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Authors & Affiliations
Martina Hollearn, Blanpain Lou, Joseph Manns, Stephan Hamann, Kelly Bijanki, Robert Gross, Daniel Drane, Justin Campbell, Krista Wahlstrom, Phil Demarest, Griffin Light, Jon Willie, Cory Inman
Abstract
We previously have demonstrated that brief electrical stimulation to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) reliably enhances declarative memory in humans after a one-day delay without eliciting an emotional response. In the current study 31 drug-resistant epilepsy patients undergoing stereo EEG surgery with depth electrode contacts implanted in various MLT regions. During continuous intracranial EEG recording, each participant was presented with a series of images of neutral objects. Across patients, we delivered a brief stimulation to the BLA (8 trains of 50-Hz pulses at 0.5 mA) before, during, or after image presentation and at varying stimulation duration to determine which stimulation parameters might best boost memory enhancement at the delayed test. Across all conditions, we found previously stimulated objects had more accurate recognition memory compared to previously non-stimulated objects (t(30) = 2.90, p = .007, d = .44). Individual factors (e.g., baseline memory, age, sex) and stimulation parameter factors (e.g., Euclidian 3D distance to the hippocampus) were examined in a multinomial regression model and found that baseline memory composed of neuropsychological long-term memory scores predicted stimulation responsiveness. These results indicate that brief electrical stimulation to the human amygdala can modulate item-specific memory for neutral objects, reflecting a key role of the amygdala in prioritizing experiences for long-term storage in declarative memory. Further inquiry in humans and experimental animals will be required to fully optimize the potential of amygdala-mediated memory enhancement, yielding new insights into memory-enhancing therapies.