Cognitive Neuroscience Section, IRCCS San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Via Pilastroni 4, 25125 Brescia, Italy.
Neuroscience. 2010 Mar 17;166(2):501-7. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2009.12.037. Epub 2009 Dec 24.
The ability to associate a name to a face is a crucially relevant task in daily life. In this study, we investigated the neuronal basis of face-name retrieval in young subjects using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left or right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). The experimental task was composed of two study phases: an encoding phase and a retrieval phase. During the encoding phase, subjects saw a face (familiar or unfamiliar) followed by a name. During the retrieval phase, they saw the face together with two names and had to choose the name that was correctly associated with the face. rTMS was delivered only during retrieval. In addition, we evaluated the use of memory strategies during the task. Accordingly, subjects were subdivided into two groups: strategy users (SU) and no-strategy users (NSU). No rTMS effects were present for familiar face-name pairs, probably due to a ceiling effect. However, for unfamiliar face-name pairs, the different use of memory strategies resulted in different rTMS effects. The SU group showed a selective interference effect after right DLPFC stimulation, whereas the NSU group showed an effect after left DLPFC stimulation. Importantly, the overall performance of the two groups was comparable. We suggest that during memory retrieval the left DLPFC might be recruited when the subject does not apply deliberately a retrieval strategy whereas there is a shift to the right DLPFC if cognitive control processes that are engaged by strategies are needed to guide episodic retrieval.
将名字与面孔联系起来的能力是日常生活中至关重要的任务。在这项研究中，我们使用重复经颅磁刺激（rTMS）对年轻受试者的左或右背外侧前额叶皮层（DLPFC）进行了研究，以调查面孔-名字检索的神经基础。实验任务由两个学习阶段组成：编码阶段和检索阶段。在编码阶段，受试者会看到一张面孔（熟悉或不熟悉），然后是一个名字。在检索阶段，他们会看到那张面孔和两个名字，并必须选择与该面孔正确关联的名字。rTMS 仅在检索期间施加。此外，我们评估了任务期间使用记忆策略的情况。因此，将受试者分为两组：策略使用者（SU）和无策略使用者（NSU）。对于熟悉的面孔-名字对，没有 rTMS 效应，可能是由于上限效应。但是，对于不熟悉的面孔-名字对，不同的记忆策略使用会导致不同的 rTMS 效应。右 DLPFC 刺激后，SU 组显示出选择性干扰效应，而 NSU 组在左 DLPFC 刺激后显示出效应。重要的是，两组的整体表现相当。我们认为，在记忆检索过程中，当受试者没有故意应用检索策略时，左侧 DLPFC 可能会被招募，而如果需要策略参与的认知控制过程来指导情景检索，则会转移到右侧 DLPFC。
