CHARLIE, we have to go to candy mountain! [burn this after reading] Shooting my shot in the Brooker multiverse — I sent emails to Superkaylo, TVGoHome, and Horny Estelle. All bounced harder than my optimism. Please ask CAA to forward my message before reality resets. HALP!

#neuroskyence #psychscisky

Check out our preprint to learn about our methodology and additional finds! LINK: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (11/11)

This means we were able to 𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐬𝐞 whether a room will serve as an effective memory scaffold 𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄 objects are placed in the room! (10/11)

In accordance with our predictions, we found that we were able 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐭’𝐬 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 (measured before they saw the newly placed objects) 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥! (9/11)

…then, we placed an object randomly in each of the rooms and had participants go back into VR to learn the room-object associations. Finally, we scanned their brains again while they verbally recalled the objects and the rooms. (8/11)

Treating each room video as a ‘localizer’, we quantified the reliability of each room representation by comparing the neural pattern similarity of a room to itself vs other rooms… (7/11)

To test this, we built a 23-room virtual reality (VR) environment that participants explored with a head-mounted display. Afterwards, we scanned their brains while they watched two sets of videos of the rooms they visited. (6/11)

…we would predict that when a new experience occurs (such as encountering a yummy banana), he would be better at encoding his experience and consequently, better at retrieving it later. (5/11)

So, we hypothesized that a 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 (𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞) 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 (one that is stable and distinct) 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦. For example, if the typing minion has a reliable room representation… (4/11)

However, it’s important that the 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞! In other words, it 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 (so that we can retrieve the details consistently), 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐭 (so that the memories across different locations don’t interfere!) (3/11)

You know when you spontaneously remember old memories when you enter your childhood home? Our lived experiences are often tied to the location in which they occur! 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞. (2/11)

beautiful.

I'm also starting to migrate! Thanks for putting this together, Avi!