Recollection-related Hippocampal Activity during Continuous Recognition: a High-resolution fMRI Study

Abstract

We used high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate whether successful recollection during continuous recognition is associated with relative enhancement of hippocampal activity, consistent with prior findings from experiments employing separate study and test phases. While being scanned, subjects discriminated between new and repeated pictures. Each picture, which was repeated once after an interval of between 10 and 30 items, was surrounded by a frame that was colored grey, blue, or orange. When an item repeated, its frame color determined the correct response. Repeated items surrounded by a grey frame always required an ‘old’ judgment. A repeated item surrounded by a blue or an orange frame required a different response depending whether it was re-presented in the same (Target) or a different (Nontarget) color from the first presentation. Consistent with the results from previous continuous recognition experiments, robust new > old effects were found in bilateral hippocampus. Additionally, an across-subjects correlational analysis identified a cluster of voxels in right hippocampus where recollection-related activity (operationalized by the contrast between correctly vs. incorrectly judged Nontargets) was positively correlated with recollection performance. Thus, successful recollection during continuous recognition is associated with a relative enhancement of hippocampal activity.