Distinct Generation of Subjective Vividness and Confidence during Naturalistic Memory Retrieval in Angular Gyrus

Abstract

Our subjective experience of remembering guides and monitors the reconstruction of past and simulation of the future, which enables us to identify mistakes and adjust our behavior accordingly. However, it remains incompletely understood what underlies the process of subjective mnemonic experience. Here, we combined behavior, repetitive TMS, and functional neuroimaging to probe whether vividness and confidence are generated differently during retrieval. We found that preretrieval repetitive TMS targeting the left angular gyrus (AnG) selectively attenuated the vividness efficiency compared with control stimulation while keeping metacognitive efficiency and objective memory accuracy unaffected. Using trialwise data, we showed that AnG stimulation altered the mediating role of vividness in confidence in the accuracy of memory judgment. Moreover, resting-state functional connectivity of hippocampus and AnG was specifically associated with vividness efficiency, but not metacognitive efficiency across individuals. Together, these results identify the causal involvement of AnG in gauging the vividness, but not the confidence, of memory, thereby suggesting a differentiation account of conscious assessment of memory by functionally and anatomically dissociating the monitoring of vividness from confidence.

Every individual makes a difference: A trinity derived from linking individual brain morphometry, connectivity and mentalising ability

“…First, the variation of self-self mentalisation, i.e., metacognition, exhibited greater representational similarity to individual variation in hippocampal MMS or rs-FC relative to amygdala MMS or rs-FC, indicating a close association between the meta-cognition and hippocampus. This result dovetails with previous research which has confirmed that hippocampal function (Ye et al, 2019;Zou & Kwok, 2022) and structure (Allen et al, 2017;Alkan et al, 2020) are highly correlated with meta-cognition. Further, given the essential role meta-cognition plays in other mentalising components according to interactive mentalising theory (Wu et al, 2020b), our finding supports the motivation to decipher the importance of the hippocampus during dynamic social interaction.…”

“…This means we could not reveal the contribution of rs-FC between the amygdala or hippocampus and specific brain regions or networks in the trinity. Future studies might uncover this by examining the rs-FC between the amygdala or hippocampus and some brain regions of interest, e.g., the temporoparietal junction (Biervoye et al, 2016; Bitsch et al, 2019), precuneus (Ye et al, 2019), cerebellum (Metoki et al, 2022) and angular gyrus (Zou & Kwok, 2022), or even the brain networks, e.g., the default mode network (Yeshurun et al, 2021).…”

“…Along with the trinity hypothesis, we further hypothesised that there will be a region-related specificity in associations among different mentalising components and amygdala or hippocampal MMS and rs-FC ( Hypothesis 2 ). Specifically, mounting evidence indicates that both hippocampal function and structure are highly associated with meta-cognition (Chua et al, 2006; Moritz et al, 2006; Allen et al, 2017; Ren et al, 2018; Zou & Kwok, 2022). Meanwhile, two well-established theories: 1) relational integration theory (O’Keefe & Nadel, 1978) (born in Tolman’s seminal concept of the cognitive map (Tolman, 1948) and has been applied outside the original domain of physical space to social space (Rubin et al, 2014; Eichenbaum & Cohen, 2014; Tavares et al, 2015; Wang et al, 2015; Schafer & Schiller, 2018)) and 2) constructive memory theory (Schacter, 2012), all point to a crucial role of the hippocampus in how human construct, interact with and predict the intentions and actions of others (Laurita & Nathan Spreng, 2017).…”

Multiple functions of the angular gyrus at high temporal resolution

“…There are however other TMS studies that did not identify a causal role for the left AG in memory and information retrieval. For instance, TMS over the left AG did not interfere with episodic retrieval (Koen et al, 2018), affect recollection (Wynn et al, 2018), and with assessment of memory confidence (Zou and Kwok, 2022). These three studies suggested alternative roles for the left AG in encoding processes in subjective mnemonic experience (Koen et al, 2018), in improving both familiarity and the subjectively perceived confidence in participants with low baseline memory recognition (Wynn et al, 2018), and in gauging the vividness of memory (Zou and Kwok, 2022).…”

Loneliness is associated with greater cognitive distance between the self and a close friend

“…Therefore, although a general positivity bias may be apparent, memories for negative items or events may be more precise and phenomenologically more vivid. It should be noted that vividness and confidence of memory, although often used interchangeably in memory research, may represent partially distinct constructs and rely on unique underlying neural systems (Zou & Kwok, 2022). The only existing study to assess the effect of valence on metamemory demonstrated reduced metacognitive efficiency for negative items (Legrand et al, 2021).…”