summary: New research has revealed that people can wet the brain circuits they initially store, and consciously remove certain information from their memories. In a recent study, participants were asked to forget either of two items and were later tested for the remaining related memories.
Brain scans showed that removing memory content involves reduced excitability of neural circuits linked to unwanted information. These findings may provide insight into how the brain actively clears space in memory and may help explain how people manage intrusive thoughts and harmful recollections.
Important facts:
- Active Forget: The brain can intentionally suppress memory tracing using specific neural mechanisms.
- Deactivating the circuit: Forgetting is associated with a reduced excitability in brain regions linked to forgotten items.
- Impact on mental health: This mechanism can help manage invasive thinking, anti-mission, or hallucination.
sauce: SFN
Deleting information from memories may help people retain what they want to remember.
Research focuses on how the brain potentially removes information by not paying attention to these details, but sometimes it is necessary to consciously remove unnecessary details from memory.
This is especially true when memory details are perceptually harmful, leading to combating, for example anti-mission, disturbing negative thoughts, hallucinations.
It’s new Journal of Neuroscience Jiang Ca’shan and Bradley Postle, a paper from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explored ways that the brain can actively remove unwanted memory content.
The researchers recorded brain activity of nearly 30 study participants when performing the memory task. In this task, participants were given two items to remember first.
Experimental conditions did not encourage participants to actively delete memories of any of these items. Following these conditions, they were given a third item to remember.
Finally, participants were tested for memory of the first and last items associated.
The findings illustrate a mechanism linked to consciously deleting information from memory. It is a low-excitatory brain circuit that first processes unnecessary memory content.
About this memory and neuroscience research news
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Original research: Closed access.
“EEG is correlated with active removal from working memoryJiangang Shan et al. Journal of Neuroscience
Abstract
EEG is correlated with active removal from working memory
The removal of non-longer-related information from visual working memory (WM) is important for the functioning of WM given its serious capacity limitations.
Previously, we used the “ABC Retroke” WM task to show that deleting information can be accomplished in different ways. Or, or by “actively” removing IMI from WM (Shan and Postle, 2022).
Here, we recorded EEG (EEG) signals from human subjects (misexuals) performing the task of retrocuing ABCs to investigate the neural mechanisms behind aggressive removal.
Specifically, we tested hijacked adaptive models. This assumes that aggressive removal is achieved by downmodulation of the top-down trigger of the gain of the perceptual circuit.
Behaviorally, analysis revealed that aggressive removal results in a reduced familiarity situation, mainly about IMI, compared to passive removal.
lightion We focused on two eras of aggressive removal triggers and tasks that correspond to outcomes.
With regard to the trigger, stronger forward and backward moving waves were observed due to active removal and passive removal.
Regarding the results of removal, as assessed in ERP, the response to “ping” was reduced regardless of task due to aggressive removal, suggesting that aggressive removal led to a decrease in the excitability of perceptual circuits centered around IMI.
