Making Memories: Brain Activity that Predicts How Well Visual Experience Will Be Remembered

TLDR

The neural basis determining whether an experience is remembered or forgotten remains unclear. Event‑related fMRI of the medial temporal and frontal lobes while subjects viewed complex color photographs was used to identify activations that predict later memory performance. Higher activation in right prefrontal and bilateral parahippocampal cortices predicted better subsequent memory for the photographs.

Abstract

Experiences are remembered or forgotten, but the neural determinants for the mnemonic fate of experience are unknown. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to identify specific brain activations that differentiated between visual experiences that were later remembered well, remembered less well, or forgotten. During scanning of medial temporal lobe and frontal lobe regions, subjects viewed complex, color photographs. Subjects later received a test of memory for the photographs. The magnitudes of focal activations in right prefrontal cortex and in bilateral parahippocampal cortex predicted which photographs were later remembered well, remembered less well, or forgotten.