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True and false memories, parietal cortex, and confidence judgments
Zhisen J Urgolites1, Christine N Smith1, Larry R Squire2
1Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California 92161, USA Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
Learning & Memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.)
|October 17, 2015
Summary
Brain activity in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and neocortex can differentiate true and false memories. This distinction is clearer when memory confidence ratings are similar for both true and false memories.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuroimaging
Background:
- Distinguishing true from false memories is a key challenge in memory research.
- Memory confidence often differs between accurate and inaccurate recollections, complicating neural analyses.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether brain activity in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and neocortex can differentiate true from false memories.
- To examine the role of memory confidence in neural correlates of memory accuracy.
Main Methods:
- Participants performed recognition memory tasks with confidence ratings for studied and novel scenes.
- fMRI data were analyzed to identify brain regions discriminating true and false memories under varying confidence conditions.
Main Results:
- The left hippocampus and 16 other regions distinguished true and false memories when confidence ratings differed.
- When confidence ratings were equated, only three parietal cortex regions showed this distinction.
Conclusions:
- Memory confidence significantly influences the identification of neural correlates for true and false memories.
- Accounting for confidence ratings is crucial for accurate interpretation of brain activity related to memory accuracy.
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