Feeling-of-Knowing In Episodic Memory: An Event-Related FMRI Study (original) (raw)

Event-related fMRI studies of episodic encoding and retrieval: Meta-analyses using activation likelihood estimation

Neuropsychologia, 2009

The recent surge in event-related fMRI studies of episodic memory has generated a wealth of information about the neural correlates of encoding and retrieval processes. However, interpretation of individual studies is hampered by methodological differences, and by the fact that sample sizes are typically small. We submitted results from studies of episodic memory in healthy young adults, published between 1998 and 2007, to a voxel-wise quantitative meta-analysis using activation likelihood estimation [Laird, A. R., McMillan, K. M., Lancaster, J. L., Kochunov, P., Turkeltaub, P. E., & Pardo, J. V., et al. (2005). A comparison of label-based review and ALE meta-analysis in the stroop task. Human Brain Mapping, 25, 6-21]. We conducted separate meta-analyses for four contrasts of interest: episodic encoding success as measured in the subsequent-memory paradigm (subsequent Hit vs. Miss), episodic retrieval success (Hit vs. Correct Rejection), objective recollection (e.g., Source Hit vs. Item Hit), and subjective recollection (e.g., Remember vs. Know). Concordance maps revealed significant cross-study overlap for each contrast. In each case, the left hemisphere showed greater concordance than the right hemisphere. Both encoding and retrieval success were associated with activation in medial-temporal, prefrontal, and parietal regions. Left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and medial-temporal regions were more strongly involved in encoding, whereas left superior parietal and dorsolateral and anterior PFC regions were more strongly involved in retrieval. Objective recollection was associated with activation in multiple PFC regions, as well as multiple posterior parietal and medial-temporal areas, but not hippocampus. Subjective recollection, in contrast, showed left hippocampal involvement. In summary, these results identify broadly consistent activation patterns associated with episodic encoding and retrieval, and subjective and objective recollection, but also subtle differences among these processes.

Retrieval Success is Accompanied by Enhanced Activation in Anterior Prefrontal Cortex During Recognition Memory: An Event-Related fMRI Study

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2000

& Neural regions associated with retrieval success were identified using event-related fMRI procedures and randomly ordered trials on a recognition memory test. Differences between hits and correct rejections (CRs) occurred in multiple regions, including bilateral anterior and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, bilateral inferior parietal cortex, and right superior parietal cortex (all hits > CRs), and right occipital cortex (CRs > hits). The hit > CR pattern is not compromised by time-on-task explanations because response latencies for correctly rejected words exceeded those for hits. Converging evidence for the claim that the hit > CR pattern identified neural correlates of retrieval success was obtained by unconfounding item history and retrieval success. That is, we implemented a third condition in which nonstudied words were presented, yet retrieval success was hypothesized to facilitate CRs of these lures. Specifically, when confronted with a familiar, yet nonstudied word, (e.g., nosedive after studying nosebleed and skydive), subjects might adopt a strategy whereby they recall the studied word(s) that gave rise to the familiarity (nosebleed, skydive) and thereby reject the lure. This method of instantiating retrieval success under conditions in which the target word had not been studied offers converging evidence for the claim that anterior-prefrontal cortex (among other regions) demonstrates enhanced activation during retrieval success. &

Incidental Memory Encoding Assessed with Signal Detection Theory and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 2015

In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies that apply a "subsequent memory" approach, successful encoding is indicated by increased fMRI activity during the encoding phase for hits vs. misses, in areas underlying memory encoding such as the hippocampal formation. Signal-detection theory (SDT) can be used to analyze memoryrelated fMRI activity as a function of the participant's memory trace strength (d). The goal of the present study was to use SDT to examine the relationship between fMRI activity during incidental encoding and participants' recognition performance. To implement a new approach, post-experimental group assignment into High-or Low Performers (HP or LP) was based on 29 healthy participants' recognition performance, assessed with SDT. The analyses focused on the interaction between the factors group (HP vs. LP) and recognition performance (hits vs. misses). A whole-brain analysis revealed increased activation for HP vs. LP during incidental encoding for remembered vs. forgotten items (hits > misses) in the insula/temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) and the fusiform gyrus (FFG). Parameter estimates in these regions exhibited a significant positive correlation with d. As these brain regions are highly relevant for salience detection (insula), stimulus-driven attention (TPJ), and content-specific processing of mnemonic stimuli (FFG), we suggest that HPs' elevated memory performance was associated with enhanced attentional and content-specific sensory processing during the encoding phase. We provide first correlative evidence that encoding-related activity in content-specific sensory areas and content-independent attention and salience detection areas influences memory performance in a task with incidental encoding of facial stimuli. Based on our findings, we discuss whether the aforementioned group differences in brain activity during incidental encoding might constitute the basis of general differences in memory performance between HP and LP.

Encoding-retrieval overlap in human episodic memory: a functional neuroimaging perspective

Progress in brain research, 2008

The principle of transfer-appropriate processing and the cortical reinstatement hypothesis are two influential theoretical frameworks, articulated at the psychological and neurobiological levels of explanation, respectively, that each propose that the processes supporting the encoding and retrieval of episodic information are strongly interdependent. Here, we integrate these two frameworks into a single model that generates predictions that can be tested using functional neuroimaging methods in healthy humans, and then go on to describe findings that are in accord with these predictions. Consistent with the transfer-appropriate processing and cortical reinstatement frameworks, the neural correlates of successful encoding vary according to how retrieval is cued, and the neural correlates of retrieval are modulated by how items are encoded. Thus, encoding and retrieval should not be viewed as separate stages of memory that can be investigated in isolation from one another.

Memory orientation and success: separable neurocognitive components underlying episodic recognition

Neuropsychologia, 2003

Episodic recognition can be based on recollection of contextual details, on a sense of recent encounter, or some combination of the two. According to several cognitive models, selectively attending to these distinct aspects of memory may require different retrieval orientations and result in different neural responses depending upon whether or not retrieval is successful. Using event-related fMRI, we examined retrieval orientation by having subjects discriminate between two test words in one of two manners. During source recollection, they selected the member of the pair previously associated with a particular encoding task. In contrast, recency judgment required selection of the most recently encountered item of the pair, regardless of how it had been encoded. Furthermore, successful and unsuccessful trials within each retrieval task were contrasted to determine whether retrieval success effects occurred in overlapping or dissimilar neural populations compared to those associated with each retrieval orientation. The results revealed distinct lateral prefrontal and parietal activations that distinguished attempted source recollection from judgments of relative recency; these orientation effects were largely independent of retrieval success. In contrast, medial temporal lobe structures (hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus) were differentially more active during successful recollection of encoding context, showing similar reduced responses during failed source recollection and judgments of recency. These results indicate that different memory orientations recruit distinct prefrontal and parietal networks and that the recovery of episodic context is associated with the hippocampus and surrounding medial temporal cortices.

Prefrontal cortex and recognition memory. Functional-MRI evidence for context-dependent retrieval processes

Brain, 1998

Functional neuroimaging studies of episodic recognition memory consistently demonstrate retrieval-associated activation in right prefrontal regions, including the right anterior and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortices. In theory, these activations could reflect processes associated with retrieval success, retrieval effort or retrieval attempt; each of these hypotheses has some support from previous studies. In Experiment 1, we examined these functional interpretations using functional MRI to measure prefrontal activation across multiple levels of recognition performance. Results revealed similar patterns of right prefrontal activation across varying levels of retrieval success and retrieval effort, suggesting that these activations reflect retrieval attempt. Retrieval attempt may include initiation of retrieval search or evaluation of the products of retrieval, such as scrutiny of specific attributes of the test item in an effort to determine whether it was encountered previously. In Experiment 2, we examined whether engagement of retrieval attempt is Abbreviations: AC ϭ anterior commissure; ANOVA ϭ analysis of variance; APC ϭ anterior prefrontal cortex; BA ϭ Brodmann area; DLPC ϭ dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; ERP ϭ event-related potential; fMRI ϭ functional MRI; rCBF ϭ regional cerebral blood flow

Encoding and the Durability of Episodic Memory: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Journal of Neuroscience, 2005

Memories vary in their durability even when encoding conditions apparently remain constant. We investigated whether, under these circumstances, memory durability is nonetheless associated with variation in the neural activity elicited during encoding. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired while volunteers semantically classified visually presented words. Using the "remember/know" procedure, memory for one-half of the words was tested after 30 min and for the remaining half after 48 h. In several regions, including left hippocampus and left dorsal inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), activity at encoding differed depending on whether items were later recollected regardless of study-test delay. Delay-selective effects were also evident, however. Recollection after 48 h was associated with enhanced activity in bilateral ventral IFG, whereas recollection after 30 min was associated with greater fusiform activity. Thus, there is a relationship between the neural activity elicited by an event as it is encoded and the durability of the resulting memory representation.