Timing of pre-retrieval warnings matters in reducing memory errors in a repeated testing misinformation study.

Individuals are often exposed to information regarding previously witnessed events. The misinformation effect occurs when inaccurate post-event information impairs accuracy on a subsequent test of memory for the original event. The misinformation effect is increased when a test is given prior to exposure to post-event information, a phenomenon termed Retrieval Enhanced Suggestibility (RES).

Rhythmic Temporal Cues Coordinate Cross-frequency Phase-amplitude Coupling during Memory Encoding.

Accumulating evidence suggests that rhythmic temporal cues in the environment influence the encoding of information into long-term memory. Here, we test the hypothesis that these mnemonic effects of rhythm reflect the coupling of high-frequency (gamma) oscillations to entrained lower-frequency oscillations synchronized to the beat of the rhythm. In Study 1, we first test this hypothesis in the context of global effects of rhythm on memory, when memory is superior for visual stimuli presented in rhythmic compared with arrhythmic patterns at encoding [Jones, A.

Warning before misinformation exposure modulates memory encoding.

Exposure to misleading information after witnessing an event can impair future memory reports about the event. This pervasive form of memory distortion, termed the misinformation effect, can be significantly reduced if individuals are warned about the reliability of post-event information before exposure to misleading information. The present fMRI study investigated whether such prewarnings improve subsequent memory accuracy by influencing encoding-related neural activity during exposure to misinformation.

Intrinsic functional connectivity in medial temporal lobe networks is associated with susceptibility to misinformation.

Memory is notoriously fallible and susceptible to misinformation. Yet little is known about the underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms that render individuals vulnerable to this type of false memory. The current experiments take an individual differences approach to examine whether susceptibility to misinformation reflects stable underlying factors related to memory retrieval.

Leveraging Prior Knowledge to Support Short-term Memory: Exploring the Role of the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex.

It is well established that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) plays a critical role in memory consolidation and the retrieval of remote long-term memories. Recent evidence suggests that the vmPFC also supports rapid neocortical learning and consolidation over shorter timescales, particularly when novel events align with stored knowledge. One mechanism by which the vmPFC has been proposed to support this learning is by integrating congruent information into existing neocortical knowledge during memory encoding.

Riding the slow wave: Exploring the role of entrained low-frequency oscillations in memory formation.

Neural oscillations are proposed to support a variety of behaviors, including long-term memory, yet their functional significance remains an active area of research. Here, we explore a potential functional role of low-frequency cortical oscillations in episodic memory formation. Recent theories suggest that low-frequency oscillations orchestrate rhythmic attentional sampling of the environment by dynamically modulating neural excitability across time.

The language of mental images: Characterizing hippocampal contributions to imageable word use during event construction.

Accumulating evidence suggests that the hippocampus plays a critical role in the creative and flexible use of language at the sentence or discourse level. Yet it is currently unclear whether the hippocampus also supports language use at the level of single words. A recent study by Hilverman et al.

Environmental rhythms orchestrate neural activity at multiple stages of processing during memory encoding: Evidence from event-related potentials.

Accumulating evidence suggests that rhythmic temporal structures in the environment influence memory formation. For example, stimuli that appear in synchrony with the beat of background, environmental rhythms are better remembered than stimuli that appear out-of-synchrony with the beat. This rhythmic modulation of memory has been linked to entrained neural oscillations which are proposed to act as a mechanism of selective attention that prioritize processing of events that coincide with the beat.

Protecting memory from misinformation: Warnings modulate cortical reinstatement during memory retrieval.

Exposure to even subtle forms of misleading information can significantly alter memory for past events. Memory distortion due to misinformation has been linked to faulty reconstructive processes during memory retrieval and the reactivation of brain regions involved in the initial encoding of misleading details (cortical reinstatement). The current study investigated whether warning participants about the threat of misinformation can modulate cortical reinstatement during memory retrieval and reduce misinformation errors.

Memory in time: Neural tracking of low-frequency rhythm dynamically modulates memory formation.

Time is a critical component of episodic memory. Yet it is currently unclear how different types of temporal signals are represented in the brain and how these temporal signals support episodic memory. The current study investigated whether temporal cues provided by low-frequency environmental rhythms influence memory formation.

Temporal predictions provided by musical rhythm influence visual memory encoding.

Selective attention plays a key role in determining what aspects of our environment are encoded into long-term memory. Auditory rhythms with a regular beat provide temporal expectations that entrain attention and facilitate perception of visual stimuli aligned with the beat. The current study investigated whether entrainment to background auditory rhythms also facilitates higher-level cognitive functions such as episodic memory.

Using Practice Testing, Public Speaking, and Source Monitoring to Examine the Influences of Learning Strategies and Stress on Episodic Memory.

Prior research demonstrated that learning information via retrieval practice, which entails studying and taking practice tests, resulted in less memory impairment under stress than learning information via repeated studying. The present experiment combined three experimental procedures to further examine the memory mechanisms underlying the efficacy of retrieval practice in the context of stress. A list-discrimination task was implemented, in which participants learned two distinct wordlists.

Self-related processing and future thinking: Distinct contributions of ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the medial temporal lobes.

Episodic future thinking depends on a core network of regions that involves, in addition to the medial temporal lobes (MTL), the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Neuroimaging studies suggest that vmPFC is particularly involved when future thinking requires consideration of self-relevant information, but lesion evidence for a special role of vmPFC in constructing self-relevant scenarios is limited. To clarify the involvement of vmPFC in future thinking, eight patients with vmPFC lesions were asked to imagine future events pertaining to the self or to another person, and their performance was contrasted with that of eight patients with MTL lesions.

Retrieval practice improves item memory but not source memory in the context of stress.

Smith, Floerke, and Thomas (2016) demonstrated that learning by repeated testing, or retrieval practice, reduced stress-related memory impairment when compared to learning by repeatedly studying material. In the present experiment, we tested whether, relative to study practice, retrieval practice would improve post-stress memory by increasing access to both item and source information. Participants learned two wordlists, which were temporally segregated to facilitate distinction between the two lists.

Repetition priming in amnesia: Distinguishing associative learning at different levels of abstraction.

Learned associations between stimuli and responses make important contributions to priming. The current study aimed to determine whether medial temporal lobe (MTL) binding mechanisms mediate this learning. Prior studies implicating the MTL in stimulus-response (S-R) learning have not isolated associative learning at the response level from associative learning at other levels of representation (e.

Automaticity and Flexibility of S-R Retrieval During Priming.

Learned associations between stimuli and responses (S-R associations) make important contributions to behavioral and neural priming. The current study investigated the automaticity and flexibility of these S-R associations and whether the global task context in which they occur modulates the impact of S-R retrieval on priming. Participants engaged in a semantic repetition priming task in which S-R retrieval is known to influence priming.

Memory integration in amnesia: prior knowledge supports verbal short-term memory.

Short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) have traditionally been considered cognitively distinct. However, it is known that STM can improve when to-be-remembered information appears in contexts that make contact with prior knowledge, suggesting a more interactive relationship between STM and LTM. The current study investigated whether the ability to leverage LTM in support of STM critically depends on the integrity of the hippocampus.

Sharing mental simulations and stories: hippocampal contributions to discourse integration.

Accumulating evidence suggests that mental simulation of the future and past relies on common processes supported by the hippocampus. However, it is currently unknown whether the hippocampus also supports the ability to share these mental simulations with others. Recently, it has been proposed that language and language-related structures in the brain are particularly important for communicating information not tied to the immediate environment, and indeed specifically evolved so that humans could share their mental time travels into the future and the past with others.

Medial temporal lobe contributions to short-term memory for faces.

The role of the medial temporal lobes (MTL) in short-term memory (STM) remains a matter of debate. Whereas imaging studies commonly show hippocampal activation during short-delay memory tasks, evidence from amnesic patients with MTL lesions is mixed. It has been argued that apparent STM impairments in amnesia may reflect long-term memory (LTM) contributions to performance.

A role for the medial temporal lobe in feedback-driven learning: evidence from amnesia.

The ability to learn from feedback is a key component of adaptive behavior. This type of learning is traditionally thought to depend on neural substrates in the striatum and not on the medial temporal lobe (MTL). Here we show that in humans the MTL becomes necessary for feedback-based learning when feedback is delayed.

MEDIAL TEMPORAL LOBE CONTRIBUTIONS TO FUTURE THINKING: EVIDENCE FROM NEUROIMAGING AND AMNESIA.

Following early amnesic case reports, there is now considerable evidence suggesting a link between remembering the past and envisioning the future. This link is evident in the overlap in neural substrates as well as cognitive processes involved in both kinds of tasks. While constructing a future narrative requires multiple processes, neuroimaging and lesion data converge on a critical role for the medial temporal lobes (MTL) in retrieving and recombining details from memory in the service of novel simulations.

Losing sight of the future: Impaired semantic prospection following medial temporal lobe lesions.

The ability to imagine the future (prospection) relies on many of the same brain regions that support memory for the past. To date, scientific research has primarily focused on the neural substrates of episodic forms of prospection (mental simulation of spatiotemporally specific future events); however, little is known about the neural substrates of semantic prospection (mental simulation of future nonpersonal facts). Of particular interest is the role of the medial temporal lobes (MTLs), and specifically the hippocampus.

Remote memory function and dysfunction in Korsakoff's syndrome.

Korsakoff's syndrome (KS) is a pervasive disorder of memory characterized by both anterograde and retrograde amnesia. Although retrograde memory impairment in KS has been less frequently studied, the status of remote memory in KS has been tested across a number of different tasks that measure knowledge of public information (e.g.

Medial temporal lobe damage causes deficits in episodic memory and episodic future thinking not attributable to deficits in narrative construction.

The medial temporal lobe (MTL) makes critical contributions to episodic memory, but its contributions to episodic future thinking remain a matter of debate. By one view, imagining future events relies on MTL mechanisms that also support memory for past events. Alternatively, it has recently been suggested that future thinking is independent of MTL-mediated processes and can be supported by regions outside the MTL.