Propranolol selectively blocks the enhanced parietal old/new effect during long-term recollection of unpleasant pictures: a high density ERP study

Neuroimage. 2010 Feb 1;49(3):2800-6. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.10.025. Epub 2009 Oct 23.

Abstract

Evidence from both animal and human research suggests that the formation of emotional memories is triggered by the beta-adrenergic system. To confirm whether modulation of central beta-adrenergic transmission is specifically involved in the neural signature of memory performance, the pre-encoding effect of propranolol (80 mg) on event-related potentials (ERPs) was measured in a placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel-group study in 46 male healthy subjects using high density EEG and source imaging analysis during encoding and retrieval (after 1 week) of IAPS pictures of unpleasant, neutral and pleasant contents; for recognition 90 old pictures were randomly mixed with 90 new pictures. During retrieval correctly remembered old pictures elicited a significantly larger positive voltage change over the centro-parietal cortex than new pictures. Propranolol significantly reduced this old/new difference of the mean ERP amplitudes (500-800 ms) for unpleasant but not for neutral and pleasant memories. This effect correlated with salivary alpha-amylase activity, a surrogate for central adrenergic stimulation. In conclusion, propranolol selectively blocked the neural signature of unpleasant memories by mechanisms in which the parietal cortex seems to be specifically involved.

Publication types

  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adrenergic beta-Antagonists / pharmacology*
  • Brain Mapping
  • Double-Blind Method
  • Electroencephalography
  • Emotions / drug effects
  • Evoked Potentials, Visual / drug effects*
  • Evoked Potentials, Visual / physiology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Memory / drug effects*
  • Memory / physiology
  • Parietal Lobe / drug effects*
  • Parietal Lobe / physiology
  • Propranolol / pharmacology*
  • Saliva / enzymology
  • Young Adult
  • alpha-Amylases / analysis
  • alpha-Amylases / drug effects

Substances

  • Adrenergic beta-Antagonists
  • Propranolol
  • alpha-Amylases