Curious Brain Waves: The Functional Role of Oscillations in Curiosity-driven Memory

好奇心促进记忆的形成。如果某人对某一事实特别好奇，对这一信息的记忆就会增强。在日常生活中，好奇心通过触发对未知信息的探索来推动知识的获取。然而，好奇心驱动的记忆增强的潜在神经生理机制仍有待探索。研究表明，对记忆和奖励处理很重要的大脑区域也参与其中，但大脑区域之间连接强度的个体差异预测了基于好奇心的记忆增强的水平。这个项目将是第一个研究大脑振荡（作为大脑区域之间交流的一个指标）和好奇心驱动记忆中个体差异的神经生理本质的项目。因此，功能性和结构性脑成像技术的结合，即脑磁图（MEG），一种因其高时间和空间分辨率而脱颖而出的成像技术，以及允许跟踪大脑纤维的扩散张量成像（DTI），将被使用。研究人员将测试好奇心是否伴随着来自与好奇心相关的大脑区域的某些大脑振荡，从而提高记忆力。此外，我们还将探讨关键解剖结构的个体差异是否介导了好奇心驱动记忆和潜在的振荡脑活动的个体差异。这些发现将为好奇心驱动记忆的神经基础提供新的见解。了解好奇心的神经生理学基础——作为现实生活中学习的关键驱动力——将为将这些发现转化为现实世界的应用提供机会，例如在教育环境中最佳地利用好奇心。

Curiosity enhances memory formation. If someone is particularly curious about a certain fact, memory for this information will be enhanced. In every-day life, it is curiosity that drives knowledge acquisition by triggering exploration of unknown information. However, the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms of curiosity-driven memory enhancement remain to be explored. Research suggests that brain areas important for memory and reward processing are involved, but individual differences in the strength of connections between brain areas predict the level of curiosity-based memory enhancement.This project will be the first to investigate brain oscillations – as an indicator of the communication between brain areas – and the neurophysiological nature of individual differences in curiosity-driven memory. Therefore, a combination of functional and structural brain imaging techniques, namely magnetoencephalography (MEG), an imaging technique that stands out due to its high temporal and spatial resolution, and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), which allows the tracking brain fibres, will be used. It will be tested whether curiosity is accompanied by certain brain oscillations originating from curiosity-related brain areas, leading to enhanced memory performance. Furthermore, it will be explored whether individual differences of key anatomical structures mediate individual differences in curiosity-driven memory and the underlying oscillatory brain activity. These findings will give novel insight into the neural basis of curiosity-driven memory. Understanding the neurophysiological basis of curiosity – as a critical driver of learning in real-life – will provide the opportunity for translating these findings to real-world applications, such as optimally harnessing curiosity in educational settings.