• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.25-33
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• 1999

Benzodiazepines(BZDs) are among the most widely prescribed drugs in the world. They are potent anxiolytic, antiepileptic, hypnotic, and muscle relaxing agents. There is an emerging model of the role of several neural systems in anxiety and their relation to the mechanism of action of BZDs. It has been postulated that BZD drugs exert their anxiolytic action by regulating GABAergic transmission in limbic areas such as the amygdala, in the posterior hypothalamus, and in the raphe nuclei. The involvement of the amygdala in the behaviors triggered by fear and stress has been suggested by many previous studies. In this review, reports about regulatory effects of endogenous BZD receptor ligands on the perception of anxiety and memory consolidation were summerized. These findings further support the contention that BZD receptor ligands modulate memory consolidation of averse learning tasks by influencing the level of stress and/or anxiety that accompanies a learning experience. The findings suggest that the decrease in the limbic levels of BZD-like molecules seen after the various behavioral procedures represent a general response to stress and/or anxiety, since it occurs in proportion to the level of stress and/or anxiety that accompany these tasks. In addition, these findings further support the hypothesis that the $GABA_A$/BZD receptor complex in limbic structures plays a pivotal role in the stress and anxiety.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.271-293
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• 2017

Despite the benefits of social activity on happiness, humans still spend over one third of their time by themselves-sleeping. The effect of sleep quality on happiness as well as its underlying mechanism are examined in this study. Based on previous findings on the role of sleep in consolidation of memories, it was hypothesized that a good sleep would promote happiness by increasing the likelihood of recalling everyday episodes in a positively biased manner. In Study 1, regardless of one's demographic variables, social variables, and economic status, sleep quality was positively related to life satisfaction. To examine the causal direction of this effect, participants were asked to complete a survey twice with different time intervals. Controlling for baseline variables, sleep quality during previous two weeks (Study 2) or previous day (Study 3) significantly predicted the participants' life satisfaction. Moreover, this relationship was partially mediated by a positive memory bias (Study 3). This study opens interesting questions on a relatively unexamined nonsocial predictor of happiness, sleep quality.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.275-301
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• 2016

Attentional blink (AB) refers to the phenomena where conscious report for a target (T2) subsequent to the first target (T1) in a stream of items under rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) becomes difficult if the T2 follows no later than 500ms after the T1. The present study examined the effect of T1 visibility on T2 AB strength according to the bottleneck account proposing that the amount of allocated resources for T1 memory consolidation determines the strength of AB against T2. In the low-visibility condition, the T1 had a gray color for a low stimulus contrast against the black background whereas had a bright and saturated color in the high-visibility condition. In both visibility conditions, the T1 was also highly distinct from the remaining distractors. A multi-RSVP method was also used for increasing location uncertainty of the targets supposedly consuming on average attentional resources for the targets. Two experiments revealed that AB strength was more intense in the low-visibility than high-visibility condition, and the pattern of difference went more pronounced if T2 visibility was improved. The results indicate that T1 visibility can affect more strongly when attentional resources are relatively lacking for resolving the T1 bottleneck, and support for the bottleneck account proposing that the level of T1's visibility can determine the intensity of the T1 bottleneck.