La memoria emocional al descubierto

La revista "Nature" de mayo recoge los resultados de un estudio genético realizado en la Universidad de Basel, Suiza, en el que se revelan genes vinculados a la "memoria emocional". Dependiendo de la configuración genética, la persona será más o menos próclive a padecer estrés post traumático.

Gene linked to post-traumatic stress: A good memory can be a curse in traumatic situations.

European researchers have identified a gene that is linked to improved memory, but also to increased risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).


Dominique de Quervain of the University of Basel in Switzerland and his colleagues recruited around 700 healthy young volunteers, obtaining DNA samples from them to analyse the sequence of their PRKCA gene.

This gene is one of many known to be involved in the formation of emotional memories, and encodes an enzyme called protein kinase C-α.

The researchers then showed the participants a series of emotionally affecting photographs and shortly afterwards asked them to write down short descriptions of the images.

Participants carrying two copies of one variant within the PRKCA gene, dubbed the A allele, remembered the most details about the pictures.

Those carrying two copies of the other variant — the G allele — remembered the least, with the performance of those carrying one copy of each variant lying somewhere in the middle.


The researchers then asked 394 additional participants to perform the same task while undergoing brain imaging.

This confirmed that variations in PKRCA are linked to the capacity for emotional memory, and further revealed that they were also associated with differences in brain activity during memory encoding.