greater activation of the brain’s “salience” network, and reduced available cognitive resources for completion of an ongoing goal-directed task.
ISSN:1053-8100
1090-2376
DOI:10.1016/j.concog.2016.07.008