TY - JOUR
T1 - Successful remembering elicits event-specific activity patterns in lateral parietal cortex
AU - Kuhl, Brice A.
AU - Chun, Marvin M.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Remembering a past event involves reactivation of content-specific patterns of neural activity in high-level perceptual regions (e.g., ventral temporal cortex, VTC). In contrast, the subjective experience of vivid remembering is typically associated with increased activity in lateral parietal cortex (LPC)-"retrieval success effects" that are thought to generalize across content types. However, the functional significance of LPC activation during memory retrieval remains a subject of active debate. In particular, theories are divided with respect to whether LPC actively represents retrieved content or if LPC activity only scales with content reactivation elsewhere (e.g., VTC). Here, we report a human fMRI study of visual memory recall (faces vs scenes) in which complementary forms of multivoxel pattern analysis were used to test for and compare content reactivation within LPC and VTC. During recall of visual images, we observed robust reactivation of broad category information (face vs scene) in both VTC and LPC. Moreover, recall-related activity patterns in LPC, but not VTC, differentiated between individual events. Importantly, these content effects were particularly evident in areas of LPC (namely, angular gyrus) in which activity scaled with subjective reports of recall vividness. These findings provide striking evidence that LPC not only signals that memories have been successfully recalled, but actively represents what is being remembered.
AB - Remembering a past event involves reactivation of content-specific patterns of neural activity in high-level perceptual regions (e.g., ventral temporal cortex, VTC). In contrast, the subjective experience of vivid remembering is typically associated with increased activity in lateral parietal cortex (LPC)-"retrieval success effects" that are thought to generalize across content types. However, the functional significance of LPC activation during memory retrieval remains a subject of active debate. In particular, theories are divided with respect to whether LPC actively represents retrieved content or if LPC activity only scales with content reactivation elsewhere (e.g., VTC). Here, we report a human fMRI study of visual memory recall (faces vs scenes) in which complementary forms of multivoxel pattern analysis were used to test for and compare content reactivation within LPC and VTC. During recall of visual images, we observed robust reactivation of broad category information (face vs scene) in both VTC and LPC. Moreover, recall-related activity patterns in LPC, but not VTC, differentiated between individual events. Importantly, these content effects were particularly evident in areas of LPC (namely, angular gyrus) in which activity scaled with subjective reports of recall vividness. These findings provide striking evidence that LPC not only signals that memories have been successfully recalled, but actively represents what is being remembered.
KW - Angular gyrus
KW - Decoding
KW - MVPA
KW - Memory reactivation
KW - Parietal cortex
KW - Recall
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84901796022&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84901796022&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4328-13.2014
DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4328-13.2014
M3 - Article
C2 - 24899726
AN - SCOPUS:84901796022
SN - 0270-6474
VL - 34
SP - 8051
EP - 8060
JO - Journal of Neuroscience
JF - Journal of Neuroscience
IS - 23
ER -