Multivariate fMRI and Eye Tracking Reveal Differential Effects of Visual Interference on Recognition Memory Judgments for Objects and Scenes

Abstract

Recent work has demonstrated that the perirhinal cortex (PRC) supports conjunctive object representations that aid object recognition memory following visual object interference. It is unclear, however, how these representations interact with other brain regions implicated in mnemonic retrieval and how congruent and incongruent interference influences the processing of targets and foils during object recognition. To address this, multivariate partial least squares was applied to fMRI data acquired during an interference match-to-sample task, in which participants made object or scene recognition judgments after object or scene interference. This revealed a pattern of activity sensitive to object recognition following congruent (i.e., object) interference that included PRC, prefrontal, and parietal regions. Moreover, functional connectivity analysis revealed a common pattern of PRC connectivity across interference and recognition conditions. Examination of eye movements during the same task in a separate study revealed that participants gazed more at targets than foils during correct object recognition decisions, regardless of interference congruency. By contrast, participants viewed foils more than targets for incorrect object memory judgments, but only after congruent interference. Our findings suggest that congruent interference makes object foils appear familiar and that a network of regions, including PRC, is recruited to overcome the effects of interference.

Early cognitive decline in older adults better predicts object than scene recognition performance

“…Consistent with past research in younger adults (Watson and Lee, 2013;O'Neil et al, 2015), we found that across all participants, object interference had a detrimental impact on object recognition relative to scene recognition (Fig. 3B).…”

“…This task was adapted from previous studies (Watson and Lee, ; O'Neil et al, b) and with these adaptations, we found that object and scene recognition were no longer equated in difficulty, and that object recognition resulted in higher performance than scene recognition in a group of young adults. That is, we found that condition most closely associated with cognitive status was actually easier.…”

“…These findings take advantage of an emerging body of evidence suggesting that the role of the MTL is not limited to long‐term memory (Hannula et al, ; Hartley et al, ; Olsen et al, ). That the MTL is engaged in remembering an image across a short delay interval has been shown, specifically under conditions of visual interference, even with no mnemonic demands (Barense et al, ; Watson and Lee, ; O'Neil et al, ). We suggest that interference obviates the ability to use simple visual features to solve the task, regardless of the time delay.…”

The effects of sleep on the neural correlates of pattern separation

“…The DLPFC has been shown to be involved in memory retrieval (Dudukovic & Kuhl, ), and in particular it has been implicated in retrieval success, as demonstrated in a large meta‐analysis by Spaniol and colleagues (Spaniol et al, ). In a recent study, O'Neil, Watson, Dhillon, Lobaugh, and Lee () showed that the DLPFC, perirhinal cortex, and posterior parietal lobe are preferentially recruited under conditions of high visual interference, similar to the mnemonic similarity task used in the present study. Our results extend this finding by showing that the DLPFC is even more critical following a 12‐hr waking delay as compared to a delay that contains sleep.…”

Neuroimaging as a biomarker in symptom validity and performance validity testing

“…The added information that neuroimaging and potentially other biomarkers may provide in interpreting SVT/PVT findings, should be the focus of large studies with varied populations of individuals, disorders and neuroimaging findings. Furthermore, the burgeoning fields of functional neuroimaging and electrophysiological techniques including eyetracking that examine the genuineness of cognitive performance has important implications for validity determination (Astafiev et al 2015;Matthews et al 2015;O'Neil et al 2015;van Hooft and Born 2012). This literature was only touched upon and not systematically reviewed.…”