当人们闻到儿时在厨房中闻到的气味，在老照片中看到朋友或家人，触摸到一件穿破的法兰绒衬衫…所有这些感官经历都可强有力地唤起人们的记忆。 正如一项新的研究所显示的，之所以会发生这种情况是因为当脑子储存情感记忆的时候，感官信息是与情感信息紧密捆绑在一起的。 我们脑子中的接受来自我们眼睛、鼻子和皮肤的信号的区域在处理这一输入时被分隔为扮演不同角色的细小的分部。 通过训练大鼠将不同音调的声音、闪光或醋的气味与接受电击的经验进行关联，Tiziana Sacco 和 Benedetto Sacchetti确认，巴甫洛夫恐惧记忆是分别储存在次级听觉、视觉和嗅觉皮层中的。 在这些脑区域制造损伤看来能够破坏已经成立的记忆，但它不会阻止新的记忆的形成，提示次级感觉皮层对储存情感记忆是至关重要的。
文章的作者提出，当感觉刺激通过次级感觉皮层与记忆交织在一起的时候，与某种怀有高度情感的处境相关联的视觉、声音和气味会承担该处境的情感特质。 文章的作者写道：“这些皮层之间的联系接着可提供一种在记忆回顾的时候对全部情感经历的整合的观点。” （生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原文出处：
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1183165
Role of Secondary Sensory Cortices in Emotional Memory Storage and Retrieval in Rats
Tiziana Sacco1 and Benedetto Sacchetti1,2,*
Visual, acoustic, and olfactory stimuli associated with a highly charged emotional situation take on the affective qualities of that situation. Where the emotional meaning of a given sensory experience is stored is a matter of debate. We found that excitotoxic lesions of auditory, visual, or olfactory secondary sensory cortices impaired remote, but not recent, fear memories in rats. Amnesia was modality-specific and not due to an interference with sensory or emotional processes. In these sites, memory persistence was dependent on ongoing protein kinase M activity and was associated with an increased activity of layers II–IV, thus suggesting a synaptic strengthening of corticocortical connections. Lesions of the same areas left intact the memory of sensory stimuli not associated with any emotional charge. We propose that secondary sensory cortices support memory storage and retrieval of sensory stimuli that have acquired a behavioral salience with the experience.
1 Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin, Corso Raffaello 30, I-10125 Turin, Italy.
2 National Institute of Neuroscience, I-10125 Turin, Italy
