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Inducing amnesia through systemic suppression

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dc.creator Hulbert, JC
dc.creator Henson, Richard
dc.creator Anderson, Michael
dc.date 2017-09-18T14:23:25Z
dc.date 2017-09-18T14:23:25Z
dc.date.accessioned 2019-03-20T08:22:56Z
dc.date.available 2019-03-20T08:22:56Z
dc.identifier https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/267267
dc.identifier 10.17863/CAM.13269
dc.identifier.uri https://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/32196
dc.description Hippocampal damage profoundly disrupts the ability to store new memories of life events. Amnesic windows might also occur in healthy people due to disturbed hippocampal function arising during mental processes that systemically reduce hippocampal activity. Intentionally suppressing memory retrieval (retrieval stopping) reduces hippocampal activity via control mechanisms mediated by the lateral prefrontal cortex. Here we show that when people suppress retrieval given a reminder of an unwanted memory, they are considerably more likely to forget unrelated experiences from periods surrounding suppression. This amnesic shadow follows a dose-response function, becomes more pronounced after practice suppressing retrieval, exhibits characteristics indicating disturbed hippocampal function, and is predicted by reduced hippocampal activity. These findings indicate that stopping retrieval engages a suppression mechanism that broadly compromises hippocampal processes and that hippocampal stabilization processes can be interrupted strategically. Cognitively triggered amnesia constitutes an unrecognized forgetting process that may account for otherwise unexplained memory lapses following trauma.
dc.description This work was supported by a Tom Slick Research Award in Consciousness from the Mind Science Foundation to J.C.H. and M.C.A. and grants from the Medical Research Council (MC-A060-5PR00, MC-US A060-5PR10), as well as from the National Science Foundation (0643321 and a Graduate Research Fellowship to J.C.H. (DGE-0751281)).
dc.language eng
dc.language en
dc.publisher Nature Publishing Group
dc.publisher Nature Communications
dc.rights Attribution 4.0 International
dc.rights Attribution 4.0 International
dc.rights Attribution 4.0 International
dc.rights Attribution 4.0 International
dc.rights Attribution 4.0 International
dc.rights Attribution 4.0 International
dc.rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subject adolescent
dc.subject adult
dc.subject amnesia
dc.subject brain
dc.subject female
dc.subject functional neuroimaging
dc.subject hippocampus
dc.subject humans
dc.subject magnetic resonance imaging
dc.subject male
dc.subject memory
dc.subject mental recall
dc.subject prefrontal cortex
dc.subject repression, psychology
dc.subject young adult
dc.title Inducing amnesia through systemic suppression
dc.type Article


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