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Emotional Memory

  • Chapter
Cognitive Enhancement

Part of the book series: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology ((HEP,volume 228))

Abstract

Research on the reconsolidation effect was greatly revitalized by the highly analytic demonstration of memory reconsolidation (Nader et al. Nature 406:722–726, 2000) in a well-defined behavioral protocol (auditory fear conditioning in the rat). Since this study, reconsolidation has been demonstrated in hundreds of studies over a range of species, tasks, and amnesic agents. Evidence for reconsolidation does not come solely from the behavioral level of analysis. Cellular and molecular correlates of reconsolidation have also been found. In this chapter, I will first define the evidence on which reconsolidation is concluded to exist. I will then discuss some of the conceptual issues facing the field in determining when reconsolidation does and does not occur. Lastly I will explain the clinical implications of this effect.

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Acknowledgments

K.N. was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canadian Foundation for Innovation, The Volkswagen, Alfred P. Sloan, and EJL. Karim Nader is a James McGill Chair.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, McGill University, 1205 Dr. Penfield Ave, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3A 1B1

    Karim Nader

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  1. Karim Nader
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Correspondence to Karim Nader .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Kathleen M. Kantak

  2. Roche Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development; Neuroscience, Ophthalmology and Rare Diseases, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Basel, Switzerland

    Joseph G. Wettstein

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Nader, K. (2015). Emotional Memory. In: Kantak, K., Wettstein, J. (eds) Cognitive Enhancement. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 228. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16522-6_9

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