Event-related fMRI Experiment Research Articles

An fMRI study of violations of social expectations: When people are not who we expect them to be

The current study examines the effect of violations of social expectancies on the neural substrates of person perception. In an event-related fMRI experiment, participants were presented with the photographs of either Republican or Democrat politicians paired with either typical Republican or Democrat political views (e.g., "wants a smaller government" or "wants liberal supreme court judges"). Subjects were asked to form an impression of the targets using information about both their political affiliation and their political views. Of interest was the contrast between stereotypically congruent trials and stereotypically incongruent trials. The results reveal that brain regions previously involved in mentalizing (i.e., temporoparietal junction and medial prefrontal cortex) are preferentially recruited when viewing incongruent social targets.

The Price of Fame: The Impact of Stimulus Familiarity on Proactive Interference Resolution

Interference from previously learned information, known as proactive interference (PI), limits our memory retrieval abilities. Previous studies of PI resolution have focused on the role of short-term familiarity, or recency, in causing PI. In the present study, we investigated the impact of long-term stimulus familiarity on PI resolution processes. In two behavioral experiments and one event-related fMRI experiment, long-term familiarity was manipulated through the use of famous and nonfamous stimuli, and short-term familiarity was manipulated through the use of recent and nonrecent probe items in an item recognition task. The right middle frontal gyrus demonstrated greater sensitivity to famous stimuli, suggesting that long-term stimulus familiarity plays a role in influencing PI resolution processes. Further examination of the effect of long-term stimulus familiarity on PI resolution revealed a larger behavioral interference effect for famous stimuli, but only under speeded response conditions. Thus, models of memory retrieval--and of the cognitive control mechanisms that guide retrieval processes--should consider the impact of and interactions among sources of familiarity on multiple time scales.

Functional neuroanatomy associated with the expression of distinct movement kinematics in motor sequence learning

A broad range of motor skills, such as speech and writing, evolves with the ability to articulate elementary motor movements into novel sequences that come to be performed smoothly through practice. Neuroimaging studies in humans have demonstrated the involvement of the cerebello-cortical and striato-cortical motor loops in the course of motor sequence learning. Nonetheless, the nature of the improvement and brain mechanisms underlying different parameters of movement kinematics are not yet fully ascertained. We aimed at dissociating the cerebral substrates related to the increase in performance on two kinematic indices: velocity, that is the speed with which each single movement in the sequence is produced, and transitions, that is the duration of the gap between these individual movements. In this event-related fMRI experiment, participants practiced an eight-element sequence of finger presses on a keypad which allowed to record those kinematic movement parameters. Velocity was associated with activations in the ipsilateral spinocerebellum (lobules 4-5, 8 and medial lobule 6) and in the contralateral primary motor cortex. Transitions were associated with increased activity in the neocerebellum (lobules 6 bilaterally and lobule 4-5 ipsilaterally), as well as with activations within the right and left putamen and a broader bilateral network of motor cortical areas. These findings indicate that, rather than being the product of a single mechanism, the general improvement in motor performance associated with early motor sequence learning arises from at least two distinct kinematic processes, whose behavioral expressions are supported by partially overlapping and segregated brain networks.

Neural basis of emotional processing of faces and words

Event Abstract Back to Event Neural basis of emotional processing of faces and words Johannes C. Ziegler1*, Mario Braun2, Maria Grazia Di Bono3 and Marco Zorzi3 1 CNRS and AIx-Marseille University, France 2 FU Berlin, Germany 3 University of Padua, Italy Although much reading happens in an emotional context, only little is known about the relationship between emotions and reading. The existence of emotional valence effects in reading is still hotly disputed. While some have found emotion effects in reading in occipital regions of the brain, others found a rather large network of brain activation in parietal, superior temporal and frontal lobes. Almost no studies found specific effects of emotional valence, that is, differences are typically found between emotional and neutral words but not between positive and negative words. We used an event-related fMRI experiment with faces and words to address the following questions: 1. Can we find evidence for specific effects of emotional valence on brain activation using multivariate pattern classifiers that are more sensitive to detect effects that emerge in partially overlapping brain networks? 2. Can we find evidence that basic emotion networks that are involved in processing emotions in faces are also involved in processing emotions in words? The originality of the study is to use pattern classifiers that are trained on classifying emotions in faces to predict specific emotion effects in words. That is, we ask the question of whether brain activity related to happy versus sad faces can predict brain activity when people read happy versus sad words. Funding: Supported by Cluster of Languages of Emotions FU Berlin. Keywords: emotion, fMRI Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Emotion, Motivation and the Social Brain Citation: Ziegler JC, Braun M, Grazia Di Bono M and Zorzi M (2011). Neural basis of emotional processing of faces and words. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00279 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 22 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Johannes C Ziegler, CNRS and AIx-Marseille University, Marseille, France, joziegler1@googlemail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Johannes C Ziegler Mario Braun Maria Grazia Di Bono Marco Zorzi Google Johannes C Ziegler Mario Braun Maria Grazia Di Bono Marco Zorzi Google Scholar Johannes C Ziegler Mario Braun Maria Grazia Di Bono Marco Zorzi PubMed Johannes C Ziegler Mario Braun Maria Grazia Di Bono Marco Zorzi Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Brain activation to Japanese words spoken with incorrect pitch accent

In this study, brain activation when listening to spoken Japanese with incorrect pitch accents was investigated. In the event-related fMRI experiment, four kinds of stimuli were prepared. (1) NORMAL: Real words with a correct pitch accent. (2) INCORRECT: Real words with incorrect pitch accent. (3) PSEUDO: Pseudo-words, and (4) BASE: amplitude-modulated pseudo-speech noise. Fifteen normal right-handed participants were scanned by functional MRI while listening to these stimuli. Region of interest (ROI) analyses were performed. The contrast between INCORRECT and NORMAL revealed significant activation in the bilateral inferior frontal, the bilateral precentral, and the left supplementary motor area, and the right superior temporal gyrus. The result supports the view that speech perception is a sensory-motor process, and suggests that when the pitch accent of the stimulus does not match the template, silent rehearsal might be repeated to enable a lexical decision to be made.

Heads, shoulders, knees and toes: Body representations in human extrastriate visual cortex

Human fMRI studies have shown that the extrastriate body area (EBA) responds more strongly when people view body parts than other objects and may play a specific role in body part recognition. However, the average response in EBA is similar for different body parts, suggesting little sensitivity to body part category. Here, we conducted a multi-voxel pattern analysis to investigate whether the spatial pattern of response across EBA contains information about body part category. Specifically, we conducted a category (face, shoulder, elbow, hand, knee, foot) x side of body (left, right) x visual field (left, right, 2° from fixation) event-related fMRI experiment. On each trial, participants fixated while a single body part was presented from an allocentric point of view. We used a split-half correlation technique (Haxby et al., 2001) to compare the pattern of activation across voxels in an independently localized EBA. We found stronger within than between body part correlations in EBA demonstrating the presence of body part category information. Furthermore there was a strong interaction between side of body and visual field, such that there was more information about body parts in their commonly experienced locations. Specifically, in the left visual field, EBA contained information about the category of body parts from the right side of the body, but not the left side. In the right visual field, the converse was true (more information about body parts from the left than the right side), although in general the correlations were weaker. These effects were specific to EBA. In FFA, only faces showed strong within body part correlations and no information about the category of non-face body parts. We conclude that EBA contains information about body part category, but this information is specific to body parts presented in their commonly experienced positions.

Repeated contextual search cues lead to reduced BOLD-onset times in early visual and left inferior frontal cortex

Repetition of context can facilitate search for targets in distractor-filled displays. This contextual cueing goes along with enhanced event-related brain potentials in visual cortex, as previously demonstrated with depth electrodes in the human brain. However, modulation of the BOLD-response in striate and peristriate cortices has, to our knowledge, not yet been reported as a consequence of contextual cueing. In an event-related fMRI experiment with 16 participants, we observed a selective reduction of the BOLD onset latency for repeated distractor configurations in these areas. In addition, the same onset latency reduction was observed in posterior inferior frontal cortex, a potential source area for feedback signals to early visual areas. These latency changes occured in the absence of differential BOLD time-to-peak and BOLD-amplitude for repeated versus new displays. The posterior part of left inferior frontal cortex has previously been linked to repetition priming, however in the form of repetition suppression. These studies differ from ours in many respects, such as awareness of stimulus repetition and semantic processing. The overlap of activation found in previous priming studies and in the current experiment does not allow the reverse inference that the same mechanisms are involved in contextual cueing and priming. However, future experiments may investigate the mechanisms that lead to repetition suppression versus BOLD-onset reduction in left posterior inferior frontal cortex and visual cortex, thereby elucidating the commonalities or differences between repetition priming and contextual cueing.

What Goes Down Must Come Up: Role of the Posteromedial Cortices in Encoding and Retrieval

The hypothesis that the neural network supporting successful episodic memory retrieval overlaps with the regions involved in episodic encoding has garnered much interest; however, the role of the posteromedial regions remains to be fully elucidated. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies during successful encoding typically demonstrate deactivation of posteromedial cortices, whereas successful retrieval of previously encoded information has been associated with activation of these regions. Here, we performed an event-related fMRI experiment during an associative face-name encoding and retrieval task to investigate the topography and functional relationship of the brain regions involved in successful memory processes. A conjunction analysis of novel encoding and subsequent successful retrieval of names revealed an anatomical overlap in bilateral posteromedial cortices. In this region, a significant negative correlation was found: Greater deactivation during encoding was related to greater activation during successful retrieval. In contrast, the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex demonstrated positive activation during both encoding and retrieval. Our results provide further evidence that posteromedial regions constitute critical nodes in the large-scale cortical network subserving episodic memory. These results are discussed in relation to the default mode hypothesis, the involvement of posteromedial cortices in successful memory formation and retention, as well as potential implications for aging and neurodegenerative disease.

The neural implementation of task rule activation in the task-cuing paradigm: An event-related fMRI study

To isolate the neural correlates for task rule activation from those related to general task preparation, the effect of a cue explicitly specifying the S–R correspondences (rule-cue) was contrasted with the effects of a cue specifying only the task to performed (task-cue). While the task-cue provides merely information about the type of task, the rule-cue is explicit about both the task type and the task rule (i.e., the set of S–R correspondences). The rule-cue was expected to activate the task rule more efficiently in the preparation period (prior to target presentation); by contrast, in the task-cue condition, part of the task rule activation was expected to be postponed into the task execution period (following the presentation of the target). In an event-related fMRI experiment, we found the right anterior and middle parts of the middle frontal and superior frontal gyri, the right inferior frontal junction, the pre-SMA, as well as the right superior and inferior parietal lobes to show larger activation elicited by the rule-cue than by the task-cue prior to target presentation. Conversely, the results revealed larger activations in these regions in the task-cue than in the rule-cue condition during the task execution period. In summary, this study identified some of the neural correlates of task rule activation and showed that these are a subset of the general task preparation network.

Characterizing Response to Elemental Unit of Acoustic Imaging Noise: An fMRI Study

Acoustic imaging noise produced during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies can hinder auditory fMRI research analysis by altering the properties of the acquired time-series data. Acoustic imaging noise can be especially confounding when estimating the time course of the hemodynamic response (HDR) in auditory event-related fMRI (fMRI) experiments. This study is motivated by the desire to establish a baseline function that can serve not only as a comparison to other quantities of acoustic imaging noise for determining how detrimental is one's experimental noise, but also as a foundation for a model that compensates for the response to acoustic imaging noise. Therefore, the amplitude and spatial extent of the HDR to the elemental unit of acoustic imaging noise (i.e., a single ping) associated with echoplanar acquisition were characterized and modeled. Results from this fMRI study at 1.5 T indicate that the group-averaged HDR in left and right auditory cortex to acoustic imaging noise (duration of 46 ms) has an estimated peak magnitude of 0.29% (right) to 0.48% (left) signal change from baseline, peaks between 3 and 5 s after stimulus presentation, and returns to baseline and remains within the noise range approximately 8 s after stimulus presentation.

Prefrontal cortical and striatal activity to happy and fear faces in bipolar disorder is associated with comorbid substance abuse and eating disorder

Background: The spectrum approach was used to examine contributions of comorbid symptom dimensions of substance abuse and eating disorder to abnormal prefrontal-cortical and subcortical-striatal activity to happy and fear faces previously demonstrated in bipolar disorder (BD). Method: Fourteen remitted BD-type I and sixteen healthy individuals viewed neutral, mild and intense happy and fear faces in two event-related fMRI experiments. All individuals completed Substance-Use and Eating-Disorder Spectrum measures. Region-of-Interest analyses for bilateral prefrontal and subcortical-striatal regions were performed. Results: BD individuals scored significantly higher on these spectrum measures than healthy individuals ( p < 0.05), and were distinguished by activity in prefrontal and subcortical-striatal regions. BD relative to healthy individuals showed reduced dorsal prefrontal-cortical activity to all faces. Only BD individuals showed greater subcortical-striatal activity to happy and neutral faces. In BD individuals, negative correlations were shown between substance use severity and right PFC activity to intense happy faces ( p < 0.04), and between substance use severity and right caudate nucleus activity to neutral faces ( p < 0.03). Positive correlations were shown between eating disorder and right ventral putamen activity to intense happy ( p < 0.02) and neutral faces ( p < 0.03). Exploratory analyses revealed few significant relationships between illness variables and medication upon neural activity in BD individuals. Limitations: Small sample size of predominantly medicated BD individuals. Conclusion: This study is the first to report relationships between comorbid symptom dimensions of substance abuse and eating disorder and prefrontal-cortical and subcortical-striatal activity to facial expressions in BD. Our findings suggest that these comorbid features may contribute to observed patterns of functional abnormalities in neural systems underlying mood regulation in BD.

The negative BOLD response and its behavioral correlates

Event Abstract Back to Event The negative BOLD response and its behavioral correlates Introduction The negative BOLD response (NBR) describes a phenomenon seen in functional magnetic resonance imaging in which a stimulated cortical region that responds with a positive blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) signal is flanked by an unstimulated region of cortex exhibiting a negative response (Shmuel, Yacoub et al. 2002). It is most easily seen in visual cortex where well-ordered retinotopic maps make it easy to identify stimulated and unstimulated locations. The NBR is primarily a neural effect: reductions in the BOLD signal correlate with reductions in both LFP activity and firing rates (Shmuel, Augath et al. 2006). Using event-related fMRI, we measured the amplitude of the NBR as a function of ongoing background activity in order to test three potential models of response control: response gain control, contrast gain control and a purely subtractive mechanism. We also measured human psychophysical performance using a stimulus very similar to that in our fMRI experiments in order to identify behavioral correlates of the signal changes that we observe. Methods General Our stimulus consisted of a central disk D (diameter 2 degrees) containing a grating of contrast Cd and a surrounding annulus A (diameter 5 degrees) containing a grating of contrast Ca. These components were presented on a uniform mean gray field with a small gap between them. Cd and Ca could be set independently. In our event-related fMRI experiments, the difference between conditions Cd=0% (no center) and Cd=90% (high-contrast center) gave the magnitude of the NBR. We measured the NBR as a function of Ca (0%, 5%, 20% and 45% contrast). In our psychophysical experiments, we used a staircase procedure to measure threshold-versus-contrast curves for both D and A in the presence and absence of high-contrast, spatially-remote maskers (A and D respectively). fMRI methods N subs=5, B0=3T, EPI TR=2s, resolution 2x2x2mm. All data from independently-localized regions in V1 defined on flattened, retinotopically-mapped cortex. Behavioral methods N subs=5, thresholds estimated using QUEST 2 interval forced choice procedure. Results Our fMRI results show that the NBR is best modeled as a multiplicative gain control mechanism with the strongest effects occurring at low background contrast. In addition, the NBR exhibits a strong spatial asymmetry: We measure a strong NBR in the periphery but not in the fovea. Our psychophysical data are in agreement with these results: We measure only weak suppressive effects of a high-contrast annulus on the foveal target but a significant amount of suppression of the surround annulus due to the high-contrast center. Conclusion The NBR is a manifestation of a multiplicative gain control mechanism that acts to suppress neural activity in the periphery when a high-contrast stimulus is present in the fovea.

Anterior prefrontal involvement in implicit contextual change detection

Anterior prefrontal cortex is usually associated with high level executive functions. Here, we show that the frontal pole, specifically left lateral frontopolar cortex, is involved in signaling change in implicitly learned spatial contexts, in the absence of conscious change detection. In a variant of the contextual cueing paradigm, participants first learned contingencies between distractor contexts and target locations implicitly. After learning, repeated distractor contexts were paired with new target locations. Left lateral frontopolar [Brodmann area (BA) 10] and superior frontal (BA9) cortices showed selective signal increase for this target location change in repeated displays in an event-related fMRI experiment, which was most pronounced in participants with high contextual facilitation before the change. The data support the view that left lateral frontopolar cortex is involved in signaling contextual change to posterior brain areas as a precondition for adaptive changes of attentional resource allocation. This signaling occurs in the absence of awareness of learned contingencies or contextual change.

Matching Categorical Object Representations in Inferior Temporal Cortex of Man and Monkey

Inferior temporal (IT) object representations have been intensively studied in monkeys and humans, but representations of the same particular objects have never been compared between the species. Moreover, IT's role in categorization is not well understood. Here, we presented monkeys and humans with the same images of real-world objects and measured the IT response pattern elicited by each image. In order to relate the representations between the species and to computational models, we compare response-pattern dissimilarity matrices. IT response patterns form category clusters, which match between man and monkey. The clusters correspond to animate and inanimate objects; within the animate objects, faces and bodies form subclusters. Within each category, IT distinguishes individual exemplars, and the within-category exemplar similarities also match between the species. Our findings suggest that primate IT across species may host a common code, which combines a categorical and a continuous representation of objects.

Cognitive and neuronal processes involved in sequential generation of general and specific mental images

Mental image generation is a complex process mediated by dynamically interrelated components, e.g. image generation and image enrichment of details. This study investigated the cognitive and neural correlates of sequential image generation. An event-related fMRI experiment was carried out in which general and specific images had to be generated sequentially in two different positions. Participants had to generate either a general image first and then a specific one or a specific image first and then a general one, in response to the same word-stimulus. Generation times showed that specific images took shorter to be produced if they had been preceded by the generation of a general image. The fMRI results showed that position of generation and type of image was associated with different patterns of neurofunctional change. When an image was generated as first, areas of activation were found in the parahippocampal, fusiform and occipital regions. These are areas associated with memory retrieval and visual processing. When an image was generated as second, significant activations were found in superior temporal and precuneus areas, brain structures that are involved in the storage of visual memory for object shapes and imagery, respectively. The generation of a general image was supported by frontal areas and by the precuneus. The generation of a specific image involved frontal and thalamic areas (structures associated with visual processing of details) and the posterior cingulate cortex. When shifting from a specific image to a general one, a higher level of activity was found in the middle frontal gyrus involved in global visuo-spatial processing, suggesting that the generation of specific images required the retrieval of an object's global shape. Altogether, these data suggest that the sequential generation of different types of image is associated with discrete processes but also shares common cognitive and neural components.

Contagious yawning and the frontal lobe: An fMRI study

We conducted a slow event-related fMRI experiment with naïve subjects' passively viewing yawn and various other control videos along with correlative behavioral testing. Specifically associated with the viewing of the contagious yawn was an area of activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These findings suggest a role for the prefrontal cortex in the processing of contagious yawning, while demonstrating a unique automaticity in the processing of contagious motor programs which take place independently of mirror neuron networks.

Generalized relative entropy in functional magnetic resonance imaging

The generalized Kullback–Leibler distance D q ( q is the Tsallis parameter) is shown to be an useful measure for analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data series. This generalized form of entropy is used to evaluate the “distance” between the probability functions p 1 and p 2 of the signal levels related to periods of stimulus and non-stimulus in event-related fMRI experiments. The probability densities of the mean distance D ̄ q (averaged over the N epochs of the entire experiment) are obtained through numerical simulations for different values of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and found to be fitted very well by Gamma distributions ( χ 2 < 0.0008 ) for small values of N ( N < 30 ). These distributions allow us to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the method by construction of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The performance of the method is also investigated in terms of the parameters q and L (number of signal levels) and our results indicate that the optimum choice is q = 0.8 and L = 3 . The entropic index q is found to exert control on both sensitivity and specificity of the method. As q ( q > 0 ) is raised, sensitivity increases but specificity decreases. Finally, the method is applied in the analysis of a real event-related fMRI motor stimulus experiment and the resulting maps show activation in primary and secondary motor brain areas.

Lateralization of the parietal old/new effect: An event-related fMRI study comparing recognition memory for words and faces

Although the parietal cortex is not conventionally thought of as a major component of the neural systems that mediate declarative memory, many fMRI studies of recognition memory have found that correctly identified old items produce greater activation than correctly rejected new items throughout parietal cortex. This effect is usually heavily lateralized to the left. However, the vast majority of previous studies have used verbal materials. Does the left-lateralization of this effect result from the left hemisphere's role in language or does it suggest the possibility of a specialized role for the left hemisphere in recognition memory that applies across stimulus domains? To address this question, we directly compared recognition memory for words and faces in two event-related fMRI experiments with a total of 38 subjects. In the second experiment, we included a manipulation of recognition difficulty. Despite extensive material-specific lateralization in terms of the brain's overall response to stimuli revealed by a direct comparison of words and faces, the parietal old/new effect did not exhibit material-specific lateralization. Rather, the lateralization of the effect depended on the region of parietal cortex in question. In lateral parietal cortex, the effect was left-lateralized. In medial parietal cortex, the effect was bilateral. These findings indicate that the left-lateralization of the parietal old/new effect is unrelated to the left hemisphere's role in language and raises the possibility of a specialized role for the left hemisphere in recognition memory.

Sparse representation of global features of visual images in human primary visual cortex: Evidence from fMRI

In fMRI experiments on object representation in visual cortex, we designed two types of stimuli: one is the gray face image and its line drawing, and the other is the illusion and its corresponding completed illusion. Both of them have the same global features with different minute details so that the results of fMRI experiments can be compared with each other. The first kind of visual stimuli was used in a block design fMRI experiment, and the second was used in an event-related fMRI experiment. Comparing and analyzing interesting visual cortex activity patterns and blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD)-fMRI signal, we obtained results to show some invariance of global features of visual images. A plausible explanation about the invariant mechanism is related with the cooperation of synchronized response to the global features of the visual image with a feedback of shape perception from higher cortex to cortex V1, namely the integration of global features and embodiment of sparse representation and distributed population code.

Memory consolidation of landmarks in good navigators

Landmarks play an important role in successful navigation. To successfully find your way around an environment, navigationally relevant information needs to be stored and become available at later moments in time. Evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies shows that the human parahippocampal gyrus encodes the navigational relevance of landmarks. In the present event-related fMRI experiment, we investigated memory consolidation of navigationally relevant landmarks in the medial temporal lobe after route learning. Sixteen right-handed volunteers viewed two film sequences through a virtual museum with objects placed at locations relevant (decision points) or irrelevant (nondecision points) for navigation. To investigate consolidation effects, one film sequence was seen in the evening before scanning, the other one was seen the following morning, directly before scanning. Event-related fMRI data were acquired during an object recognition task. Participants decided whether they had seen the objects in the previously shown films. After scanning, participants answered standardized questions about their navigational skills, and were divided into groups of good and bad navigators, based on their scores. An effect of memory consolidation was obtained in the hippocampus: Objects that were seen the evening before scanning (remote objects) elicited more activity than objects seen directly before scanning (recent objects). This increase in activity in bilateral hippocampus for remote objects was observed in good navigators only. In addition, a spatial-specific effect of memory consolidation for navigationally relevant objects was observed in the parahippocampal gyrus. Remote decision point objects induced increased activity as compared with recent decision point objects, again in good navigators only. The results provide initial evidence for a connection between memory consolidation and navigational ability that can provide a basis for successful navigation.