Memory Control: A Fundamental Mechanism of Emotion Regulation

Memories play a ubiquitous role in our emotional lives, both causing vivid emotional experiences in their own right and imbuing perception of the external world with emotional significance. Controlling the emotional impact of memories therefore poses a major emotion-regulation challenge, suggesting that there might be a hitherto unexplored link between the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying memory control (MC) and emotion regulation. We present here a theoretical account of how the mechanisms of MC constitute core component processes of cognitive emotion regulation (CER), and how this observation may help to understand its basic mechanisms and their disruption in psychiatric disorders. The neural correlates of emotion regulation have been studied extensively over the past decade, but without consideration of the mechanistic role of memory control. Knowledge of the neurocognitive mechanisms enabling the suppression of memories and thoughts from conscious awareness has grown increasingly specific. Recent studies reveal an association between memory control deficits and affective psychopathologies such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, suggesting that controlling memory and affect are interrelated. Successfully controlling the retrieval of intrusive memories reduces their later emotional impact via modulation of amygdala activity, indicating that controlling memories regulates affect. Memory control processes may provide a mechanistic foundation for emotion regulation, thereby contributing to a unified account of the mechanisms underlying this process.