Memory and law: what can cognitive neuroscience contribute?

Schacter, Daniel L.; Loftus, Elizabeth F.

doi:10.1038/nn.3294

Cited by 138 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Our data show that the quality of reactivation is one mechanism by which retrieval influences memory, and we suggest a link between contextual reinstatement via neural recruitment of the posterior parahippocampal, retrosplenial, and posterior inferior parietal cortices in the enhancement and distortion in later memory. The current study reveals neural mechanisms that support the formation of false memories for naturalistic events experienced in a real-world setting, which has important implications for eyewitness memory and the law (92,93). Indeed, Schacter and Loftus (92) argued that understanding the neural mechanisms of memory reactivation and reconsolidation could provide a foundation for understanding how memories change over time, which in turn could eventually help better understand why eyewitness memories sometimes change in response to repeated questioning.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…The current study reveals neural mechanisms that support the formation of false memories for naturalistic events experienced in a real-world setting, which has important implications for eyewitness memory and the law (92,93). Indeed, Schacter and Loftus (92) argued that understanding the neural mechanisms of memory reactivation and reconsolidation could provide a foundation for understanding how memories change over time, which in turn could eventually help better understand why eyewitness memories sometimes change in response to repeated questioning. Our findings also fit with an adaptive perspective on memory distortion (6,(20)(21)(22)(23), in which reactivation allows for the incorporation of relevant new information that is essential for the operation of a dynamic memory system, but which comes at the cost of memory distortions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

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Neural mechanisms of reactivation-induced updating that enhance and distort memory

Jacques

Olm

Schacter

2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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We remember a considerable number of personal experiences because we are frequently reminded of them, a process known as memory reactivation. Although memory reactivation helps to stabilize and update memories, reactivation may also introduce distortions if novel information becomes incorporated with memory. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural mechanisms mediating reactivationinduced updating in memory for events experienced during a museum tour. During scanning, participants were shown target photographs to reactivate memories from the museum tour followed by a novel lure photograph from an alternate tour. Later, participants were presented with target and lure photographs and asked to determine whether the photographs showed a stop they visited during the tour. We used a subsequent memory analysis to examine neural recruitment during reactivation that was associated with later true and false memories. We predicted that the quality of reactivation, as determined by online ratings of subjective recollection, would increase subsequent true memories but also facilitate incorporation of the lure photograph, thereby increasing subsequent false memories. The fMRI results revealed that the quality of reactivation modulated subsequent true and false memories via recruitment of left posterior parahippocampal, bilateral retrosplenial, and bilateral posterior inferior parietal cortices. However, the timing of neural recruitment and the way in which memories were reactivated contributed to differences in whether memory reactivation led to distortions or not. These data reveal the neural mechanisms recruited during memory reactivation that modify how memories will be subsequently retrieved, supporting the flexible and dynamic aspects of memory.autobiographical memory | false memory | episodic memory R esearch in psychology and neuroscience supports the idea that memory is not an exact reproduction of past experiences, but is instead a constructive process subject to a variety of errors and distortions (1-8). Both in the laboratory and everyday life, much evidence shows that people sometimes remember events differently from the way they actually unfolded and under some conditions remember events that never happened (9-12). Memory distortions can have serious consequences in everyday life, as illustrated by the frequent involvement of eyewitness memory errors (13) in wrongful convictions of individuals who were eventually exonerated on the basis of DNA evidence (14).Memory distortions are often viewed as flaws in the memory system or as evidence of impairment, and there is evidence consistent with this view: increased susceptibility to memory distortions has been linked with such phenomena as low intelligence (15), frontal-lobe damage (16-18), and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (19). An alternative approach characterizes memory distortions as byproducts of otherwise adaptive features of memory. An early example of this approach comes from Bartlett (7), who theorized t...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Neural mechanisms of reactivation-induced updating that enhance and distort memory

Jacques

Olm

Schacter

2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…This process of memory updating, later termed "reconsolidation," was rediscovered in 2000 and shown to be dependent on protein synthesis in the lateral amygdala (Nader et al 2000) or hippocampus depending on the type of memory recalled (Debiec et al 2002). Examples abound in humans that highlight the dramatic instances in which distorted memories of crime scenes, childhood events, and traumatic experiences-often recalled under interrogation in the court of law or during psychotherapy sessions-disrupt both individual well-being and modern jurisprudence (Loftus 2003;Schacter and Loftus 2013). having never been naturally, or exogenously, presented (Johansen et al 2010).…”

Section: Generating False Memories Based On Memory Engram Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification and Manipulation of Memory Engram Cells

Liu¹,

Ramirez

Redondo³

et al. 2014

Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol

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How memories are formed and stored in the brain remains a fascinating question in neuroscience.Here we discuss the memory engram theory, our recent attempt to identify and manipulate memory engram cells in the brain with optogenetics, and how these methods are used to address questions such as how false memory is formed, and how the valence of a memory can be changed in the brain. 3How and where memory is stored in the brain network is one of the fundamental questions in brain and cognitive sciences. At the onset of the 20 th century, a German biologist Richard Semon proposed the engram theory of memory (Semon 1923), but the theory was nearly completely ignored by his contemporary and subsequent brain researchers, until Daniel Schactor, James Eich, and Endel Tulving revived the theory in the late 1970s (Schacter et al. 1978). Semon's memory engram theory was built on two fundamental postulates termed the "Law of Engraphy" and the "Law of Ecphory" for memory storage and memory retrieval, respectively. The law of Engraphy posits: "All simultaneous excitations (derived from experience)…with in our organisms form a connected simultaneous complex of excitations which, as such, acts engraphically, that is to say leaves behind it a connected, and to that extent, unified engram-complex" (Semon 1923). The Law of Ecphory on the other hand posits: "The partial return of an energetic situation which has fixed itself engraphically acts in an ecphoric sense upon a simultaneous engram-complex" (Semon 1923).Semon's conceptualizations of the memory process were novel at his time, and were remarkably predictive of the contemporary concepts of memory storage and retrieval. For instance, Semon's memory retrieval process contained the concept of "pattern completion," which was advanced years later (Marr 1970;Nakazawa et al. 2003;Leutgeb et al. 2004). However, Semon did not elaborate the biological basis of the "simultaneous excitations" nor "a connected, unified engram-complex." This is not surprising considering that his theory was put forward nearly a century before the development of molecular, cellular, and genetic biology, and sophisticated imaging and electrophysiological technologies for the analysis of the nervous system.Incorporating the current knowledge about neurons, synaptic connections, and neuronal circuits, These studies were consistent with the notion that episodic memories are stored in the MTLs.As to the nature of memory engrams-enduring physical and chemical changes induced by learning-the guiding hypothesis has been Donald Hebb's theory, which posits that neurons encoding memory stimuli undergo enduring strengthening of some of their synapses through their co-activation with presynaptic cells: neurons that "fire together wire together" (Hebb 1949).Starting with Tim Bliss and Terje Lomo's discovery of long-term potentiation (Bliss and Lomo 5 1973), which supports Hebb's hypothesis, a large amount of studies have been directed to the characterization of LTP and other facets of synaptic plasticity, and thei...

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“…Three experimental paradigms have been most commonly employed to mimic possible therapy‐inspired distortions to childhood autobiographical memory (Laney & Loftus, 2013; Schacter & Loftus, 2013). In order of the amount of explicit suggestion and apparent corroboration provided to participants, these are the following: imagination inflation studies, in which participants are instructed to repeatedly imagine events that have not occurred; ‘false feedback’ studies, in which participants are given mainly generic false information suggesting they were likely to have experienced an event and memory implantation studies in which the suggested occurrence of the false event is supported by false testimony from an individual's family members or individually doctored photographs.…”

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confidence: 99%

Creating Memories for False Autobiographical Events in Childhood: A Systematic Review

Brewin

Andrews

2016

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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SummaryUsing a framework that distinguishes autobiographical belief, recollective experience, and confidence in memory, we review three major paradigms used to suggest false childhood events to adults: imagination inflation, false feedback and memory implantation. Imagination inflation and false feedback studies increase the belief that a suggested event occurred by a small amount such that events are still thought unlikely to have happened. In memory implantation studies, some recollective experience for the suggested events is induced on average in 47% of participants, but only in 15% are these experiences likely to be rated as full memories. We conclude that susceptibility to false memories of childhood events appears more limited than has been suggested. The data emphasise the complex judgements involved in distinguishing real from imaginary recollections and caution against accepting investigator‐based ratings as necessarily corresponding to participants' self‐reports. Recommendations are made for presenting the results of these studies in courtroom settings. © 2016 The Authors Applied Cognitive Psychology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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Memory and law: what can cognitive neuroscience contribute?

Cited by 138 publications

References 49 publications

Neural mechanisms of reactivation-induced updating that enhance and distort memory

Neural mechanisms of reactivation-induced updating that enhance and distort memory

Identification and Manipulation of Memory Engram Cells

Creating Memories for False Autobiographical Events in Childhood: A Systematic Review

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