"Promiscuous Amygdala”

Molly Moody

The amygdala gets around. McGaugh’s interpretation of memory consolidation existing among a network of brain locales is not surprising. Similar to our previous discussion on the adaptation of emotions stemming from different areas of the brain; memory also seems to originate in a series of steps from a number of locations. The amygdala influences memory consolidation for any kind of information by temporarily influencing other brain regions; the ultimate bachelor. I found LaBar’s paper a little overwhelming, but it was interesting to watch him converge with our study of Pavlov and LeDoux’s fear conditioning. He was quick to point out that the amygdala plays an important role in encoding, consolidating, and reconsolidating retrieved memories. The amygdala’s link with memory even makes its way into my dreams as McGaugh suggests it may play an important role in memory consolidation through sleeping and dreaming. I always attributed my ability to recite lines for the school play only after a night’s sleep sheer luck, but the dream theory is certainly a more provable one. I must wonder, couldn’t memory recall post sleep be attributed to greater vigor and less fatigue thus better recall rather than the repetition exhibited by dreams?
LaBar makes an interesting point in explaining that emotion in memory “facilitates consolidation processes, which take time to emerge” (55). After reading this I was somewhat confused over which process has a greater impact upon memory: repetition, time, or arousal? After completing all of the readings, however, I believe they focus most prominently on arousal’s and its relationship with time, rather than one extreme over the other. McGaugh mentions the stress hormone, epinephrine, acting as a stimulant drug that alters memory consolidation in his rat/foot shock experiment (p98). This idea is backed up with LaBar’s mention of emotion benefiting memory “particularly after sever or prolonged stress” (p54).
Clore’s paper was a very interesting continuation on the discussion of fabricated memories from last week’s post. His paper suggests emotions affect problem-solving, stereotypes, and persuasion; this is most certainly frightening when taken into consideration the emphasis we put on separating the rational from the emotional.