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

好奇心增强了记忆的形成。如果有人对某一事实特别好奇，对这一信息的记忆力就会增强。在日常生活中，正是好奇心引发了对未知信息的探索，从而推动了知识的获取。然而，好奇心驱动记忆增强的潜在神经生理学机制仍有待探索。研究表明，与记忆和奖赏处理有关的大脑区域是重要的，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。该项目将首次研究大脑振荡--作为大脑区域之间交流的指示器--以及好奇心驱动的记忆个体差异的神经生理学本质。因此，将使用功能和结构脑成像技术的组合，即脑磁图(MEG)和扩散张量成像(DTI)，这是一种因其高时间和空间分辨率而脱颖而出的成像技术，可以跟踪大脑纤维。将测试好奇心是否伴随着某些源自与好奇心相关的大脑区域的大脑振荡，从而导致记忆能力的增强。此外，还将探索关键解剖结构的个体差异是否会在好奇心驱动的记忆和潜在的脑部振荡活动中中介个体差异。这些发现将对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.