TY - JOUR
T1 - Functional Specialization of the Medial Temporal Lobes in Human Recognition Memory
T2 - Dissociating Effects of Hippocampal versus Parahippocampal Damage
AU - Argyropoulos, Georgios P.D.
AU - Dell'Acqua, Carola
AU - Butler, Emily
AU - Loane, Clare
AU - Roca-Fernandez, Adriana
AU - Almozel, Azhaar
AU - Drummond, Nikolas
AU - Lage-Martinez, Carmen
AU - Cooper, Elisa
AU - Henson, Richard N.
AU - Butler, Christopher R.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press.
PY - 2022/4/15
Y1 - 2022/4/15
N2 - A central debate in the systems neuroscience of memory concerns whether different medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures support different processes in recognition memory. Using two recognition memory paradigms, we tested a rare patient (MH) with a perirhinal lesion that appeared to spare the hippocampus. Consistent with a similar previous case, MH showed impaired familiarity and preserved recollection. When compared with patients with hippocampal lesions appearing to spare perirhinal cortex, MH showed greater impairment on familiarity and less on recollection. Nevertheless, the hippocampal patients also showed impaired familiarity compared with healthy controls. However, when replacing this traditional categorization of patients with analyses relating memory performance to continuous measures of damage across patients, hippocampal volume uniquely predicted recollection, whereas parahippocampal, rather than perirhinal, volume uniquely predicted familiarity. We consider whether the familiarity impairment in MH and our patients with hippocampal lesions arises from "subthreshold" damage to parahippocampal cortex (PHC). Our data provide the most compelling neuropsychological support yet for dual-process models of recognition memory, whereby recollection and familiarity depend on different MTL structures, and may support a role for PHC in familiarity. Our study highlights the value of supplementing single-case studies with examinations of continuous brain-behavior relationships across larger patient groups.
AB - A central debate in the systems neuroscience of memory concerns whether different medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures support different processes in recognition memory. Using two recognition memory paradigms, we tested a rare patient (MH) with a perirhinal lesion that appeared to spare the hippocampus. Consistent with a similar previous case, MH showed impaired familiarity and preserved recollection. When compared with patients with hippocampal lesions appearing to spare perirhinal cortex, MH showed greater impairment on familiarity and less on recollection. Nevertheless, the hippocampal patients also showed impaired familiarity compared with healthy controls. However, when replacing this traditional categorization of patients with analyses relating memory performance to continuous measures of damage across patients, hippocampal volume uniquely predicted recollection, whereas parahippocampal, rather than perirhinal, volume uniquely predicted familiarity. We consider whether the familiarity impairment in MH and our patients with hippocampal lesions arises from "subthreshold" damage to parahippocampal cortex (PHC). Our data provide the most compelling neuropsychological support yet for dual-process models of recognition memory, whereby recollection and familiarity depend on different MTL structures, and may support a role for PHC in familiarity. Our study highlights the value of supplementing single-case studies with examinations of continuous brain-behavior relationships across larger patient groups.
KW - amnesia
KW - familiarity
KW - memory
KW - MRI
KW - recollection
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126221477&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/cercor/bhab290
DO - 10.1093/cercor/bhab290
M3 - Article
C2 - 34535797
AN - SCOPUS:85126221477
SN - 1047-3211
VL - 32
SP - 1637
EP - 1652
JO - Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
JF - Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
IS - 8
ER -