“Pray or Prey?” Dissociation of Semantic Memory Retrieval from Episodic Memory Processes Using Positron Emission Tomography and a Novel Homophone Task

Abstract

One problem in studying the neural basis of semantic memory using functional neuroimaging is that it is often difficult to disentangle activation associated with semantic memory retrieval from that associated with episodic memory encoding and retrieval. To address this issue, a novel homophone task was used in which subjects were PET scanned whilst learning a series of real words (e.g., prey). In a subsequent scan, the subjects were presented with homophone pairs (e.g., prey vs pray) and were required to choose the one that had been shown previously. In two corresponding baseline tasks, the subjects were scanned whilst learning and recognizing pronounceable nonwords. Thus, while all of these tasks recruited either episodic memory encoding or retrieval processes, only the homophone tasks involved semantic memory retrieval. A conjunction analysis designed to isolate activation associated with semantic memory retrieval, revealed changes in several left lateral frontal regions (BA 9/10, 9/45), the left middle temporal cortex (BA 21), and in the left inferior temporoparietal cortex (BA 39). In contrast, a conjunction analysis designed to isolate activation associated with episodic memory encoding, revealed significant changes in the left hippocampus, as well as in the frontopolar cortex (BA 10) bilaterally, the left inferior parietal cortex (BA 40), and the left superior temporal gyrus (BA 22, 28). The present results clarify and extend recent attempts to understand the neural basis of semantic memory retrieval, by actively controlling for the confounding effects of episodic memory encoding and retrieval processes.