Cognitive Neuroscience Lecture 14

Lecture 14: Future Thinking

• Cognitive Neuroscience lecture on October 24, 2024
• The lecture outlines the concept of future thinking, revisits a patient case study, explores mind-wandering.
• It further discusses the types of future thinking, brain regions involved in episodic future thinking, and prospective memory.
• Also includes announcements and review questions.

Memory

• Memory is categorized into:
  • Memory for the past (e.g., episodic, semantic)
  • Memory for the present (e.g., sensory, short-term, working)
  • Memory for the future

Patient K.C.

• K.C. exhibited difficulty imagining the future, stating that he did not think about his future.
• When asked about the future, K.C. responded by saying, "I guess so. I don't really think much about the future."
• This was in response to the question "Do you feel hopeful about the future?"

Episodic Memory

• Endel Tulving described mental time travel as autonoetic consciousness.
• This concept applies to remembering the past and the future. (The ability to project oneself into the future, similar to remembering the past).
• Patient K.C.'s difficulties highlight the crucial role of episodic memory in simulating the future.

K.C. Interview

• K.C. struggled to describe his mental state when thinking about the future.
• He reported a blank state, implying a lack of episodic future thinking abilities.
• K.C.'s responses highlighted his difficulty imagining the future, further emphasizing the link between episodic memory and future thinking.

What does this tell us?

• Patients with hippocampal/MTL damage lack episodic memory of the past and the future
• They're also unable to construct fictional scenarios of the future.

Mind Wandering

• Humans spend 30-50% of their waking hours daydreaming or mind-wandering.
• Mind-wandering is more common during non-effortful tasks.
• Mind-wandering involves self-generated thoughts that may include past, present, and future scenarios.
• People with hippocampal amnesia exhibit different daydreaming patterns, and more present-oriented thoughts than healthy participants.

Four Forms of Future Thinking

• Prediction: Assessing the likelihood of future events.
• Simulation: Creating mental images of future events.
• Goal Setting: Defining intentions and future objectives.
• Planning: Outlining steps needed to achieve goals.

Episodic Future Thinking

• The capacity to envision and mentally simulate personal future events
• Semantic memory serves as a framework, and episodic memories fill in the details.
• This process allows for imagined future events in the first person perspective.
• Similar brain regions are active during episodic future thinking and episodic memory retrieval.

Brain Regions in Episodic Future Thinking

• The hippocampus and medial temporal lobe (MTL) are critical for episodic future thinking.
• Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex has increased activity during episodic future thinking as well.

Prospective Memory

• The ability to remember intentions or future tasks.
• Can be divided into time-based (remembering to do something at a specific time) or event-based (remembering to do something during a specific event).
• Two supporting mechanisms for prospective memory are sustained and bottom-up attentional control.

Announcements

• Extra credit opportunities are available through SONA and Jeopardy.
• Additional credit can be rewarded for attendance at 12 or more sections.
• Homework 6 is due on Thursday, October 31st.

Review Questions

• K.C.'s view of the future and episodic amnesia patients' daydreaming differences are presented.
• The role of the hippocampus in episodic future thinking is discussed.
• Four types of future thinking (prediction, simulation, goal-setting, planning) were also described to assess their differences from each other.
• The details of brain activity for episodic memory retrieval vs. episodic future thinking are explained.
• prospective memory, the two types, and its connection to (top-down and bottom-up) attentional control topics were also assessed.