The Impact of Positive Arousal on Memory Performance in Advertisements: Behavioral Effects and Neural Correlates

In this study we aimed to answer the question, whether emotionally arousing background can facilitate or impair encoding of the items embedded in this emotional context. We also investigated neural encoding-related activity associated with subsequent successful memory recall for items. We designed an fMRI experiment in which we explored memory-related neural activity during encoding of items (food items) which were overlaid with the positive high arousing, positive low arousing or neutral scenes. Twenty-three subjects were scanned during encoding and retrieval of items. The behavioral result demonstrated no significant difference in memory performances for items encoded in different arousing scenes (contexts). The ROIs analysis emphasized the contribution of the inferior frontal, middle frontal, and middle occipital gyri, as well as fusiform gyrus on successful encoding of the items embedded in emotionally arousing contexts. Furthermore, our results revealed that the superior temporal area is involved in both successful encoding and retrieval of the emotionally arousing information.