Memory and affectivity.

In the last decade, numerous studies have been devoted to the cognitive app roach of emotions and their relationship with memory. Cognitive neuropsycho logists consider affectivity as a contextual factor which can facilitate th e processes of encoding or restitution. It is not clear if emotions are mem orized by the same processes as the neutral stimuli. In man, a dissociation was found between loss of memory for affective stimuli in subjects with le sions restricted to amygdala and loss of memory for neutral stimuli in subj ects with lesions limited to hippocampus. Experimental studies showed that recall of neutral material was better if subjects were in the same mood at the time of recall as during the time of encoding (mood dependency). Other studies showed that subjects had better memory for material with an affecti ve valence corresponding to their mood than for material with a different a ffective valence (mood congruency). The discrepancy between the results of various experimental studies on mood and memory are related to methodologic al difficulties and different theoretical approaches. Studies on autobiogra phical memory showed that some emotional memories can be specially vivid or persistent (flashbulb memories, Post-Stress Traumatic Disorder) but, in th e opposite, that strong emotion can result in lacunar amnesia.