Emotional Tagging and Long-Term Memory Formation

Numerous studies support the notion that emotional arousal modulates the formation of long-term memories. The amygdala, a principal component of the emotional memory system, is involved in modulating memory storage in other brain areas according to the emotional content of an encountered event. According to the concept of emotional tagging, activation of the amygdala during emotionally arousing events “tags” the experience as important by strengthening synapses located on neurons that have just been activated in other brain regions, mainly the hippocampus.