Recollection, Familiarity, and Cortical Reinstatement: A Multivoxel Pattern Analysis

Abstract

Summary Episodic memory retrieval is thought to involve reinstatement of the neurocognitive processes engaged when an episode was encoded. Prior fMRI studies and computational models have suggested that reinstatement is limited to instances in which specific episodic details are recollected. We used multi-voxel pattern-classification analyses of fMRI data to investigate how reinstatement is associated with different memory judgments, particularly those accompanied by recollection versus a feeling of familiarity (when recollection is absent). Classifiers were trained to distinguish between brain activity patterns associated with different encoding tasks, and were subsequently applied to recognition-related fMRI data to determine the degree to which patterns were reinstated. Reinstatement was evident during both recollection- and familiarity-based judgments, providing clear evidence that reinstatement is not sufficient for eliciting a recollective experience. The findings are interpreted as support for a continuous, recollection-related neural signal that has been central to recent debate over the nature of recognition memory processes.

Influence of reward motivation on human declarative memory

“…Studies on the interactions between the two memory systems in humans suggest that increased functional connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and the striatum are a hallmark of the emergence of explicit knowledge (Rose et al, 2010), while others stipulate that implicit memory may simply be viewed as sub-threshold activation of the same neural circuit as in explicit declarative memory (i.e., the MTL) (Johnson et al, 2009). …”

The impact of auditory distraction on retrieval of visual memories

“…Neural evidence based on fMRI data supports this interpretation by showing that recollection involves the reinstatement of activity in visual cortices associated with the encoding of a prior event (Johnson, McDuff, Rugg, & Norman, 2009;Johnson & Rugg, 2007;Wheeler & Buckner, 2004). In the context of recent data that show that reconstruction of detailed memory is disrupted by the influence of irrelevant external information (Wais et al, 2010;Wais, Kim, & Gazzaley, 2011), an interesting and unanswered question is whether diminished performance is the result of interference at sensory-modality-specific stages of representational processing or, more generally, at processes involved in the selection of goal-relevant details retrieved from LTM (i.e., mnemonic selection).…”

Memory Retrieval in Mice and Men

“…Notably, reinstatement of activity patterns during retrieval has been found to occur in the absence of subjective recollection (Johnson et al 2009) as well as in situations of competing memories (Kuhl et al 2011(Kuhl et al , 2012, suggesting that reinstatement may occur even in implicit retrieval. The increased spatial resolution afforded by such multivariate approaches enables investigation of event-specific cortical reinstatement.…”