Augustin C. Hennings
Department of Psychology
Princeton Neuroscience Institute
The ability to suppress unwanted memories is an adaptive function that not only helps prevents the retrieval of distressing content, but can also lead to lasting forgetting (i.e., suppression-induced forgetting; SIF). However, the precise factors that lead to successful SIF are not fully understood. In this talk, I will discuss data from a novel eye tracking paradigm designed to examine how participants interact with memory cues in order to support their retrieval goals. In a preregistered sample (N=34), we show that instructions to retrieve were associated with gaze reinstatement (eye gaze towards the location where the target object was studied), while instructions to suppress were associated with gaze repulsion (eye gaze away from the studied location). We also show that successful SIF is associated with an initial period of gaze reinstatement during the suppression attempt. These results provide novel evidence for how humans intentionally forget, revealing both the top-down strategies that people employ to suppress retrieval and also the retrieval dynamics that lead to lasting forgetting. I will also describe ongoing efforts to develop a real-time fMRI neurofeedback intervention designed to strengthen the neural circuits supporting top-down inhibitory control of memory retrieval. The long-term goal of this work is to rescue observed behavioral and neural deficits in retrieval suppression in individuals with anxiety- and trauma-related disorders.
View a recording of this session here.