HMN 2026: How Memory training technique may help lower stress by shifting recall patterns

Our minds have a tendency to latch onto negative experiences more strongly than positive ones. While occasional negative thoughts are a common human experience, persistent ones can trap people in a self-reinforcing cycle, deepening feelings of anxiety and depression.

To help break this cycle, researchers have developed a targeted mental training approach known as the cognitive bias modification for memory (CBM-M). This training is designed to encourage the active recall of positive information, particularly in response to positive cues presented in a sequence with negative ones. Early research has found that CBM-M can strengthen the recall of positive words and occasionally improve mood. However, its overall effectiveness has remained unclear and inconsistent.

A study from the University of Toyama, Japan, now examines the neurobiological effects of CBM-M, offering insight into how this training may work. The study is published in the journal Psychological Medicine.

Researchers led by Professor Yuko Hakamata from the University of Toyama, along with Professor Hirokuni Tagaya at Kitasato University School of Allied Health Sciences, Japan, and Director Hiroaki Hori from National Institute of Mental Health, Japan, found that CBM-M may reduce both psychological and physical stress by modifying biased memory-processing patterns of memorization and retrieval, rather than by explicitly reconstructing past experiences, as is common in many psychotherapeutic approaches.

“These findings provide the first evidence of its effectiveness in reducing stress and its underlying neurobiological mechanisms,” says Prof. Hakamata.

The study involved 58 participants with elevated anxious and depressive traits, who were randomly assigned to either a CBM-M group or a sham (placebo) training group. Over the course of one month, both groups completed eight web-based sessions involving word memorization and recall of both negative and positive words. Participants in the CBM-M group were instructed to vividly recall a specific positive autobiographical memory in response to each positive word, such as a moment when they felt confident or capable. The sham group memorized the same words but did not perform this personal recall exercise.

Both groups showed reductions in anxiety and depressive traits and improvements in mood over the course of training, suggesting that engaging in structured, emotionally focused tasks may have general benefits, possibly due to repeated exposure to positive material.

However, only the CBM-M group showed specific biological and cognitive benefits. Compared with the sham group, participants who received CBM-M showed reduced stress vulnerability, including lower fatigability, a decrease in explicit negative memory bias, and reduced daytime levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

Brain imaging provided a potential neural mechanism for these effects. CBM-M specifically increased functional connectivity between the amygdala, a brain region central to emotional memory, and the anterior medial orbitofrontal cortex, which is involved in processing social reward and autobiographical memory. This suggests that the training may strengthen neural pathways supporting the retrieval of positive, personally meaningful memories, although the researchers caution that multiple mechanisms are likely involved.

“An intervention to ameliorate the nonconscious brain patterns that preferentially encode and retrieve emotionally negative information can lead to reductions in physical and psychological stress,” says Prof. Hakamata.

However, the training did not consistently increase the vividness of positive autobiographical memories across all participants. Instead, participants in both groups tended to recall more neutral, factual details, likely because reduced psychological distress from the exercise helped the participants recall events more objectively.

The effects also varied by personality profile: CBM-M helped maintain positive autobiographical memory specificity in participants with anxiety-predominant traits, but this effect was not observed in those with depression-predominant traits.

Given these differences, the researchers emphasize that responses to CBM-M might vary, and further studies are needed to identify who benefits most and to further clarify the mechanisms involved.

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