Selectively remembering or forgetting newly encountered information is essential for goal-directed behavior. It is still an open question, however, whether intentional forgetting is an active process based on the inhibition of unwanted memory traces or whether it occurs passively through reduced recruitment of selective rehearsal [1, 2]. Here, we show that intentional control of memory encoding relies on both, enhanced active inhibition and decreased selective rehearsal, and that these two processes can be separated in time and space. We applied representational similarity analysis (RSA [3]) and time-frequency analysis to EEG data during an item-method directed forgetting experiment [4]. We identified neural signatures of both, the intentional suppression and the voluntary upregulation of item-specific representations. Successful active forgetting was associated with a downregulation of item-specific representations in an early time window 500 ms after the instruction. This process was initiated by an increase in oscillatory alpha (8–13 Hz) power, a well-established signature of neural inhibition [5, 6], in occipital brain areas. During a later time window, 1500 ms after the cue, intentional forgetting was associated with reduced employment of active rehearsal processes, as reflected by an attenuated upregulation of item-specific representations as compared to intentionally encoded items. Our data show that active inhibition and selective rehearsal are two separate mechanisms whose consecutive employment allows for a voluntary control of memory formation.

选择性地记住或忘记新遇到的信息对于目标导向的行为至关重要。然而，有意遗忘是基于抑制不需要的记忆痕迹的主动过程还是通过减少选择性排练的招募而被动发生仍然是一个悬而未决的问题 [1, 2]。在这里，我们表明对记忆编码的有意控制依赖于增强的主动抑制和减少的选择性排练，并且这两个过程可以在时间和空间上分开。我们在项目方法定向遗忘实验 [4] 中对 EEG 数据应用了表征相似性分析 (RSA [3]) 和时频分析。我们确定了故意抑制和项目特定表示的自愿上调两者的神经特征。成功的主动遗忘与指令后 500 毫秒的早期时间窗口中项目特定表示的下调有关。这个过程是由振荡 alpha (8-13 Hz) 功率的增加启动的，这是一种公认​​的神经抑制特征 [5, 6]，在枕脑区域。在稍后的时间窗口内，即提示后 1500 毫秒，有意遗忘与主动排练过程的使用减少有关，与有意编码的项目相比，项目特定表示的减弱上调反映了这一点。我们的数据表明，主动抑制和选择性排练是两个独立的机制，它们的连续使用允许对记忆形成的自愿控制。