In which fear-related disorders and in which processes does emotional memory play a role? Read this article by Dominique de Quervain.

Emotional memory plays an important role in the following fear-related disorders:

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): A disorder that can occur after being exposed to a traumatic event. Its symptoms include intrusion, avoidance, negative alterations in cognition and mood, and alterations in arousal and reactivity.
• Phobias: Anxiety disorders that are characterized by intense fear or anxiety that is circumscribed to the presence or anticipation of a particular object or situation.

Emotional memory functions are involved in the pathogenesis, symptomatology and treatment of these disorders:

Pathogenesis: After experiencing an aversive event, the formation of an excessively strong aversive-memory trace is an important pathogenic mechanism in the development of fear-related disorders. Associative learning leads to both conscious (through emotional enhancement of declarative memory) and unconscious (through conditioning) aversive memories. Animal models and human studies have shown that the amygdala plays a central role in the modulation of memory by emotion. More specifically, neuroimaging studies have shown that, compared with controls, patients with PTSD or phobias show enhanced amygdala activity in response to aversive stimuli, and that this increase in amygdala activity correlates with the subsequent recall of aversive memory and symptom severity.

Symptomatology: Activation of an aversive memory trace – often induced by a reminder cue – leads to the expression of fear in patients. The symptoms of PTSD include aversive-memory retrieval in which components of the event are relived in the form of intrusive daytime recollections (flashbacks) and traumatic nightmares. The symptoms of phobic disorders include fear that is excessive or unreasonable.

Treatment: Exposure therapy for fear-related disorders is based on the extinction of fear responses, which in turn relies on the formation of a non-fearful extinction memory. However, patients suffering from chronic fear often show a reduced capacity for proper fear extinction.

Watch this short movie about PTSD.

Lizenz