Project PIVOTAL
Predictive memory systems across the human lifespan
As neuroscientific knowledge about brain function accumulates, it becomes increasingly important to derive a set of overarching general principles about how the human brain works. One promising approach is the concept of predictive coding, which posits that the brain functions like a prediction machine; internal models in the brain predict future states against which incoming information from new experiences is compared.
This new conceptual framework leads to two main empirical questions that will be investigated in PIVOTAL:
- What is the nature of the internal models on which predictions are made, and how are they influenced by our actual experiences?
- How do prediction processes play out in human brains, which are inherently diverse due to changes such as maturation and senescence?
Answering these questions is important for advancing our fundamental understanding of the neurocognitive architectures that enable the brain to adapt to our environment, of which predictive processing is a fundamental function.
PIVOTAL will integrate three separate strands of cognitive neuroscience research on predictive coding, memory systems and lifespan development. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in experimental research designs, we aim to elucidate the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying predictive processing based on the recollection of past experiences (episodic memory) and well-learned knowledge about the world (semantic memory). These mechanisms will be systematically studied in samples of children, younger adults, and older adults who differ in important ways due to differences in developmental orientation (progression vs. maintenance) and neurocognitive landscape (structural and functional integrity of memory neural circuits). By elucidating a more dynamic version of the predictive brain principle, we can begin to address issues related to the onset of disorders at specific windows of life.