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Post-Encoding Amygdala-Visuosensory Coupling Is Associated with Negative Memory Bias in Healthy Young Adults

The amygdala is well documented as the critical nexus of emotionally enhanced memory, yet its role in the creation of negative memory biases, better memory for negative compared with positive stimuli, has not been clarified. Although prior work suggests valence-specific effects at the moment of “online” encoding and retrieval, with enhanced visuosensory processes supporting negative memories in particular, here we tested the novel hypothesis that the amygdala engages with distant cortical regions after encoding in a manner that predicts inter-individual differences in negative memory biases in humans. Twenty-nine young adults (males and females) were scanned while they incidentally encoded negative, neutral, and positive scenes, each preceded by a line-drawing sketch of the scene. Twenty-four hours later, participants were scanned during an Old/New recognition memory task with only the line-drawings presented as retrieval cues. We replicated and extended our prior work, showing that enhanced online visuosensory recapitulation supports negative memory. Critically, resting-state scans flanked the encoding task, allowing us to show for the first time that individual differences in “off-line” increases in amygdala resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) immediately following encoding relate to negative and positive memory bias at test. Specifically, post-encoding increases in amygdala RSFC with visuosensory and frontal regions were associated with the degree of negative and positive memory bias, respectively. These findings provide new evidence that valence-specific negative memory biases can be linked to the way that sensory processes are integrated into amygdala-centered emotional memory networks. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Decades of research has placed the amygdala at the center of the emotional memory network. Despite the clinical importance of disproportionate memory for negative compared with positive events, it is not known whether post-encoding increases in amygdala-cortical coupling, possibly reflective of early consolidation processes, bear any influence on the degree or direction of such emotional memory biases. We demonstrate that, across participants, increases in post-encoding amygdala coupling with visuosensory and frontal regions are associated with more pronounced negative and positive memory biases, respectively. These findings provide the first evidence linking post-encoding amygdala modulation to the degree of negative or positive memory bias, emphasizing the need for valence-based accounts of the amygdala's role in emotional memory.