Subjective experience as a basis for reality monitoring over memory

“真实监控”是确定我们的记忆是外部产生的(比如我们感知到的东西的记忆)还是内部产生的(比如思想或想象的记忆)的过程。这个项目的目的是描述记忆现象学在现实监控过程中使用的神经和计算机制。重要的是，这种能力在情感性和精神病性精神健康障碍中可能会出错。因此，更准确地描述这些机制将有助于我们理解它们如何发生故障，以及最终如何针对此类故障进行针对性的治疗。研究1(2022年4月至2023年1月)：个体在现实监控策略上是否存在差异？方法：在线行为研究，计算模型培训：巨蟒机器学习课程，Accelerate-Spark机器学习学院(2022年4月至6月)虽然已经有很多关于现实监控表现的个体差异的研究，但很少有人调查用于实现这一目标的策略的个体差异。了解这样的策略差异可以为心理健康障碍中现实监控缺陷的个性化治疗提供依据。我将调查没有心理意象的人(一种被称为失语症的情况)在他们用来监测现实和记忆的策略上是否存在系统性的差异。我会给失语症患者和配对的对照组布置一个在线现实监测任务。我将使用计算模型来确定所使用的策略是否受特质意象的影响。我将继续进行验证性和纵向复制，评估个体差异在三周的延迟时间内是否稳定。研究2(2023年1月至2023年12月)：感觉和判断记忆是真实的神经机制是什么？方法：脑电训练：脑电波课程认知判断某事是真实的可以从感觉它是真实的分离出来，例如当我们知道它是梦的记忆感觉真实的时候。然而，与明确的现实判断相比，人们对现象学的现实感觉的神经基础知之甚少。我将使用EEG来确定现象学感觉和对记忆是真实的明确判断的神经时间过程是否是分离的。研究3：(2024年1月-2025年1月)皮层重新激活是否反映了现实监控策略？方法：fMRI训练：fMRI过程记忆提取时编码相关模式的重新激活随记忆的生动程度和细节而变化。然而，目前还不知道大脑皮质的分级激活是否支持记忆的真实感受。使用最近开发的一种技术来区分fMRI数据中的定性和定量个体差异，结合多变量模式分析，我将评估现实监测中的个体差异是否得到皮质重新激活的定性或定量差异的支持。结论总体而言，本研究旨在刻画(1)个体在现实监控策略上的不同，以及(2)现实监控感觉和判断可能分离的神经和计算机制。这可能会为更精确地治疗现实监控缺陷铺平道路，这些缺陷是专门针对特定个人的现实监控系统故障的方式量身定做的。

'Reality monitoring' is the process of establishing whether our memories were externally generated (such as a memory of something we perceived), or internally generated (such as a memory of a thought or imagination). This project aims to characterise the neural and computational mechanisms by which aspects of the phenomenology of memory are employed in the process of reality monitoring. Importantly, this ability can go awry in affective and psychotic mental health disorders. Therefore, more precise characterisation of these mechanisms will help us understand how they can malfunction, and ultimately how to target treatment for such malfunctioning.Study 1 (April 2022 - January 2023): Do individuals differ in reality monitoring strategy?Methods: online behavioural study, computational modellingTraining: Python Machine Learning course, Accelerate-Spark Machine Learning Academy (April-June 2022)While there has been much research into individual differences in reality monitoring performance, there has been little investigation into individual differences in the strategies used to accomplish this. Understanding such strategy differences could inform individualised treatment for reality monitoring deficits in mental health disorders. I will investigate whether people with no mental imagery (a condition known as aphantasia) differ systematically in their strategy used for reality monitoring over memory. I will give an online reality monitoring task to aphantasic individuals and matched controls. I will use computational modelling to establish whether strategy used is modulated by trait imagery. I will follow up with a confirmatory and longitudinal replication, assessing whether individual differences are stable over a three-week delay.Study 2 (January 2023 - December 2023): What are the neural mechanisms of the feeling vs. judgement that a memory is real?Methods: EEGTraining: EEG courseThe cognitive judgement that something is real can dissociate from the feeling that it was real, such as when the memory of a dream feels real even when we know it was a dream. However, little is known about the neural underpinnings of the phenomenological feeling of reality compared with explicit reality judgements. I will use EEG to establish if the neural time-courses of the phenomenological feeling and explicit judgement that a memory was real are dissociable.Study 3: (January 2024-January 2025) Does cortical reactivation reflect reality monitoring strategy?Methods: fMRITraining: fMRI courseReactivation of encoding-related patterns at memory retrieval varies parametrically with memory vividness and detail. However, it not known whether graded cortical reactivation supports how real a memory feels. Using a recently-developed technique to distinguish qualitative and quantitative individual differences in fMRI data, combined with multivariate pattern analysis, I will assess whether individual differences in reality monitoring are supported by qualitative or quantitative differences in cortical reactivation. ConclusionOverall, this project aims to characterise the neural and computational mechanisms by which (1) individuals differ in reality monitoring strategy, and (2) reality monitoring feeling and judgement may dissociate. This could pave the way for more precise treatments for reality monitoring deficits which are specifically tailored to the way in which a particular individual's reality monitoring system is malfunctioning.