Pre-retrieval event-related potentials predict source memory during task switching

Neural activity preceding memory probes differs according to retrieval goals. These divergences have been linked to retrieval orientations, which are content-specific memory states that bias retrieval towards specific contents. Here, participants were cued to retrieve either spatial location or enco...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Fla.), 2019-07, Vol.194, p.174-181
Main Authors: Evans, Lisa H., Herron, Jane E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Adolescent
Brain - physiology
Electroencephalography
Event-related potential
Event-related potentials
Evoked Potentials - physiology
Female
Humans
Male
Memory
Memory, Episodic
Mental Recall - physiology
Mental task performance
Older people
Photic Stimulation
Polarity
Pre-retrieval
Recall
Retrieval orientation
Task switching
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Neural activity preceding memory probes differs according to retrieval goals. These divergences have been linked to retrieval orientations, which are content-specific memory states that bias retrieval towards specific contents. Here, participants were cued to retrieve either spatial location or encoding operations. On the first trial of each memory task (‘switch’ trials), preparatory ERPs preceding correct source memory judgments differed according to retrieval goal, but this effect was absent preceding memory errors. Initiating appropriate retrieval orientations therefore predicted criterial recollection. Preparatory ERPs on the second trial of each memory task (i.e. ‘stay’ trials) also differed according to retrieval goal, but the polarity of this effect was reversed from that observed on switch trials and the effect did not predict memory accuracy. This was interpreted as a correlate of retrieval orientation maintenance, with initiation and maintenance forming dissociable components of these goal-directed memory states. More generally, these findings highlight the importance of pre-retrieval processes in episodic memory. [Display omitted] •Pre-retrieval ERPs diverged according to cues signalling two different episodic tasks.•This index predicted memory accuracy on the first trial of each task.•The initiation of task-specific retrieval orientations influences criterial recollection.•An orientation effect of reversed polarity on subsequent trials was linked with maintenance.•All pre-retrieval ERP effects were maximal at frontal electrode sites.
ISSN:1053-8119
1095-9572
DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.03.038