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Neural correlates of actual and predicted memory formation

Nature Neuroscience volume 8, pages 1776–1783 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

We aimed to discover the neural correlates of subjective judgments of learning—whereby participants judge whether current experiences will be subsequently remembered or forgotten—and to compare these correlates to the neural correlates of actual memory formation. During event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants viewed 350 scenes and predicted whether they would remember each scene in a later recognition-memory test. Activations in the medial temporal lobe were associated with actual encoding success (greater activation for objectively remembered than forgotten scenes), but not with predicted encoding success (activations did not differ for scenes predicted to be remembered versus forgotten). Conversely, activations in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex were associated with predicted but not actual encoding success, and correlated with individual differences in the accuracy of judgments of learning. Activations in the lateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex were associated with both actual and predicted encoding success. These findings indicate specific dissociations and associations between the neural systems that mediate actual and predicted memory formation.

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Figure 1: Task design.
Figure 2: Schematics of the four trial types and trial combinations for statistical analyses.
Figure 3: Statistical activation maps and percent signal change.
Figure 4: Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and individual differences in JOL accuracy.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank S. Gabrieli, P. Mazaika, J. Cooper, A.R. Preston and P. Sokol-Hessner for their assistance or comments. This research was sponsored by grants from the US National Institute of Mental Health to Y.-C.K. (MH073234) and J.D.E.G. (MH59940).

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  1. John D E Gabrieli

    Present address: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Building 46-4033, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Stanford University, 420 Jordan Hall, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Yun-Ching Kao, Emily S Davis & John D E Gabrieli

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  1. Yun-Ching Kao
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  2. Emily S Davis
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Correspondence to Yun-Ching Kao.

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Kao, YC., Davis, E. & Gabrieli, J. Neural correlates of actual and predicted memory formation. Nat Neurosci 8, 1776–1783 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1595

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