Identifying the cognitive processes underpinning hippocampal-dependent tasks

Abstract

Autobiographical memory, future thinking and spatial navigation are critical cognitive functions that are thought to be related, and are known to depend upon a brain structure called the hippocampus. Surprisingly, direct evidence for their interrelatedness is lacking, as is an understanding of why they might be related. There is debate about whether they are linked by an underlying memory-related process or, as has more recently been suggested, because they each require the endogenous construction of scene imagery. Here, using a large sample of participants and multiple cognitive tests with a wide spread of individual differences in performance, we found that these functions are indeed related. Mediation analyses further showed that scene construction, and not memory, mediated (explained) the relationships between the functions. These findings offer a fresh perspective on autobiographical memory, future thinking, navigation, and also on the hippocampus, where scene imagery appears to play an influential role.

On the relationship between autobiographical episodic memory and spatial navigation

“…A limitation to these findings is the use of self-report, although our navigation measure corresponds to performance-based measures (Selarka et al, 2019). Moreover, our findings are in accord with those reported in relation to spatial navigation performance (Clark et al, 2019), and AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EPISODIC MEMORY AND NAVIGATION 16 we conducted detailed control analyses to rule out several alternative explanations, such as an overall social desirability bias in self-report (supplemental materials). Another caveat to our interpretation is that our measure of navigation ability focused on navigating familiar environments, whereas the cognitive map theory literature largely studies new-route-learning; and the OSIQ-object scale focuses on measuring imagery vividness, while scene construction theory also emphasizes the coherent integration of scene components.…”

“…Aydin (2018) found that object imagery was related to AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EPISODIC MEMORY AND NAVIGATION 15 phenomenological characteristics such as the level of sensory and perceptual details retrieved in relation to past experiences, whereas spatial imagery predicted the level of episodic specificity of past events. Clark et al (2019) reported that navigation performance dissociated from autobiographical memory retrieval and scene construction, and they speculated that navigation reflects schematic, spatial imagery whereas autobiographical memory draws upon vivid imagery for objects and scenes. Our present findings support this contention: vivid object imagery was associated with rich self-reported episodic autobiographical memory, while spatial imagery tapped into the relatively independent construct of navigational ability.…”

“…These two influential bodies of research emphasize different aspects of spatial memory: map-like spatial representations versus memory for contexts and scenes. Studying individual differences in these abilities can provide a theoretical framework in which to understand the relative contributions of different aspects of spatial processing to memory retrieval (Underwood, 1975), but there has been relatively little research on the relationship between spatial and episodic autobiographical memory abilities across individuals (for exception, see Clark et al, 2019). In the present report, we use an individual differences approach among healthy adults to evaluate the relationships between spatial cognition and episodic autobiographical memory.…”

“…An implication of this view might be that strong navigation abilities correspond to better episodic memory. While little research exists to address this possibility, some evidence suggests that this is not the case (Berntsen, Hoyle, & Rubin, 2019;Clark et al, 2019;Palombo, Williams, Abdi, & Levine, 2013).…”

Characterising the hippocampal response to perception, construction and complexity

“…In addition, scenes are a highly efficient means of packaging information. Clark et al (2019) recently reported that the ability to construct scene imagery explained the relationships between episodic memory, imagining the future and spatial navigation task performance. The prominence of scenes was further emphasised in another study involving the same sample, where the explicit strategies people used to perform episodic memory recall, future thinking and spatial navigation tasks was assessed (Clark, Monk, & Maguire, preprint).…”