It pays to remember what made you sad

It pays to remember what made you sad = it is worth to remember what made you sad ?
That is:

It pays = it is worth?

Context:

It pays to remember what made you sad
20:00 12 April 2010 by Jessica Hamzelou
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Forgetting your woes might make you feel worse, not better.

People with impaired memory, it turns out, feel sad even when they have forgotten what made them sad in the first place " a finding that suggests emotions and memory are not as connected as we thought.

Neuroscientist Justin Feinstein at the University of Iowa in Iowa City showed a compilation of clips from heart-rending films, including Forrest Gump, to five people unable to form new memories because of damage to their hippocampus. Ten minutes later, his team tested the memories of these patients and a group of five people with normal brain function.

The amnesiacs felt a lingering sadness even though they struggled to remember the simplest details of the clips, whereas those with healthy memories felt fine by then (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0914054107).

"I am surprised that the emotion lasted so long in amnesiacs," says Feinstein.

The explanation may be that it is the ability to store and reflect on emotional events that will "relieve some or most of the sad feelings", according to Todd Sacktor at Downstate Medical Center in New York City.

Feinstein's team also showed the two groups a series of funny clips and found a similar pattern of responses, though the difference between the two groups was less marked. "Sadness lasts longer," he says.

The results highlight the importance of being respectful to people with Alzheimer's disease and other memory disorders, Feinstein says. Even if such people do not remember being on the receiving end of insensitive behaviour, they may still feel distressed " and for longer than other people.

It is also possible that using drugs or therapy to block painful memories in people with post-traumatic stress disorder may actually hamper their recovery, Feinstein says. "By not having that memory, you might actually prolong the emotional pain," he says.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0914054107