Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Observing the suppression of individual aversive memories from conscious awareness

View ORCID ProfileXuanyi Lin, Danni Chen, Ziqing Yao, Michael C. Anderson, View ORCID ProfileXiaoqing Hu
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.17.464746
Xuanyi Lin
1Department of Psychology, The State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Hong Kong
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Xuanyi Lin
Danni Chen
1Department of Psychology, The State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Hong Kong
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ziqing Yao
1Department of Psychology, The State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Hong Kong
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Michael C. Anderson
2MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: xiaoqinghu@hku.hk michael.anderson@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk
Xiaoqing Hu
1Department of Psychology, The State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Hong Kong
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Xiaoqing Hu
  • For correspondence: xiaoqinghu@hku.hk michael.anderson@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

When reminded of an unpleasant experience, people often try to exclude the unwanted memory from awareness, a process known as retrieval suppression. Despite the importance of this form of mental control to mental health, the ability to track, in real time, individual memories as they are suppressed remains elusive. Here we used multivariate decoding on EEG data to track how suppression unfolds in time and to reveal its impact on cortical patterns related to individual memories. We presented reminders to aversive scenes and asked people to either suppress or to retrieve the scene. During suppression, mid-frontal theta power within the first 500 ms distinguished suppression from passive viewing of the reminder, indicating that suppression rapidly recruited control. During retrieval, we could discern EEG cortical patterns relating to individual memories-initially, based on theta-driven, visual perception of the reminders (0-500 ms) and later, based on alpha-driven, reinstatement of the aversive scene (500-3000 ms). Critically, suppressing retrieval weakened (during 420-600 ms) and eventually abolished item-specific cortical patterns, a robust effect that persisted until the reminder disappeared (1200-3000 ms). Actively suppressing item-specific cortical patterns, both during an early (300-680 ms) window and during sustained control, predicted later episodic forgetting. Thus, both rapid and sustained control contribute to abolishing cortical patterns of individual memories, limiting awareness, and precipitating later forgetting. These findings reveal how suppression of individual memories from awareness unfolds in time, presenting a precise chronometry of this process.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted December 17, 2021.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Observing the suppression of individual aversive memories from conscious awareness
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Observing the suppression of individual aversive memories from conscious awareness
Xuanyi Lin, Danni Chen, Ziqing Yao, Michael C. Anderson, Xiaoqing Hu
bioRxiv 2021.10.17.464746; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.17.464746
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Observing the suppression of individual aversive memories from conscious awareness
Xuanyi Lin, Danni Chen, Ziqing Yao, Michael C. Anderson, Xiaoqing Hu
bioRxiv 2021.10.17.464746; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.17.464746

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Neuroscience
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4232)
  • Biochemistry (9128)
  • Bioengineering (6774)
  • Bioinformatics (23988)
  • Biophysics (12117)
  • Cancer Biology (9520)
  • Cell Biology (13772)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7626)
  • Ecology (11686)
  • Epidemiology (2066)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15503)
  • Genetics (10638)
  • Genomics (14321)
  • Immunology (9477)
  • Microbiology (22830)
  • Molecular Biology (9089)
  • Neuroscience (48948)
  • Paleontology (355)
  • Pathology (1480)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2568)
  • Physiology (3844)
  • Plant Biology (8326)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1471)
  • Synthetic Biology (2296)
  • Systems Biology (6185)
  • Zoology (1300)