Why do we remember emotional information better? Neuroimaging and neuropsychological research suggest that there are neural mechanisms involved in enhancing memory for emotional information that are not involved in memory for neutral information. Building on this work, we are using EEG to explore the neural processes involved in emotional memory. In particular, we are interested in the relationship between the late positive potential (LPP)—an EEG component usually seen in response to emotional stimuli—and neural mechanisms of emotional memory enhancement.
Episodic memory is our ability to replay or re-experience past events. The influential memory researcher Endel Tulving referred to this as “mental time travel”. This ability is supported in the brain by partially reinstating (or “recapitulating”) patterns of brain activation that were involved in experiencing the original event. Previous research suggests that emotional, and maybe particularly negative, experiences are remembered more vividly, with greater sensory specificity, and with more extensive neural recapitulation. Using EEG, we are examining the timing of these differences. Do they emerge early during the retrieval of a memory and influence ongoing retrieval, or are they the result of how memories are processed after they are initially retrieved?
We are interested in critically examining and improving the research methods and data analysis approaches that we use with the goal of increasing the reliability, replicability, and evidential value of research. This includes work on how to best analyze EEG data as well as more general issues of statistical analysis and statistical philosophy.