Primed but Not Remembered: Encoding Activity Leading to Remembering Versus Priming as Revealed by Combined EEG/meg Recordings

Abstract:
Abstract: Magdeburg, Germany EEG and MEG were recorded from subjects while they were performing an incidental learning task. Words were processed either deeply (pleasantness judgment) or shallowly (syllable counting). The EEG/MEG encoding data were sorted as a function of performance and awareness of study-list membership in a subsequent stem completion task. Here subjects tried to complete three-letter word stems as words from the study list, and made yes/no judgments about whether they remembered their completions from that list. Correctly completed and remembered words elicited a frontal positivity (Dm effect) in a time window ranging from approx. 700 to 1100 ms. Priming without awareness of study list membership, however, was associated with a long-lasting centro-parietal negativity starting at ca. 600 ms. These findings provide evidence for distinct neural mechanisms underlying episodic memory encoding and verbal priming.