Abstract
Neuroscience methodologies used to understand prospective memory are being applied widely. In this chapter, we review various methods that address how people store intentions and how they share and schedule task prospective memory goals alongside other ongoing cognitive activities. A major focus is on relatively contemporary research using fMRI, PET, and ERP methodologies. Such research has focused primarily on event-based prospective memory and on the distinction between transient and sustained attentional processing associated with holding or retrieving an intention. We also address recent neuroscientific frameworks that have been developed to account for the role that various brain areas have in supporting prospective memory, including the distinction between processes involved with focal versus nonfocal prospective memory retrieval.
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Notes
- 1.
Note that these activations are not unique to the rostral PFC areas and often include other areas such as the precuneus, the parietal lobe, and the anterior cingulate (see Burgess et al., 2011; Cona et al., 2015). Our reference primarily to the lateral and medial rostral PFC areas is because activation in these areas is most representative of the gateway hypothesis and ubiquitous in the PM literature using PET and fMRI methods.
- 2.
Of interest is that the McDaniel et al. (2013) connectivity analyses showed greater precuneus activity in the focal as opposed to nonfocal conditions for successful PM retrieval. Although precuneus activations did show up as related to retrieval in the Cona et al. (2015) meta-analysis, specific contrasts showed precuneus activation was identified as more related to maintenance than to retrieval.
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Cohen, AL., Hicks, J.L. (2017). The Cognitive Neuroscience of Realizing Delayed Intentions. In: Prospective Memory. SpringerBriefs in Psychology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68990-6_2
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