Interactions between Visual Attention and Episodic Retrieval: Dissociable Contributions of Parietal Regions during Gist-Based False Recognition

Abstract

SUMMARY The interaction between episodic retrieval and visual attention is relatively unexplored. Given that systems mediating attention and episodic memory appear to be segregated, and perhaps even in competition, it is unclear how visual attention is recruited during episodic retrieval. We investigated the recruitment of visual attention during the suppression of gist-based false recognition, the tendency to falsely recognize items that are similar to previously encountered items. Recruitment of visual attention was associated with activity in the dorsal attention network. The inferior parietal lobule, often implicated in episodic retrieval, tracked veridical retrieval of perceptual detail and showed reduced activity during the engagement of visual attention, consistent with a competitive relationship with the dorsal attention network. These findings suggest that the contribution of the parietal cortex to interactions between visual attention and episodic retrieval entails distinct systems that contribute to different components of the task while also suppressing each other.

Episodic specificity induction impacts activity in a core brain network during construction of imagined future experiences

“…Like the anterior hippocampus, the inferior parietal lobule has been implicated in studies in which participants imagine events in more specific (vs. more general) detail (19), particularly during the construction phase (21). The inferior parietal lobule is also part of the MTL subsystem that is thought to track with episodic memory, event imagination, and scene content (15), and activity in this region has been associated with the successful retrieval and integration of perceptual details from memory (20). In a related topic, we found evidence that activity in the right ventral precuneus increased following the specificity induction relative to the control for imagined events.…”

“…In light of our behavioral characterization of the specificity induction, we hypothesize and test here that (i) this induction should impact primarily structures within the MTL subsystem, in particular those regions-the hippocampus and inferior parietal lobule-that have been linked previously to detailed episodic retrieval and to imagining of specific (vs. general) future events (18)(19)(20). Moreover, our behavioral characterization of the specificity induction as affecting primarily participants' retrieval orientation when they construct mental events or scenes leads us to predict that (ii) these effects will be observed mainly during the initial construction of an event.…”

Priming by the variability of visual information

“…First, variance adaptation may depend on high-level representations in the ventral stream that have extracted abstract, correlated structure throughout visual development, and come to represent the variance in a fashion untied to the specific input (42). Second, variance adaptation may depend on dorsal stream structures that are conjectured to support gist-based retrieval (43) and are involved in controlling covert attention and saccadic exploration of a scene (44). We hope that future research will arbitrate among these possibilities.…”

Memory and law: what can cognitive neuroscience contribute?

“…Participants in these experiments typically classify the old items as 'old' much more frequently than they classify the new, unrelated items as 'old', which constitutes evidence for true or veridical memory. The critical result is that participants also classify new, related items as 'old' much more frequently than new, unrelated items; these incorrect responses to the related items constitute evidence for false memories (e.g., [24][25][26][27] ). Other neuroimaging studies have examined false memories that result from confusing perception and imagination 28,29 .…”

“…For example, several studies have reported that brain regions involved in encoding or retrieving sensory-perceptual information tend to be more active during retrieval of true than false memories (e.g., [24][25][26][27]29,32 ).…”