Category‐specificity in the human medial temporal lobe cortex

Litman, Leib; Awipi, Tarimotimi; Davachi, Lila

doi:10.1002/hipo.20515

Cited by 97 publications

(128 citation statements)

References 55 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

106

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For example, fMRI studies have shown content specialization within the MTL cortex that is predictive of subsequent memory. Specifically, consistent with their differing connectivity with other cortical areas (Suzuki 2009), activity in the parahippocampal cortex at encoding has been shown to predict later memory for scenes, while activity in the perirhinal cortex at encoding predicts later memory for faces, objects (Litman et al 2009;Preston et al 2010;Staresina and Davachi 2010;Staresina et al 2011), and their associations (Staresina and Davachi 2008;Watson et al 2012). Convergent evidence suggests that such functional differentiation along the anteriorposterior axis of the MTL cortex is best understood as a continuous gradient; for example, Liang and colleagues (2013) showed that face/ object and scene representations are coded to differing degrees across the MTL cortex, with the greatest specialization for scene memory in the posterior parahippocampal region and greatest specialization for face/object processing in the perirhinal cortex (see also Lee et al 2008;Barense et al 2010).…”

Section: Testing Theories Of Mtl Functional Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 82%

Noninvasive Functional and Anatomical Imaging of the Human Medial Temporal Lobe

Brown

Staresina

Wagner

2015

Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The ability to remember life's events, and to leverage memory to guide behavior, defines who we are and is critical for everyday functioning. The neural mechanisms supporting such mnemonic experiences are multiprocess and multinetwork in nature, which creates challenges for studying them in humans and animals. Advances in noninvasive neuroimaging techniques have enabled the investigation of how specific neural structures and networks contribute to human memory at its many cognitive and mechanistic levels. In this review, we discuss how functional and anatomical imaging has provided novel insights into the types of information represented in, and the computations performed by, specific medial temporal lobe (MTL) regions, and we consider how interactions between the MTL and other cortical and subcortical structures influence what we learn and remember. By leveraging imaging, researchers have markedly advanced understanding of how the MTL subserves declarative memory and enables navigation of our physical and mental worlds.O ne of the central aims of cognitive neuroscience research is to understand how human brain function relates to the mnemonic experiences that define much of who we are as individuals. Recent advances in noninvasive human neuroimaging have given rise to novel insights about the neural foundations of human memory, and have allowed neuroscientists to draw important connections between human and nonhuman animal research. Although noninvasive imaging techniques remain limited in their spatial resolution (we cannot yet describe the behavior of individual neurons in the human brain without implanting electrodes in patients undergoing brain surgery), they also have important strengths that have allowed researchers to significantly advance mechanistic accounts of learning and memory. In this review, we begin with a historical perspective on noninvasive neuroimaging techniques and their application to the study of memory encoding. We then introduce more recent cutting-edge methodological approaches, as we discuss specific domains of memory theory that they have helped advance. Drawing on research examining the medial temporal lobe (MTL), we emphasize the power of such imaging techniques to allow scientists to make inferences about the types of mnemonic information represented by distinct brain areas, and to understand how the funcEditors: Eric R. Kandel, Yadin Dudai, and Mark R. Mayford Additional Perspectives on Learning and Memory available at

show abstract

Section: Testing Theories Of Mtl Functional Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 82%

Noninvasive Functional and Anatomical Imaging of the Human Medial Temporal Lobe

Brown

Staresina

Wagner

2015

Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, this does not rule out the possibility that PRC and PHC may still interact, e.g., via the dense projections from PHC to PRC (but less vice versa) (Suzuki and Amaral, 1994b). Furthermore, material sensitivity along the anteriorposterior MTL axis might be gradual rather than categorical (Litman et al, 2009). …”

Section: Perirhinal and Parahippocampal Cortexmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…3, 4), which may have several reasons. First, we did not directly present images from different categories (Litman et al, 2009) but used an abstract cue. Second, neighboring MTL regions may inhibit each other through interconnections (Suzuki and Amaral, 1994b;Burwell, 2000;Lavenex and Amaral, 2000), and higher PHC-MEC activation for scenes after distraction might thus lead to PRC-LEC deactivation, and vice versa.…”

Section: Domain Sensitivity and The Role Of Distractionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Human PRC and PHC may be differentially involved in nonspatial (object-related) versus spatial processing (Epstein and Kanwisher, 1998;Davachi et al, 2003;Eichenbaum et al, 2007;Ekstrom and Bookheimer, 2007;Awipi and Davachi, 2008;Litman et al, 2009;Duarte et al, 2011;Staresina et al, 2011), sometimes referred to as item/context processing (Davachi, 2006;Eichenbaum et al, 2007), domain-specificity (Davachi, 2006), or domain-sensitivity, given the relative nature of these functional preferences (Litman et al, 2009). In rodents, functional dissociations for spatial and nonspatial processing have been reported between MEC and LEC (Hargreaves et al, 2005;Deshmukh and Knierim, 2011), and even their hippocampal projection targets in proximal and distal CA1 (Henriksen et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Direct Evidence for Domain-Sensitive Functional Subregions in Human Entorhinal Cortex

Schultz

Sommer²,

Peters³

2012

J. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The medial temporal lobes (MTL) are known to play a crucial role in memory processes. Anatomical findings from animal studies suggest partially segregated MTL pathways converge in the hippocampus, with a posterior stream including parahippocampal and medial lateral entorhinal cortex and an anterior stream including perirhinal and lateral entorhinal cortex. These streams may operate on spatial and nonspatial information, respectively. In humans, such a functional dissociation has been suggested between parahippocampal and perirhinal cortex. Data from rodents and nonhuman primates suggest a similar dissociation between medial and lateral entorhinal cortex, which are reciprocally connected to parahippocampal and perirhinal cortex, but evidence for functional subregions within entorhinal cortex in humans is lacking. We addressed this issue using high-resolution fMRI with improved spatial normalization. Volunteers (n ϭ 28) performed a working memory paradigm involving the retrieval of spatial (scenes) and nonspatial (faces) information after distraction. A clear dissociation between MTL subcircuits emerged. A perirhinal-lateral entorhinal pathway was more involved in the retrieval of faces after distraction, whereas a parahippocampal-medial entorhinal pathway was more involved in the retrieval of scenes after distraction. A cluster in posterior hippocampus showed a deactivation for the retrieval of faces after distraction. Our data thus provide direct evidence for a functional specialization within human entorhinal cortex and thereby strongly support MTL models that emphasize the importance of partially segregated parallel processing streams.

show abstract

“…In the past decade, neuroimaging studies using stimuli with strong and weak contextual associations have identified the components and basic properties of the network that mediates context-based associations; studies (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18) have reported a core set of regions (Fig. 1A) that are activated by contextual associations: the parahippocampal cortex (PHC), the retrosplenial complex (RSC), and in some cases, the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Early onset of neural synchronization in the contextual associations network

Kveraga

Ghuman

Kassam

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

111

105

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objects are more easily recognized in their typical context. However, is contextual information activated early enough to facilitate the perception of individual objects, or is contextual facilitation caused by postperceptual mechanisms? To elucidate this issue, we first need to study the temporal dynamics and neural interactions associated with contextual processing. Studies have shown that the contextual network consists of the parahippocampal, retrosplenial, and medial prefrontal cortices. We used functional MRI, magnetoencephalography, and phase synchrony analyses to compare the neural response to stimuli with strong or weak contextual associations. The context network was activated in functional MRI and preferentially synchronized in magnetoencephalography (MEG) for stimuli with strong contextual associations. Phase synchrony increased early (150-250 ms) only when it involved the parahippocampal cortex, whereas retrosplenial-medial prefrontal cortices synchrony was enhanced later (300-400 ms). These results describe the neural dynamics of context processing and suggest that context is activated early during object perception.phase locking | oscillations | beta | visual cognition W e know from experience that specific contexts are associated with specific objects. Seeing a jumbo-sized bucket of popcorn in a movie theater would not surprise anyone familiar with American movie theaters. However, at the opera, champagne and chocolate might be the more common sight. Whether and how context can facilitate visual recognition has been the subject of much research and vigorous debate. Behavioral research studying the effects of contextual information in visual perception has shown that information about context can facilitate recognition of visual scenes and objects (1-5). However, Hollingworth and Henderson (6) have argued that at least some of this contextual facilitation is attributable to a response bias and that any contextual influence may be the result of later postidentification processes rather than early activation of contextual information during recognition (6, 7). Here, we address the central question of when in the recognition process contextual information is activated by examining the temporal dynamics of neural regions involved in processing contextual information. Furthermore, we use this information regarding the temporal dynamics of the areas involved in contextual processing to help elucidate the functions of the individual members of the context network.In the past decade, neuroimaging studies using stimuli with strong and weak contextual associations have identified the components and basic properties of the network that mediates context-based associations; studies (8-

show abstract

Category‐specificity in the human medial temporal lobe cortex

Cited by 97 publications

References 55 publications

Noninvasive Functional and Anatomical Imaging of the Human Medial Temporal Lobe

Noninvasive Functional and Anatomical Imaging of the Human Medial Temporal Lobe

Direct Evidence for Domain-Sensitive Functional Subregions in Human Entorhinal Cortex

Early onset of neural synchronization in the contextual associations network

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About