Building Memory Representations for Exemplar-Based Judgment: A Role for Ventral Precuneus

Abstract

The brain networks underlying human multiple-cue judgment , the judgment of a continuous criterion based on multiple cues, have been examined in a few recent studies, and the ventral precuneus has been found to be a key region. Specifically, activation differences in ventral precuneus (as measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI) has been linked to an exemplar-based judgment process, where judgments are based on memory for previous similar cases. Ventral precuneus is implicated in various episodic memory processes, notably such that increased activity during learning in this region as well as in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the medial temporal lobes (MTL) have been linked to retrieval success. The present study used fMRI during a multiple-cue judgment task to gain novel neurocognitive evidence informative for the link between learning-related activity changes in ventral precuneus and exemplar-based judgment. Participants ( N = 27) spontaneously learned to make judgments during fMRI, in a multiple-cue judgment task specifically designed to induce exemplar-based processing. Contrasting brain activity during late learning to early learning revealed higher activity in ventral precuneus, the bilateral MTL, and the vmPFC. Activity in the ventral precuneus and the vmPFC was found to parametrically increase between each judgment event, and activity levels in the ventral precuneus predicted performance after learning. These results are interpreted such that the ventral precuneus supports the aspects of exemplar-based processes that are related to episodic memory, tentatively by building, storing, and being implicated in retrieving memory representations for judgment.

Competitive retrieval strategy causes multimodal response distributions in multiple-cue judgments.

“…These instructions may limit the generality of CX-COM as a judgment model. However, the importance of exemplar-based processes in multiple-cue judgments studies without strategy instructions has been frequently demonstrated (Bröder & Gräf, 2018;Hoffmann et al, 2014Hoffmann et al, , 2016Juslin et al, 2008;Karlsson et al, 2007;McDaniel et al, 2018;Stillesjö, Nyberg, & Wirebring, 2019). Furthermore, a thorough, qualitative analysis of previous empirical evidence demonstrates that CX-COM can cover a broader variety of empirical findings (e.g., Juslin et al, 2008), including results that have been taken as evidence for transitions between exemplar memory and cue knowledge.…”

Chronic pain domains and their relationship to personality, abilities, and brain networks

“…Vachon-Presseau et al 94 show parahippocampal gyrus involvement in anticipatory anxiety and associative learning, traits that both determine pain quality experiences. The precuneus cortex is traditionally known to be involved with reflection and episodic memory, 17,82,102 and volumetric studies also show plasticity therein related to chronic pain. 54 Overall, connectivity relating to pain quality was more local than functional connectivity predicting the other pain domains, consistent with the notion that it may be better related to nociceptive characteristics.…”

Linking Models with Brain Measures

“…This approach is standard in mathematical psychology (Pitt et al, 2002), but can also be done in cognitive neuroscience. For example, Mack and colleagues (Mack et al, 2013) formally evaluated whether the representations in an exemplar or prototype model best matched the BOLD response and found the exemplar model was more consistent (also see Stillesjö et al, 2019). In such cases, brain data can help adjudicate between competing models when behavioural data alone cannot (Ditterich, 2010;Mack et al, 2013;Purcell et al, 2012).…”