Orbitofrontal reality filtering specified: relation to temporal order memory, role of emotion, and development

Abstract

Orbitofrontal reality filtering (ORFi) is a memory mechanism that allows to sense if a memory pertains to reality or not. A deficit in ORFi is typically associated to amnesia, disorientation and behaviourally spontaneous confabulations. Electrophysiologically, it is characterized by a frontal positivity at 200-400ms. Anatomically, it is associated to an activation of the orbitofrontal cortex, the regions usually damaged in behavioural spontaneous confabulating patients. This thesis used electrophysiological and behavioural data to disentangle some aspects about ORFi that were still unclear. Taken together, our results showed that: 1) ORFi behaviourally and electrophysiologically dissociates from another memory mechanism, that is the ability to recall the temporal context of a memory; 2) ORFi electrophysiologically dissociates from memory’s emotionality effects, and it is not modulated by the emotional value of a memory; 3) Children of 7 years old are already capable to perform the task, indicating that at this age ORFi is already functional.