Competition in Emotional Memory Consolidation: Enhancing the Trade-Off Effect with Targeted Memory Reactivation

Abstract

The consolidation process plays an integral role in enhancing memory, taking newly formed associations we have just learned and transitioning them into concrete, stable memories. This process has been found to take place during both sleep and wakefulness, but the literature has characterized the state of sleep as the ideal environment for supporting this process (Diekelmann & Born, 2010). Specifically, studies have shown that consolidation during sleep enhances memory recall for emotionally salient objects and weakens memory recall for the neutral backgrounds paired with them, otherwise known as the emotional memory trade-off effect (Payne, Stickgold, Swanberg, & Kensinger, 2008). It was further discovered that pre-encoding cortisol levels interact with sleep consolidation to enhance emotional memory recall, suggesting there are various potential mechanisms responsible for consolidating emotional memory (Bennion, Mickley Steinmetz, & Kensinger, 2013). The following study extends the research of Bennion et al. (2013) by using the technique of targeted memory reactivation (TMR) to further investigate the mechanisms of the trade-off effect and emotional memory consolidation. Here, we propose that the interaction of TMR and emotional salience during sleep will tag emotionally salient items for consolidation and enhance the emotional memory trade-off effect. Thus, the present study explores novel, potential mechanisms of competition within emotional memory consolidation.Keywords: competition, emotional memory consolidation, emotional salience, sleep, tagging, targeted memory reactivation (TMR)