Prof. Mathias Weymar, University of Potsdam, will lecture on "Neuromodulation of Emotional Memories."
Abstract: Emotional memories, especially unpleasant ones, can be extremely robust and long-lasting, which in extreme circumstances can contribute to the development of mood, anxiety, and stress-related disorders. In the present talk I summarize ERP (and fMRI) data from our lab with healthy participants on neural correlates related to encoding and memory retrieval of emotional scenes. The presentation also includes studies using non-invasive transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS), which is assumed to stimulate noradrenergic release in the brain. Recent basic and translational results indicate that vagal stimulation is able to facilitate (extinction) learning and emotional episodic memory, likely via afferent projections to the arousal-modulated locus coeruleus system, which could be of special relevance for future clinical application.
