RT journal article
T1 Aversive memory formation in humans involves an amygdala-hippocampus phase code
A1 Costa, Manuela
A1 Lozano-Soldevilla, Diego
A1 Gil-Nagel, Antonio
A1 Toledano, Rafael
A1 Oehrn, Carina R.
A1 Kunz, Lukas
A1 Yedra, Mar
A1 Méndez Bertolo, Constantino José
A1 Stieglitz, Lennart
A1 Sarnthein, Johannes
A1 Axmacher, Nikolai
A1 Moratti, Stephan
A1 Strange, Bryan A.
A2 Psicología
AB The amygdala facilitates memory encoding in the hippocampus. Here the authors show, using simultaneous intracranial recordings from these regions, that emotional memory encoding is mediated by the amygdala theta phase to which hippocampal gamma activity and neuronal firing is coupled.Memory for aversive events is central to survival but can become maladaptive in psychiatric disorders. Memory enhancement for emotional events is thought to depend on amygdala modulation of hippocampal activity. However, the neural dynamics of amygdala-hippocampal communication during emotional memory encoding remain unknown. Using simultaneous intracranial recordings from both structures in human patients, here we show that successful emotional memory encoding depends on the amygdala theta phase to which hippocampal gamma activity and neuronal firing couple. The phase difference between subsequently remembered vs. not-remembered emotional stimuli translates to a time period that enables lagged coherence between amygdala and downstream hippocampal gamma. These results reveal a mechanism whereby amygdala theta phase coordinates transient amygdala -hippocampal gamma coherence to facilitate aversive memory encoding. Pacing of lagged gamma coherence via amygdala theta phase may represent a general mechanism through which the amygdala relays emotional content to distant brain regions to modulate other aspects of cognition, such as attention and decision-making.
PB NATURE PORTFOLIO
SN 2041-1723
YR 2022
FD 2022-10
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/29614
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/29614
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 12-nov-2026