Evaluating one’s own memory requires access to information about the strength of memory traces<\/strong>, though the brain structures and neural mechanisms involved in this effort — and whether they are distinct from normal memory recall — remain unknown.<\/p>\n Here, to shed light in this space, Kentaro Miyamoto and colleagues devised a metamemory test in which macaques judged their own confidence in remembering past experiences<\/strong>; the animals opted for higher bets on the outcome of a memory recall test when they were surer their memory judgments were correct.<\/p>\n Using this setup, as well as whole-brain searches by functional neuroimaging, the researchers identified a specific region in the prefrontal brain essential for metamemory decision making<\/strong>. Its inactivation caused selective impairment of metamemory, but not of memory itself.<\/p>\n The results pave the way to further study of the neuronal underpinnings of metacognition using an animal model, where metamemory has previously been difficult to evaluate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the\u00a0American Association for the Advancement of Science\u00a0media release: Researchers have pinpointed a brain region monkeys use to evaluate their ability to recall memories. To date, this metamemory process, which… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,6,60],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19556"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19556"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19567,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19556\/revisions\/19567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/monkeys.jpg\")
Researchers have pinpointed a brain region monkeys use to evaluate their ability to recall memories<\/strong>. To date, this metamemory process, which requires a higher level of self-reflection about our own cognition, was thought by some to be unique to humans, though this research suggests otherwise.<\/p>\n