It+Pays+to+Smile!

**Recent Discovery: Smiles**
 * Q: Do Smiling Teachers and Students Get Remembered Longer?**


 * A:** Our memory processes are influenced by a host of factors including glucose levels, gender, expectations, nutrients, type of memory pathway used and certainly by reward. To most humans, a smiling face is considered rewarding.

A recent study used event-related functional (fMRI), to uncover the effects a simple smile during the encoding and retrieval of face-name associations. Participants viewed smiling or neutral faces (during encoding) each were paired with a name. Then, later, during retrieval, only names were presented. The participants were asked to retrieve the associated facial expressions.

This well-designed test made sure only the right type of memory was being measured. Successful memory activity of face-name associations was identified by comparing remembered vs. forgotten trials during both encoding and retrieval. Amazingly, the actual effect of a smile was identified by comparing successful memory trials for smiling vs. neutral faces.

The study discovered that: **1) the retrieval of face-name associations was more accurate and faster** for smiling than neutral faces. **2) the orbitofrontal cortex and the hippocampus showed successful encoding and retrieval activations**, which were greater for smiling than neutral faces and 3) functional connectivity between the orbitofrontal cortex and the hippocampus during **successful encoding and retrieval was stronger** for smiling than neutral faces.

Overall, the study results show how rewarding social signals from a smiling face can enhance relational memory for face-name associations.

 Source: Tsukiura T, Cabeza R. (2008) Orbitofrontal and hippocampal contributions to memory for face-name associations: The rewarding power of a smile. Neuropsychologia.;46(9):2310-9.