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Keeping the memories flowing

Nature Neuroscience volume 9, pages 1199–1200 (2006)Cite this article

Transmission of sensory information through the rhinal cortices is essential for hippocampus-dependent learning. In this issue Paz et al. show that amygdala activity elicited by an unexpected reward facilitates communication from perirhinal to entorhinal cortex, providing a physiological mechanism for emotional modulation of memory.

“So short is love, and so long is forgetting,” wrote Pablo Neruda in a testimony to the tenacity of emotional memories. How is it that emotions, positive and negative, strengthen memories for particular events in our lives? At the heart of emotional modulation of memory lies the amygdala, a structure activated by emotional stimuli. It is widely accepted that the basolateral complex of the amygdala (BLA) strengthens consolidation of emotional memories through its projections to widespread cortical areas1,2. Despite a wealth of neuropharmacological data, however, there is still no neurophysiological model to account for this important function. In a tour de force of behavioral neurophysiology, Paz and colleagues3 demonstrate that amygdala activity strengthens memories by facilitating transmission of sensory information from the neocortex to the hippocampus.

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Figure 1: The amygdala enhances transfer of sensory information.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, Ponce School of Medicine, P.O. Box 7004, Ponce, Puerto Rico

    Gregory J Quirk & Ivan Vidal-Gonzalez

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  1. Gregory J Quirk
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  2. Ivan Vidal-Gonzalez
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Quirk, G., Vidal-Gonzalez, I. Keeping the memories flowing. Nat Neurosci 9, 1199–1200 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1006-1199

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