Brief learning induces a memory bias for arousing-negative words: an fMRI study in high and low trait anxious persons.

ABSTRACT: Persons suffering from anxiety disorders display facilitated processing of arousing and negative stimuli, such as negative words. This memory bias is reflected in better recall and increased amygdala activity in response to such stimuli. However, individual learning histories were not considered in most studies, a concern that we meet here. Thirty-four female persons (half with high-, half with low trait anxiety) participated in a criterion-based associative word-learning paradigm, in which neutral pseudowords were paired with aversive or neutral pictures, which should lead to a valence change for the negatively paired pseudowords. After learning, pseudowords were tested with fMRI to investigate differential brain activation of the amygdala evoked by the newly acquired valence. Explicit an

SUBMITTER: Eden AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4543815 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature