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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: Remembering to Remember: Two Routes of Memory Retrieval When remembering to perform tasks in the future, 2 separate attentional brain processes appear equally successful in achieving the same outcome, a new study suggests. According to a popular theory, top-down attentional control is necessary in maintaining activation in prospective memory. For example, in trying to remember to take reusable bags to the grocery store, the top-down approach would involve constant reminders to oneself not to forget them. Another theory maintains that a bottom-up approach of spontaneous retrieval triggered by cues is effective. In the grocery bag scenario, such a cue might involve hanging the reusable bags from the front door knob as a reminder. In the study, functional MRI (fMRI) of 45 adults, aged 18 to 37 years, showed both processes to be equally effective in leading to successfully performing prospective memory tasks. "These findings suggest that people could make use of several different strategies to accomplish prospective memory tasks," said study lead author Mark McDaniel, PhD, professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, in a statement. Their report was published online August 1 in the journal Psychological Science. Neural Routes to Prospective Memory The participants were required to perform a task while being evaluated with fMRI involving pressing 1 of 2 buttons to indicate whether a word that appeared on a screen belonged to a designated category. The participants were also instructed to remember to press a third button when a special target appeared, an exercise designed to challenge the participants' prospective memory. An evaluation of the fMRI data showed that when the special target was not relevant to the ongoing activity — for instance, a random symbol such as "tor" — the participants used a top-down approach. But if it was directly associated with the task — such as an entire word, like "table" — a different set of brain regions were activated and the activation was not sustained. "One prospective-memory task recruited sustained activity in attentional-control areas, such as the anterior prefrontal cortex; the other engaged purely transient activity in parietal and ventral brain regions associated with attentional capture, target detection, and episodic retrieval," the authors write. "These patterns provide critical evidence that there are two neural routes to prospective memory, with each route emerging under different circumstances." In the context of a real-world situation, the bottom-up approach of a simple, straightforward reminder appears to be the easier means of successfully acting on that prospective memory, the authors added. "Prospective memory is ubiquitous as an important daily memory activity, as illustrated in the [grocery bag scenario]," they write. "Given the resource demands and somewhat fragile nature of sustained attentional control over time, having to rely on this proactive control system for the myriad of prospective memory tasks faced daily would likely be overwhelming." "A complementary route to PM [prospective memory] retrieval that is spontaneous or reactive would help support PM when resources are not available for maintaining topdown control or when distractions disrupt the ability to maintain intentions over time," they conclude. "Recognizing the existence of this alternative PM route offers practical implications." The study received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute on Aging and from the Washington University Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the NIH. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
The right brain doesn't understand logical negatation. Reminders to remember are much better. "If an angry bigot assumes this bountiful cause of Abolition, and comes to me with his last news from Barbados, why should I not say to him, 'Go love thy infant; love thy wood-chopper: be good-natured and modest; have that grace; and never varnish your hard, uncharitable ambition with this incredible tenderness for black folk a thousand miles off. Thy love afar is spite at home.'" |
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