The cognitive control of long-term memory in reality monitoring

• Applicant: Dr. Timm Rosburg
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2012 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 221667583

Reality monitoring describes the differentiation of internally generated and externally perceived episodic information. In previous studies, we investigated the role of control processes (in the form of retrieval orientation and strategic retrieval of nontarget information) in reality monitoring by event‐related potentials (ERPs). The current project aims at further specifying the cortical structures and neuronal processes involved in the cognitive control of reality monitoring, by a concerted usage of ERPs, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Within the project, we will study how neural correlates of retrieval orientation are affected when retrieval accuracy is impaired by lengthening the interval between study and test phase. Using fMRI, we will further address the question whether, in addition to an involvement of anterior medial prefrontal cortex structures, retrieval orientation might also lead to an activation of auditory areas when subjects have to discriminate between memories of vocalized and non‐vocalized words. Results of this latter experiment will also be used to evaluate whether tDCS of auditory areas can enhance the retrieval accuracy in such reality monitoring tasks. Finally, we will test in a behavioral experiment on patients with schizophrenia whether impaired reality monitoring in this task co‐varies with the occurrence of auditory verbal hallucinations

• DFG Programme: Research Grants