Neuron points out the uncertainty of our working memory

A team of scientists discovered that the area of ​​the human brain responsible for the content of working memory is also used to measure the quality or uncertainty of memory
.
Its research reveals how these neural responses allow us to act and make decisions based on the degree of certainty of our memory

"The uncertainty that enters our working memory allows us to determine how much "trust" is determining our memory," explained Hsin-Hung Lee, a postdoctoral fellow at the New York University Center for Psychology and Neuroscience and the first author of the paper, published In the journal Neuron
.
"Our research reveals for the first time that the neural group that encodes the content of working memory also represents the uncertainty of memory

Working memory allows us to store information in our minds.

For example, when reading, working memory allows us to store what we have just read a few seconds ago, while our eyes are constantly scanning new sentences
.
Similarly, when shopping online, we may "in my mind" compare the items on the screen with items that have been seen and remembered before

"For the brain, memory is not only vital, but also the key to measuring the quality of the memory: how sure are we that a particular memory is accurate?" Li explained
.
"If we feel that we are If the memory of an online item is poor or uncertain, we will scroll back to the page and check the item again to ensure an accurate comparison

Although studies of human behavior have shown that people can assess the quality of their memories, it is not clear how the brain does this

More specifically, we didn't know before whether the memory area in the brain also recorded the quality of memory
.

To reveal this, the researchers conducted two experiments to better understand how the brain stores information about working memory, and at the same time how the brain expresses the uncertainty of memory - or how good or bad the memory is
.

In the first experiment, human participants performed a spatial visual working memory task while a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner recorded their brain activity
.
For each task, or experiment, the participant must remember the position of the white dot to be easy to display.

Here, the functional magnetic resonance imaging signal allows the researcher to decode the location of the memory target, which is what the subject is asked to remember in each trial
.
By analyzing the brain signals corresponding to the participants' memory time, they can determine the location of the target that the subject is asked to remember

In the second experiment, participants not only reported the location in the memory, but also the degree of uncertainty they had about their memory in each experiment
.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging signals recorded from the same brain area allowed scientists to decode the participants’ uncertainty reports of their memories
.

In summary, the research results prove for the first time that the human brain simultaneously records the content and uncertainty of working memory in the same cortical area
.

Joint representation of working memory and uncertainty in human cortex

DOI

10.
1016/j.
neuron.
2021.
08.
022