Neural activity associated with the realization of a delayed intention

This study examines neural activity associated with the realization of a delayed intention within the context of the noticing+search model of prospective memory (PM) using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The noticing+search model proposes that PM is supported by two related processes, noticing (the detection of a PM cue in the environment) and search (the retrieval of an intention from memory). In two experiments participants performed a PM task that permitted the dissociation of the noticing and search processes. Noticing was associated a phasic negativity over the occipital-parietal region (N320) and search was associated with a sustained modulation (slow-wave) reflecting a negativity over the right frontal region and a broadly distributed positivity over the parietal region. The amplitude of the N320 was greater when the PM cue was associated with an intention than when the cue was irrelevant to task performance, leading to the proposal that noticing may be accomplished through the attentional modulation of neural systems which support processing of the defining features of the PM cue. The topography of the slow-wave resembled that of modulations of the ERP associated with the recollection of information in studies of retrospective memory leading to the suggestion that similar neural processes may support the recovery of information from memory in both prospective and retrospective memory tasks.