Title
Similarity between brain activity at encoding and retrieval predicts successful realization of delayed intentions
Abstract
Remembering delayed intentions can be highly demanding. Accuracy in laboratory paradigms assessing prospective memory (PM) is typically well below ceiling, and failure to remember intended behaviors after a delay is a common occurrence in everyday life. However, relatively little is known of the potential differences in brain activity that distinguish successful versus unsuccessful PM. In this fMRI study, participants repeatedly encoded, stored, and then had the opportunity to retrieve intended behaviors while engaged in a distracting ongoing task. This yielded a success rate of approximately two thirds. Overall levels of brain activity distinguished successful versus unsuccessful trials at all three stages (encoding, storage, and retrieval), suggesting multiple neural determinants of PM success. In addition, the voxelwise similarity between patterns of brain activity at encoding and retrieval was greater for successful than unsuccessful trials. This was true even in posterior cingulate, which showed opposite patterns of signal change between encoding and retrieval. Thus, successful realization of delayed intentions may be associated with reinstatement of encoding context at the time of retrieval.
Year
DOI
Venue
2012
10.1162/jocn_a_00094
Cognitive Neuroscience, Journal of
Keywords
Field
DocType
prospective memory,potential difference
Everyday life,Neuroscience,Working memory,Pattern analysis,Psychology,Cognitive psychology,Brain activity and meditation,Prospective memory,Posterior cingulate,Recall,Encoding (memory)
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
24
1
0898-929X
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
6
0.56
4
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Sam J. Gilbert11029.97
Diana J. N. Armbruster260.56
Maria Panagiotidi370.94