Figure 1.

Emotional effects on memory. (A) Storage model of memory: Moderately arousing emotional events are better encoded than neutral events. (B) The narrative construction of a personal past relies on an interaction between the hippocampus and self-referential processes in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). This process is facilitated by (moderately) emotional events due to inputs from the amygdala. (C) In contrast, in the case of extremely negative (conflictual or traumatic) experiences, the amygdala inhibits declarative memory formation by the hippocampus and an integration of these memories with the self-image.