Ruhr University Bochum, Department of Psychology, Experimental Psychology and Methods, Universitätsstraße 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany.
Behav Brain Res. 2013 Oct 1;254:92-101. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2013.04.035. Epub 2013 Apr 30.
The present study used a study-test recognition memory task to examine the brain regions engaged in episodic and associative memory processes. Participants evaluated on a six-point rating scale how confident they were on whether or not an item was presented in a previous study phase. Neural activations for high- and low-confidence decisions were examined in old and new items at two levels of between-item-associations. Items had different amounts of associations within the stimulus set, while associations were defined by co-occurrence statistics. The medial frontal gyrus, the posterior cingulate gyrus, the superior temporal gyrus and the right hippocampus revealed U-shaped activation functions with greater activations for high-confidence OLD and NEW decisions. This was independent of the associative memory manipulation, which suggests that not episodic memory, but rather processes related to confidence account for the activation in these brain regions. In contrast, left hippocampus followed a different activation pattern that was modulated by the amount of associations. This provides evidence for the role of the left hippocampus in associative memory.
本研究使用学习-测验识别记忆任务来检查参与情节和联想记忆过程的脑区。参与者在六点评分量表上评估他们对项目是否在先前的研究阶段呈现的置信度。在两个项目间关联水平上，对高置信度和低置信度决策的神经激活进行了检查。项目在刺激集中具有不同数量的关联，而关联是通过共现统计定义的。内侧额回、后扣带回、上颞回和右侧海马体显示出 U 形激活功能，对于高置信度的 OLD 和 NEW 决策，激活程度更高。这与联想记忆操作无关，这表明不是情节记忆，而是与置信度相关的过程解释了这些脑区的激活。相比之下，左侧海马体遵循不同的激活模式，受关联数量的调节。这为左侧海马体在联想记忆中的作用提供了证据。
