Frontal Control Process in Intentional Forgetting: Electrophysiological Evidence

Gao, Heming; Qi, Mingming; Zhang, Qi · 2018 · DOAJ

DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00757

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Summary

This study investigates the neural mechanisms underlying intentional forgetting, specifically testing whether directed forgetting (DF) involves an active inhibitory control process or passive decay. The research addresses a gap in understanding the neural activity associated with maintenance rehearsal and its interruption by forgetting cues. Using a modified item-method DF paradigm, the authors aimed to distinguish between the selective rehearsal account, which posits passive decay of unrehearsed items, and the attentional inhibition account, which suggests active suppression of memory representations. The experiment involved 19 healthy adult participants who underwent an ERP recording session. The design utilized three conditions: maintain-remember (M-R), maintain-forget (M-F), and forget (F). In M-R and M-F trials, a word was followed by a maintenance cue, then a remembering or forgetting cue, respectively. In F trials, a word was immediately followed by a forgetting cue. This structure allowed the researchers to isolate the neural signatures of maintenance rehearsal and the subsequent cognitive control processes triggered by forgetting instructions. Behavioral data were collected via a recognition test, while electrophysiological data were analyzed for specific components: P2 (attentional allocation), N2 (cognitive control), and P3/LPC (memory rehearsal). Behavioral results confirmed a typical DF effect, with higher recognition rates for M-R words compared to M-F and F words. Electrophysiologically, forgetting cues (M-F and F) elicited enhanced frontal N2 amplitudes and reduced parietal P3 and late positive complex (LPC) components compared to remembering cues. Specifically, the F cue evoked a decreased P2 component and an enhanced N2 component relative to other cues, indicating reduced attentional allocation and intensified cognitive control. The M cue also evoked enhanced N2 and decreased P3/LPC compared to M-R/M-F cues. Crucially, a positive correlation was found between frontal N2 amplitudes and recognition accuracy, suggesting that stronger inhibitory control was associated with better memory performance for remembered items. The findings provide electrophysiological evidence that intentional forgetting is an active process involving frontal cognitive control. The enhanced frontal N2 activity associated with forgetting cues reflects an inhibitory mechanism that suppresses ongoing encoding, rather than passive decay. This supports the attentional inhibition account, demonstrating that DF requires executive resources to withdraw attention and inhibit memory traces. The study highlights the role of frontal regions in managing memory interference through active inhibition, distinguishing the neural processes of maintenance rehearsal from those of intentional forgetting.

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• executive function