Curiosity and the regulation of affective memory

We propose a cognitive and neurobiological model by which curiosity aids emotion regulation through abstract and flexible information-processing, which may positively bias memory. We begin with an overview of curiosity's emotional effects. Then we introduce models of affective memory encoding to suggest that the dopaminergic modulation of encoding associated with curiosity may positively bias these processes. Next, we identify how neural processes underlying curiosity in the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG), the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), and the lateral pre-frontal cortex (LPFC) address mechanisms underlying our framework. Specifically, we argue that curiosity's regulatory mechanisms of abstraction and cognitive flexibility, in combination with its memory mechanisms, predict that curiosity is likely to encode arousing information through positively biased neurobiological pathways.