Hindering Memory Suppression by Perturbing the Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex

A reminder of the past can trigger the involuntary retrieval of an unwanted memory. Yet, we can intentionally stop this process and thus prevent the memory from entering awareness. Such suppression not only transiently hinders the retrieval of the memory, it can also induce forgetting. Neuroimaging has implicated the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) in initiating this process. Specifically, this region seems to downregulate activity in brain systems that would otherwise support memory reinstatement. Here, we probed the causal contribution of the right dlPFC to suppression by combining the think/no-think task with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Participants first learned pairs of cue and target words and then repeatedly recalled some of the targets (think condition) and suppressed others (no-think condition). We applied 10-Hz rTMS bursts to the right dlPFC during the suppression of half the no-think items and to the contralateral primary motor area (M1) as an active control site during the other half. As hypothesized, participants experienced less success at keeping the memories out of awareness with concurrent dlPFC than M1 stimulation. Similarly, a memory test yielded evidence for suppression-induced forgetting (SIF) following M1 but not dlPFC stimulation. However, the difference in forgetting between the stimulation conditions was not significant. The study thus provides causal evidence for the role of the dlPFC in preventing retrieval. Future work will need to conclusively establish the relationship between this transient effect and SIF.