Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97401
Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York 10016.
J Neurosci. 2021 Mar 31;41(13):3014-3024. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2875-20.2021. Epub 2021 Feb 22.
Similarity between memories is a primary cause of interference and forgetting. Exaggerating subtle differences between memories is therefore a potential mechanism for reducing interference. Here, we report a human fMRI study ( = 29, 19 female) that tested whether behavioral and neural expressions of memories are adaptively distorted to reduce interference. Participants learned and repeatedly retrieved object images, some of which were identical except for subtle color differences. Behavioral measures of color memory revealed exaggeration of differences between similar objects. Importantly, greater memory exaggeration was associated with lower memory interference. fMRI pattern analyses revealed that color information in parietal cortex was stronger during memory recall when color information was critical for discriminating competing memories. Moreover, greater representational distance between competing memories in parietal cortex predicted greater color memory exaggeration and lower memory interference. Together, these findings reveal that competition between memories induces adaptive, feature-specific distortions in parietal representations and corresponding behavioral expressions. Similarity between memories is a primary cause of interference and forgetting. Here, we show that, when remembering highly similar objects, subtle differences in the features of these objects are exaggerated in memory to reduce interference. These memory distortions are reflected in, and predicted by, overlap of activity patterns in lateral parietal cortex. These findings provide unique insight into how memory interference is resolved and specifically implicate lateral parietal cortex in representing feature-specific memory distortions.
记忆之间的相似性是干扰和遗忘的主要原因。因此，夸大记忆之间的细微差异是减少干扰的潜在机制。在这里，我们报告了一项人类 fMRI 研究（= 29 名，19 名女性），该研究测试了记忆的行为和神经表现是否会适应性地扭曲以减少干扰。参与者学习并反复检索物体图像，其中一些除了细微的颜色差异外完全相同。对颜色记忆的行为测量显示，相似物体之间的差异被夸大了。重要的是，更大的记忆夸张与更低的记忆干扰相关。功能磁共振成像模式分析显示，当颜色信息对于区分竞争记忆至关重要时，顶叶皮层中的颜色信息在记忆回忆期间更强。此外，顶叶皮层中竞争记忆之间的代表性距离越大，预测颜色记忆夸张和记忆干扰降低的程度越大。总之，这些发现揭示了记忆之间的竞争在顶叶代表和相应的行为表达中引起适应性的、特征特异性的扭曲。记忆之间的相似性是干扰和遗忘的主要原因。在这里，我们表明，在记忆高度相似的物体时，这些物体特征中的细微差异会在记忆中被夸大以减少干扰。这些记忆扭曲反映在并可预测外侧顶叶皮层的活动模式重叠中。这些发现为记忆干扰如何解决提供了独特的见解，并特别表明外侧顶叶皮层在表示特征特异性记忆扭曲方面具有重要作用。
