Moccia Arianna, Plummer Matthew, Simpson Ivor, Morcom Alexa M
Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Eur J Neurosci. 2025 Jul;62(1):e70194. doi: 10.1111/ejn.70194.
For past experiences to guide our actions, we need to retrieve the relevant memories. Here, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate how memories are selected for retrieval and to test how current goals and external retrieval cues drive selection during the retrieval cascade. We analysed data from two studies in which people studied objects in picture or auditory word formats and later recalled them using either written words (Experiment 1, n = 28) or line drawings (Experiment 2, n = 28) as retrieval cues. We used multivariate decoding to quantify the reinstatement of study phase neural patterns when people successfully identified items that had been studied in a format currently designated as targeted, compared with non-targeted items. Neural reinstatement emerged at around 500 ms post-stimulus, like the established left parietal event-related potential (ERP) signature of recollection. Reinstatement was target-selective (greater for targets than non-targets) when test cues overlapped more with targets, a pattern previously shown for the left parietal ERP. In contrast, when cues overlapped more with non-targets, neural reinstatement was reversed-greater for non-targets-unlike the left parietal ERP. We also tested for goal-directed mental reinstatement proposed to guide selection prior to retrieval cues. When words were cues, there was strong evidence of this proactive reinstatement, but it was not detected when pictures were cues. Together, the data suggest that selection can act at multiple stages of memory retrieval and depends on both external cues and goal-directed control.
为了让过去的经历指导我们的行动，我们需要检索相关记忆。在此，我们使用脑电图（EEG）来研究记忆是如何被选择用于检索的，并测试当前目标和外部检索线索在检索级联过程中如何驱动选择。我们分析了两项研究的数据，在这两项研究中，人们以图片或听觉单词的形式学习物体，随后使用书面单词（实验1，n = 28）或线条图（实验2，n = 28）作为检索线索来回忆它们。当人们成功识别出以当前指定为目标的格式学习过的项目时，我们使用多变量解码来量化学习阶段神经模式的恢复情况，并与非目标项目进行比较。神经恢复在刺激后约500毫秒出现，类似于已确立的左顶叶事件相关电位（ERP）的回忆特征。当测试线索与目标的重叠更多时，恢复是目标选择性的（目标比非目标更强），这一模式先前在左顶叶ERP中也有显示。相比之下，当线索与非目标的重叠更多时，神经恢复则相反——非目标更强——这与左顶叶ERP不同。我们还测试了在检索线索之前被认为用于指导选择的目标导向性心理恢复。当单词作为线索时，有强有力的证据表明这种主动恢复存在，但当图片作为线索时则未检测到。总体而言，数据表明选择可以在记忆检索的多个阶段起作用，并且取决于外部线索和目标导向性控制。
