Positive Emotional Induction Interferes with the Reconsolidation of ?SAD? Autobiographical Memories?

córdoba

Congreso; XXXIII Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias; 2018

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias

After reactivation, a previously consolidated memory can enter into a labile state followed by a re-stabilization process defined as reconsolidation. In a recent work we demonstrated that autobiographical negative angry memories can be modified by the presentation of a positive audiovisual presentation, in women only. The aim of this study was to explore whether an existing negative sad autobiographical memory can be modified using the same technic. Participants ?memories were reactivated on day 1 (retrieval session)by means of theAutobiographical Memory Test (AMT) by the presentation of the negative adjective ?sad? and they were instructed to remember one specific event from their own past and to write down the event in 4 min.Ten min later half of the subjects were shown the positive audiovisual inductor (POSITIVE INDUCTOR, PI group) andthe other half was shownan equivalent neutral audiovisual inductor (NEUTRAL INDUCTOR NI group). The memories were tested 7 and 30 days later by means of the presentation of the title of the event andthey had again4 min to write down the event.Theresults shown that only in women the presentation of a positive inductor reduced significantly the negative emotional content 7 and 30 days later (post hoc, p< 0.05).In sum, we found that a positive emotional experience after a negative autobiographical memory reactivation may lead to a change in the emotional information of the original trace and that such effect can be mediated by the reconsolidation process. These results suggest that a positive audiovisual induction may play a potential role in psychotherapeutic techniques for the modification of dysfunctional autobiographical memories.