Two distinct scene processing networks connecting vision and memory

Abstract

Visual AbstractA number of regions in the human brain are known to be involved in processing natural scenes, but the field has lacked a unifying framework for understanding how these different regions are organized and interact. We provide evidence from functional connectivity and meta-analyses for a new organizational principle, in which scene processing relies upon two distinct networks that split the classically defined parahippocampal place area (PPA). The first network of strongly connected regions consists of the occipital place area/transverse occipital sulcus and posterior PPA, which contain retinotopic maps and are not strongly coupled to the hippocampus at rest. The second network consists of the caudal inferior parietal lobule, retrosplenial complex, and anterior PPA, which connect to the hippocampus (especially anterior hippocampus), and are implicated in both visual and nonvisual tasks, including episodic memory and navigation. We propose that these two distinct networks capture the primary functional division among scene-processing regions, between those that process visual features from the current view of a scene and those that connect information from a current scene view with a much broader temporal and spatial context. This new framework for understanding the neural substrates of scene-processing bridges results from many lines of research, and makes specific functional predictions. Key words: memory; networks; scene; vision Significance StatementThere are a number of brain regions that only show high levels of activity for full photographic scenes, not individual objects. By examining their relationships to each other and the rest of the brain, we argue that there are two types of scene-processing regions that belong to two separate networks. One network, which overlaps most of the visual system, processes visual features of the current view of the world, such as spatial layout. Another network, which is connected to long-term memory, puts this moment-by-moment information in context, allowing us to navigate through environments and remember past events in familiar locations. These two groups of brain regions cooperate to help us understand the world and our place in it.

Cortical Representations of Visual Stimuli Shift Locations with Changes in Memory States

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] Although our findings do not argue against the idea that reactivation occurs-and our experimental design did not directly test for reactivation-our findings support the emerging idea of systematic differences in the cortical location of content representations during memory encoding versus memory retrieval. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] In particular, our findings are consistent with recent arguments of a spatial transformation wherein representations initially encoded by visual cortex are systematically re-expressed in parietal cortex during memory retrieval. [9][10][11] More broadly, our findings are also consistent with the idea that the AnG plays an important role in processing internally generated information, 31 which might include memories, 11,28 thoughts, 32 or even simulations of future events.…”

“…Although there are multiple potential accounts of such biases (for detailed consideration of these accounts, see Favila et al 14 ), one account that is particularly consistent with the present results is that a bias toward retrieved content is the result of strong connectivity with-or drive fromthe hippocampus. 7,14 This account is motivated by evidence that the default mode network, of which the AnG is a core component, is functionally coupled with the hippocampus, 37,38 particularly during memory retrieval. 39,40 Here, we provide direct and unique support for this account by demonstrating, within a single experimental paradigm, that (1) patterns of activity in the AnG exhibited a bias toward representing retrieved content over encoded content and (2) evoked responses in the AnG were more strongly correlated with responses in the hippocampus during memory retrieval than during memory encoding.…”

Dynamic Content Reactivation Supports Naturalistic Autobiographical Recall in Humans

“…5 A ). Furthermore, the overlap was configured such that recall effects tended to extend anteriorly from the overlap, and Localizer effects posteriorly, consistent with recent “anterior-posterior” differentiations of mnemonic and perceptual categories in scene-selective cortex ( Baldassano et al, 2016 ; Silson et al, 2019a ). Quantitatively, ∼36% of the localizer-defined scene-selective cortex fell within the internal place map (389/1085 voxels).…”

Discovering Event Structure in Continuous Narrative Perception and Memory

“…These areas are involved in high-level, multimodal scene processing tasks including memory and navigation (Baldassano, Esteva, Beck, & Fei-Fei, 2016; Kumar, Federmeier, Fei-Fei, & Beck, 2017), are part of the “general recollection network” with strong anatomical and functional connectivity to the hippocampus (Rugg & Vilberg, 2013), and are the core components of the posterior medial memory system (Ranganath & Ritchey, 2012), which is thought to represent and update a high-level situation model (Johnson-Laird, 1983; Van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983; Zwaan et al, 1995; Zwaan & Radvansky, 1998). Since event representations in these regions generalized across modalities and between perception and recall, our results provide further evidence that they encode high-level situation descriptions.…”