The hippocampus and visual perception

Abstract

In this review, we will discuss the idea that the hippocampus may be involved in both memory and perception, contrary to theories that posit functional and neuroanatomical segregation of these processes. This suggestion is based on a number of recent neuropsychological and functional neuroimaging studies that have demonstrated that the hippocampus is involved in the visual discrimination of complex spatial scene stimuli. We argue that these findings cannot be explained by long-term memory or working memory processing or, in the case of patient findings, dysfunction beyond the medial temporal lobe (MTL). Instead, these studies point toward a role for the hippocampus in higher-order spatial perception. We suggest that the hippocampus processes complex conjunctions of spatial features, and that it may be more appropriate to consider the representations for which this structure is critical, rather than the cognitive processes that it mediates.

Evidencing a place for the hippocampus within the core scene processing network

“…While focussing on the putative scene processing network namely PHG, RSC, and TOS, we make a further novel contribution to the literature by evaluating also the response profile of the HC, which has recently been identified as critical for successful higher‐order scene perception [Lee et al, 2012]. By concatenating functional localiser data across multiple studies, we were able to characterise—within a large sample—the frequency and spatial consistency of individual scene‐sensitive activations in these regions.…”

“…The hippocampus (HC) is also considered to play an important role in scene processing [Bird and Burgess, 2008; Lee et al, 2012; O'Keefe and Nadel, 1978]. Beyond the seminal work in both rats and non‐human primates—which identified HC cells attuned to allocentric location [O'Keefe and Nadel, 1978] and spatial view [Rolls, 1999]—recent models of human medial temporal lobe (MTL) function highlight the HC as an important structure for scene processing, via a proposed role in representing complex and conjunctive scene stimuli [Graham et al, 2010; Lee et al, 2012; Murray et al, 2007] and/or by contributions to viewpoint‐independent scene construction [Bird and Burgess, 2008; Maguire and Mullally, 2013; Zeidman et al, 2015].…”

“…Beyond the seminal work in both rats and non‐human primates—which identified HC cells attuned to allocentric location [O'Keefe and Nadel, 1978] and spatial view [Rolls, 1999]—recent models of human medial temporal lobe (MTL) function highlight the HC as an important structure for scene processing, via a proposed role in representing complex and conjunctive scene stimuli [Graham et al, 2010; Lee et al, 2012; Murray et al, 2007] and/or by contributions to viewpoint‐independent scene construction [Bird and Burgess, 2008; Maguire and Mullally, 2013; Zeidman et al, 2015]. These complex HC scene representations have been shown to support behavioural performance across a range of cognitive domains, including recognition memory [Bird et al, 2008; Taylor et al, 2007], short‐term memory [Hannula et al, 2006; Hartley et al, 2007], working memory [Lee and Rudebeck, 2010a, 2010b; Park et al, 2003], perceptual learning [Mundy et al, 2013], higher‐order perception [Aly et al, 2013; Barense et al, 2005, 2010; Kolarik et al, 2016; Lee et al, 2005b] and scene imagination [Hassabis et al, 2007].…”

The perirhinal cortex modulates V2 activity in response to the agreement between part familiarity and configuration familiarity

“…In recent years, however, an alternative view has emerged. This view holds that the perirhinal cortex (PRC) represents complex object-level configurations assembled from features represented at lower levels of the visual hierarchy, and that these complex configurations subserve both perception and memory (e.g., Murray et al, 2007;Baxter, 2009;Cowell et al, 2010a;Graham et al, 2010;Lee et al, 2012;Murray and Wise, 2012). Accumulating evidence supports this alternative view; however, many of the tasks used to test perception have a substantial working memory component and thus, may support the less transformational view that the PRCs role extends to working memory but not to perception.…”

Analysis for Science Librarians of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: The Life and Work of John O’Keefe, Edvard Moser, and May-Britt Moser

“…It has been shown to affect memory and learning, perception, place learning, navigation, responsiveness to the environment (orienting reflex), and approach behavior (Eichenbaum, Otto, and Cohen 1992;Lee, Yeung, and Barense 2012;Vanderwolf 1969). It is also known that this part of the brain is affected early on in diseases such as Alzheimer's (Nobelprize.org 2014a).…”