黑料吃瓜群网

Scientists at the Queensland Brain Institute have found bad experiences can enhance memory formation about places.
Dr Oliver聽Baumann from the聽institute聽found that associating negative imagery with聽specific locations activates a part of the brain responsible for forming memory of places during navigation 鈥� the parahippocampal cortex.
鈥淭his heightened recall occurs automatically, without people even being aware that the negative imagery is affecting their memories,鈥� said Dr Baumann, who聽worked on the study in the QBI's Mattingley lab.
鈥淚t could serve as a cue for avoiding potential threats,鈥� Dr Baumann said.聽鈥淥ur findings show that emotions can exert a powerful influence on spatial and navigational memory for places.聽 鈥淚n future we might be able to boost memory functions by triggering the positive side-effects of emotional arousal, while avoiding the need for negative experiences.鈥�
For the research,聽Professor Jason Mattingley聽built a 'virtual house' and staged events in each room unrelated to the subject navigating the house.聽The events varied in their rate of occurrence and were designed to elicit an emotional response 鈥� positive, negative, or neutral, and varied in their rate of occurrence.
鈥淭he events were illustrated using images from the International Affective聽Picture System library and included dramatic scenes of attack and threat, as聽well as more pleasant imagery,鈥� Dr Baumann said.
The day after navigating through the house, participants viewed static images of the house without the emotional imagery, while their neural activity was recorded using an MRI scanner.
鈥淭he results showed that emotional arousal exerted a powerful influence on memory by enhancing parahippocampal activity,鈥� Dr Baumann said.
The study was published in the聽Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.