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Gjorgieva E, Morales-Torres R, Cabeza R, Woldorff MG. Neural retrieval processes occur more rapidly for visual mental images that were previously encoded with high-vividness. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:10234-10244. [PMID: 37526263 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad278] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Revised: 06/26/2023] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 08/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Visual mental imagery refers to our ability to experience visual images in the absence of sensory stimulation. Studies have shown that visual mental imagery can improve episodic memory. However, we have limited understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying this improvement. Using electroencephalography, we examined the neural processes associated with the retrieval of previously generated visual mental images, focusing on how the vividness at generation can modulate retrieval processes. Participants viewed word stimuli referring to common objects, forming a visual mental image of each word and rating the vividness of the mental image. This was followed by a surprise old/new recognition task. We compared retrieval performance for items rated as high- versus low-vividness at encoding. High-vividness items were retrieved with faster reaction times and higher confidence ratings in the memory judgment. While controlling for confidence, neural measures indicated that high-vividness items produced an earlier decrease in alpha-band activity at retrieval compared with low-vividness items, suggesting an earlier memory reinstatement. Even when low-vividness items were remembered with high confidence, they were not retrieved as quickly as high-vividness items. These results indicate that when highly vivid mental images are encoded, the speed of their retrieval occurs more rapidly, relative to low-vivid items.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Gjorgieva
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
| | - Ricardo Morales-Torres
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
| | - Roberto Cabeza
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Departtment of Psychiatry, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
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Gjorgieva E, Geib BR, Cabeza R, Woldorff MG. The influence of imagery vividness and internally-directed attention on the neural mechanisms underlying the encoding of visual mental images into episodic memory. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:3207-3220. [PMID: 35945684 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac270] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2021] [Revised: 06/10/2022] [Accepted: 06/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Attention can be directed externally toward sensory information or internally toward self-generated information. Using electroencephalography (EEG), we investigated the attentional processes underlying the formation and encoding of self-generated mental images into episodic memory. Participants viewed flickering words referring to common objects and were tasked with forming visual mental images of the objects and rating their vividness. Subsequent memory for the presented object words was assessed using an old-new recognition task. Internally-directed attention during image generation was indexed as a reduction in steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs), oscillatory EEG responses at the frequency of a flickering stimulus. The results yielded 3 main findings. First, SSVEP power driven by the flickering word stimuli decreased as subjects directed attention internally to form the corresponding mental image. Second, SSVEP power returned to pre-imagery baseline more slowly for low- than high-vividness later remembered items, suggesting that longer internally-directed attention is required to generate subsequently remembered low-vividness images. Finally, the event-related-potential difference due to memory was more sustained for subsequently remembered low- versus high-vividness items, suggesting that additional conceptual processing may have been needed to remember the low-vividness visual images. Taken together, the results clarify the neural mechanisms supporting the encoding of self-generated information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Gjorgieva
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
| | - Benjamin R Geib
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
| | - Roberto Cabeza
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Department of Psychiatry, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States
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Gjorgieva E, Egner T. Learning from mistakes: Incidental encoding reveals a time-dependent enhancement of posterror target processing. J Exp Psychol Gen 2022; 151:718-730. [DOI: 10.1037/xge0001105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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Krasich K, Gjorgieva E, Murray S, Bhatia S, Faber M, De Brigard F, Woldorff MG. The Impact of Error-Consequence Severity on Cue Processing in Importance-Biased Prospective Memory. Cereb Cortex Commun 2021; 2:tgab056. [PMID: 34676368 PMCID: PMC8527855 DOI: 10.1093/texcom/tgab056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2021] [Revised: 08/26/2021] [Accepted: 08/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Prospective memory (PM) enables people to remember to complete important tasks in the future. Failing to do so can result in consequences of varying severity. Here, we investigated how PM error-consequence severity impacts the neural processing of relevant cues for triggering PM and the ramification of that processing on the associated prospective task performance. Participants role-played a cafeteria worker serving lunches to fictitious students and had to remember to deliver an alternative lunch to students (as PM cues) who would otherwise experience a moderate or severe aversive reaction. Scalp-recorded, event-related potential (ERP) measures showed that the early-latency frontal positivity, reflecting the perception-based neural responses to previously learned stimuli, did not differ between the severe versus moderate PM cues. In contrast, the longer-latency parietal positivity, thought to reflect full PM cue recognition and post-retrieval processes, was elicited earlier by the severe than the moderate PM cues. This faster instantiation of the parietal positivity to the severe-consequence PM cues was then followed by faster and more accurate behavioral responses. These findings indicate how the relative importance of a PM can be neurally instantiated in the form of enhanced and faster PM-cue recognition and processing and culminate into better PM.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristina Krasich
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Eva Gjorgieva
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Samuel Murray
- Dept. of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Shreya Bhatia
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Myrthe Faber
- Dept. of Communication and Cognition, Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences, Tilburg University, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands
| | - Felipe De Brigard
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
| | - Marty G Woldorff
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
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Rainey VR, Stockdale L, Flores-Lamb V, Kahrilas IJ, Mullins TL, Gjorgieva E, Morrison RG, Silton RL. Neural differences in the temporal cascade of reactive and proactive control for bilinguals and monolinguals. Psychophysiology 2021; 58:e13813. [PMID: 33719030 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13813] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2020] [Revised: 03/03/2021] [Accepted: 03/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
This study explored differences in sustained top-down attentional control (i.e., proactive control) and spontaneous types of control (i.e., reactive control) in bilingual and monolingual speakers. We modified a Color-Word Stroop task to varying levels of conflict and included switching trials in addition to more "traditional" inhibition Stroop conditions. The task was administered during scalp electroencephalography (EEG) to evaluate the temporal course of cognitive control during trials. The behavioral Stroop effect was observed across the whole sample; however, there were no differences in accuracy or response time between the bilingual and monolingual groups. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were calculated for the N200, N450, and conflict Sustained Potential (SP). On the pure-blocked incongruent trials, the bilingual group displayed reduced signal during interference suppression (N450) and increased later signal, as indexed by the conflict SP. On the mixed-block incongruent trials, both the bilinguals and monolinguals displayed increased later signal at the conflict SP. This suggests that proactive control may be a default mode for bilinguals on tasks requiring inhibition. In the switching trials, that place high demands on the executive control component of shifting, the language groups did not differ. Overall, these results suggest processing differences between bilinguals and monolinguals extend beyond early response inhibition processes. Greater integration of proactive and reactive control may be needed to sort conflicting language environments for bilinguals, which may be transferring to domain-general mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vanessa R Rainey
- Department of Psychology, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL, USA
| | - Laura Stockdale
- School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
| | - Valerie Flores-Lamb
- College of Integrated Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA
| | - Ian J Kahrilas
- Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - T'kara L Mullins
- Department of Psychology, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL, USA
| | - Eva Gjorgieva
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Robert G Morrison
- Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Rebecca L Silton
- Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
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Shanahan LK, Gjorgieva E, Paller KA, Kahnt T, Gottfried JA. Odor-evoked category reactivation in human ventromedial prefrontal cortex during sleep promotes memory consolidation. eLife 2018; 7:e39681. [PMID: 30560782 PMCID: PMC6298770 DOI: 10.7554/elife.39681] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2018] [Accepted: 11/21/2018] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Slow-wave sleep is an optimal opportunity for memory consolidation: when encoding occurs in the presence of a sensory cue, delivery of that cue during sleep enhances retrieval of associated memories. Recent studies suggest that cues might promote consolidation by inducing neural reinstatement of cue-associated content during sleep, but direct evidence for such mechanisms is scant, and the relevant brain areas supporting these processes are poorly understood. Here, we address these gaps by combining a novel olfactory cueing paradigm with an object-location memory task and simultaneous EEG-fMRI recording in human subjects. Using pattern analysis of fMRI ensemble activity, we find that presentation of odor cues during sleep promotes reactivation of category-level information in ventromedial prefrontal cortex that significantly correlates with post-sleep memory performance. In identifying the potential mechanisms by which odor cues selectively modulate memory in the sleeping brain, these findings bring unique insights into elucidating how and what we remember.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura K Shanahan
- Department of Neurology, Feinberg School of MedicineNorthwestern UniversityChicagoUnited States
| | - Eva Gjorgieva
- Department of Neurology, Feinberg School of MedicineNorthwestern UniversityChicagoUnited States
| | - Ken A Paller
- Department of Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts and SciencesNorthwestern UniversityEvanstonUnited States
| | - Thorsten Kahnt
- Department of Neurology, Feinberg School of MedicineNorthwestern UniversityChicagoUnited States
- Department of Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts and SciencesNorthwestern UniversityEvanstonUnited States
| | - Jay A Gottfried
- Department of Neurology, Feinberg School of MedicineNorthwestern UniversityChicagoUnited States
- Department of Neurology, Perelman School of MedicineUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaUnited States
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and SciencesUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaUnited States
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