Fidelity of neural reactivation reveals competition between memories
- 21 March 2011
- journal article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 108 (14), 5903-5908
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1016939108
Abstract
Remembering an event from the past is often complicated by the fact that our memories are cluttered with similar events. Though competition is a fundamental part of remembering, there is little evidence of how mnemonic competition is neurally represented. Here, we assessed whether competition between visual memories is captured in the relative degree to which target vs. competing memories are reactivated within the ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC). To assess reactivation, we used multivoxel pattern analysis of fMRI data, quantifying the degree to which retrieval events elicited patterns of neural activity that matched those elicited during encoding. Consistent with recent evidence, we found that retrieval of visual memories was associated with robust VOTC reactivation and that the degree of reactivation scaled with behavioral expressions of target memory retrieval. Critically, competitive remembering was associated with more ambiguous patterns of VOTC reactivation, putatively reflecting simultaneous reactivation of target and competing memories. Indeed, the more weakly that target memories were reactivated, the more likely that competing memories were later remembered. Moreover, when VOTC reactivation indicated that conflict between target and competing memories was high, frontoparietal mechanisms were markedly engaged, revealing specific neural mechanisms that tracked competing mnemonic evidence. Together, these findings provide unique evidence that neural reactivation captures competition between individual memories, providing insight into how well target memories are retrieved in the present and how likely competing memories will be remembered in the future.Keywords
This publication has 39 references indexed in Scilit:
- Detecting individual memories through the neural decoding of memory states and past experienceProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2010
- Resistance to forgetting associated with hippocampus-mediated reactivation during new learningNature Neuroscience, 2010
- Moderate Excitation Leads to Weakening of Perceptual RepresentationsCerebral Cortex, 2010
- The ghosts of brain states past: Remembering reactivates the brain regions engaged during encoding.Psychological Bulletin, 2010
- Recollection, Familiarity, and Cortical Reinstatement: A Multivoxel Pattern AnalysisNeuron, 2009
- Multivoxel Pattern Analysis Reveals Increased Memory Targeting and Reduced Use of Retrieved Details during Single-Agenda Source MonitoringJournal of Neuroscience, 2009
- Integrating Memories in the Human Brain: Hippocampal-Midbrain Encoding of Overlapping EventsNeuron, 2008
- Reconsolidation of episodic memories: A subtle reminder triggers integration of new informationLearning & Memory, 2007
- Involvement of human left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in perceptual decision making is independent of response modalityProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006
- Distributed and Overlapping Representations of Faces and Objects in Ventral Temporal CortexScience, 2001