What "wins" in VMPFC: Scenes, situations, or schema?

Ciaramelli, Elisa; Luca, Flavia De; Monk, Anna M.; McCormick, Cornelia; Maguire, Eleanor A.

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.03.001

Cited by 69 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Furthermore, the observed tonic response of the vmPFC throughout the first two construction stages in our study may reflect the prediction and preparatory processing necessary for the subsequent integration of scene elements (Ciaramelli, De Luca, Monk, McCormick, & Maguire, 2019;McCormick, Ciaramelli, De Luca, & Maguire, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…Our findings also provide insights into the interactions between the anterior hippocampus and vmPFC during scene construction. McCormick, Ciaramelli, De Luca, & Maguire (2018) and Ciaramelli, De Luca, Monk, McCormick, & Maguire (2019) proposed that the vmPFC initiates the activation of schematic and other knowledge in neocortex that is relevant for a scene, whilst inhibiting elements that are not relevant. This information is conveyed to the hippocampus which constructs the scene.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If this is the case, then the hippocampus should drive activity in vmPFC during the earliest stage of scene construction, and perhaps also during the subseqent stages. This perspective stands in contrast to a model of scene construction that we have previously articulated (McCormick, Ciaramelli, De Luca, & Maguire, 2018;Ciaramelli, De Luca, Monk, McCormick, & Maguire, 2019). Within this architecture, vmPFC initiates the activation of schematic and other knowledge in neocortex that is relevant for a specific scene, while inhibiting elements that are not relevant.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…This is important to know because it directly informs theories of how the hippocampus and vmPFC operate and, as a consequence, how they enable cognitive functions such as episodic memory. One account, the scene construction theory, posits that scenes are preferentially processed by the hippocampus , with vmPFC driving hippocampal activity (Barry & Maguire, 2019a, 2019bCiaramelli, De Luca, Monk, McCormick, & Maguire, 2019;McCormick, Ciaramelli, De Luca, & Maguire, 2018). By contrast, the relational theory argues that it is the associating of multiple elements that requires hippocampal input, irrespective of whether scenes are the outcome of such processing (Cohen & Eichenbaum, 1993; see also Yonelinas, Ranganath, Ekstrom, & Wiltgen, 2019 for a related perspective).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of hippocampal-vmPFC neural dynamics in building mental representations

Monk

Dalton

Barnes

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The hippocampus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) play key roles in numerous cognitive domains including mind-wandering, episodic memory and imagining the future. Perspectives differ on precisely how they support these diverse functions, but there is general agreement that it involves constructing representations comprised of numerous elements. Visual scenes have been deployed extensively in cognitive neuroscience because they are paradigmatic multi-element stimuli. However, it remains unclear whether scenes, rather than other types of multi-feature stimuli, preferentially engage hippocampus and vmPFC. Here we leveraged the high temporal resolution of magnetoencephalography to test human female and male participants as they gradually built scene imagery from three successive auditorily-presented object descriptions and an imagined 3D space. This was contrasted with constructing mental images of non-scene arrays that were composed of three objects and an imagined 2D space. The scene and array stimuli were, therefore, highly matched in terms of content and the associative and constructive processes they evoked. Across the three construction stages, we observed scene-related modulation of theta power in anterior hippocampus during the initial stage, and in vmPFC during the first two stages, relative to array construction. Moreover, the scene-specific anterior hippocampal activity during the first construction stage was driven by the vmPFC, with mutual entrainment between the two brain regions thereafter. These findings suggest that hippocampal and vmPFC neural activity seems to be especially tuned to scene representations, with implications for theories of how these brain areas operate and enable cognitive functions such as episodic memory.Significance StatementThe hippocampus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) play key roles in numerous cognitive domains. It has been suggested they might be especially tuned to building scene representations, which may be the smallest functional units of extended mental events like episodic memories. To test this, we used a mental imagery paradigm during magnetoencephalography whereby different tasks were closely matched for associative processing and mental construction, but either did or did not evoke scene representations. We observed preferential engagement of anterior hippocampus and vmPFC for building scenes, particularly at the beginning of construction, with the process being orchestrated by vmPFC. These findings may have implications for theories of how these brain areas operate and enable cognitive functions such as episodic memory.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The role of hippocampal-vmPFC neural dynamics in building mental representations

Monk

Dalton

Barnes

et al. 2020

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…We speculate that this result might suggest that the vmPFC is a hierarchically superordinate structure that keeps track of scene processing (for a related idea see Robin & Moscovitch, 2017;Sekeres et al, 2018). In fact, we have suggested that the vmPFC may initiate scene construction processes in the hippocampus (Ciaramelli, De Luca, Monk, McCormick, & Maguire, 2019;McCormick, Ciaramelli, De Luca, & Maguire, 2018).…”

Section: Beyond the Hippocampusmentioning

confidence: 77%

Characterising the hippocampal response to perception, construction and complexity

McCormick

Dalton

Zeidman

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The precise role played by the hippocampus in supporting cognitive functions such as episodic memory and future thinking is debated, but there is general agreement that it involves constructing representations comprised of numerous elements. Visual scenes have been deployed extensively in cognitive neuroscience because they are paradigmatic multi-element stimuli. However, questions remain about the specificity and nature of the hippocampal response to scenes. Here, we devised a paradigm in which we had participants search pairs of images for either colour (perceptual) or layout (spatial constructive) differences. Importantly, images depicted either naturalistic scenes or phase-scrambled versions of the same scenes, and were either simple or complex. Using this paradigm during functional MRI scanning, we addressed three questions: 1. Is the hippocampus recruited specifically during scene processing? 2. If the hippocampus is more active in response to scenes, does the cognitive process (perception or construction) being engaged influence its activation? 3. If the hippocampus is upregulated during scene processing, does the complexity of the scenes affect its response? We found that, compared to phase-scrambled versions of the scenes, the hippocampus was more responsive to scene stimuli. Moreover, a clear anatomical distinction was evident, with scene perception engaging the posterior hippocampus and scene construction recruiting the anterior hippocampus. The complexity of the scenes did not influence hippocampal activity. These findings seem to align with perspectives that propose the hippocampus is especially attuned to scenes, and its involvement occurs irrespective of the cognitive process or the complexity of the scenes.

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Computational constraints on the associative recall of spatial scenes

et al. 2023

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We consider a model of associative storage and retrieval of compositional memories in an extended cortical network. Our model network is comprised of Potts units, which represent patches of cortex, interacting through long-range connections. The critical assumption is that a memory, for example of a spatial view, is composed of a limited number of items, each of which has a pre-established representation: storing a new memory only involves acquiring the connections, if novel, among the participating items. The model is shown to have a much lower storage capacity than when it stores simple unitary representations. It is also shown that an input from the hippocampus facilitates associative retrieval. When it is absent, it is advantageous to cue rare rather than frequent items. The implications of these results for emerging trends in empirical research are discussed.

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What "wins" in VMPFC: Scenes, situations, or schema?

Cited by 69 publications

References 6 publications

The role of hippocampal-vmPFC neural dynamics in building mental representations

The role of hippocampal-vmPFC neural dynamics in building mental representations

Characterising the hippocampal response to perception, construction and complexity

Computational constraints on the associative recall of spatial scenes

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