Selective lesion to the entorhinal cortex leads to an impairment in familiarity but not recollection

What does preferential viewing tell us about the neurobiology of recognition memory?

The two tests most widely used in nonhuman primates to assess the neurobiology of recognition memory produce conflicting results. Preferential viewing tests (e.g., visual paired comparison) produce robust impairments following hippocampal lesions, whereas matching tests (e.g., delayed nonmatching-to-sample) often show complete sparing. Here, we review the data, the proposed explanations for this discrepancy, and then critically evaluate those explanations. The most likely explanation is that preferential viewing tests are not a process-pure assessment of recognition memory, but also test elements of novelty-seeking, habituation, and motivation. These confounds likely explain the conflicting results. Thus, we propose that memory researchers should prefer explicit matching tests and readers interested in the neural substrates of recognition memory should give explicit matching tests greater interpretive weight.

Beyond hippocampus: Thalamic and prefrontal contributions to an evolving memory

The hippocampus has long been at the center of memory research, and rightfully so. However, with emerging technological capabilities, we can increasingly appreciate memory as a more dynamic and brain-wide process. In this perspective, our goal is to begin developing models to understand the gradual evolution, reorganization, and stabilization of memories across the brain after their initial formation in the hippocampus. By synthesizing studies across the rodent and human literature, we suggest that as memory representations initially form in hippocampus, parallel traces emerge in frontal cortex that cue memory recall, and as they mature, with sustained support initially from limbic then diencephalic then cortical circuits, they become progressively independent of hippocampus and dependent on a mature cortical representation. A key feature of this model is that, as time progresses, memory representations are passed on to distinct circuits with progressively longer time constants, providing the opportunity to filter, forget, update, or reorganize memories in the process of committing to long-term storage.

Computational models can distinguish the contribution from different mechanisms to familiarity recognition

Familiarity is the strange feeling of knowing that something has already been seen in our past. Over the past decades, several attempts have been made to model familiarity using artificial neural networks. Recently, two learning algorithms successfully reproduced the functioning of the perirhinal cortex, a key structure involved during familiarity: Hebbian and anti-Hebbian learning. However, performance of these learning rules is very different from one to another thus raising the question of their complementarity. In this work, we designed two distinct computational models that combined Deep Learning and a Hebbian learning rule to reproduce familiarity on natural images, the Hebbian model and the anti-Hebbian model, respectively. We compared the performance of both models during different simulations to highlight the inner functioning of both learning rules. We showed that the anti-Hebbian model fits human behavioral data whereas the Hebbian model fails to fit the data under large training set sizes. Besides, we observed that only our Hebbian model is highly sensitive to homogeneity between images. Taken together, we interpreted these results considering the distinction between absolute and relative familiarity. With our framework, we proposed a novel way to distinguish the contribution of these familiarity mechanisms to the overall feeling of familiarity. By viewing them as complementary, our two models allow us to make new testable predictions that could be of interest to shed light on the familiarity phenomenon.

The amygdala is not necessary for the familiarity aspect of recognition memory

Dual-process accounts of item recognition posit two memory processes: slow but detailed recollection, and quick but vague familiarity. It has been proposed, based on prior rodent work, that the amygdala is critical for the familiarity aspect of item recognition. Here, we evaluated this proposal in male rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) with selective bilateral excitotoxic amygdala damage. We used four established visual memory tests designed to assess different aspects of familiarity, all administered on touchscreen computers. Specifically, we assessed monkeys' tendencies to make low-latency false alarms, to make false alarms to recently seen lures, to produce curvilinear ROC curves, and to discriminate stimuli based on repetition across days. Three of the four tests showed no familiarity impairment and the fourth was explained by a deficit in reward processing. Consistent with this, amygdala damage did produce an anticipated deficit in reward processing in a three-arm-bandit gambling task, verifying the effectiveness of the lesions. Together, these results contradict prior rodent work and suggest that the amygdala is not critical for the familiarity aspect of item recognition.

High-Fat-Sugar Diet is Associated with Impaired Hippocampus-Dependent Memory in Humans

Overconsumption of high-fat and high-sugar (HFS) diet may affect the hippocampus, and consequently, memory functions. Yet, converging evidence is needed to demonstrate that the type of memory affected by HFS diet consumption is indeed hippocampus dependent. Moreover, the extent to which HFS diet can also affect executive functioning, and indirectly affect memory requires further examination. In this online study, we asked 349 young adults to report their HFS diet consumption and complete a word memory task, the Everyday Memory Questionnaire, and importantly two memory tasks that have been shown to robustly engage the hippocampus, i.e., the Pattern Separation and Associative Memory Tasks. Participants also completed two executive functioning tasks, the Trail Making Task (TMT) and the Stroop Task. These measures assess attention/cognitive flexibility and the ability to inhibit cognitive interference, respectively. After controlling for confounding variables, we found that participants who reported higher level consumption of a HFS diet performed worse on the Pattern Separation Task and that higher HFS intake was significantly associated with poorer TMT task performance and longer Stroop average reaction time (RT). TMT and Stroop RT scores indicative of reduced executive function also partially mediated the relationship between HFS diet and memory performance on the pattern separation task. Taken together, our results provide converging evidence that HFS diet may impair hippocampus-dependent memory. HFS diet may also affect executive functioning and indirectly impair memory function. The findings are consistent with human subject and animal studies and call for further investigations on the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying the dietary effects on cognitive processes.

Predictive modeling of optimism bias using gray matter cortical thickness

People have been shown to be optimistically biased when their future outcome expectancies are assessed. In fact, we display optimism bias (OB) toward our own success when compared to a rival individual's (personal OB [POB]). Similarly, success expectancies for social groups we like reliably exceed those we mention for a rival group (social OB [SOB]). Recent findings suggest the existence of neural underpinnings for OB. Mostly using structural/functional MRI, these findings rely on voxel-based mass-univariate analyses. While these results remain associative in nature, an open question abides whether MRI information can accurately predict OB. In this study, we hence used predictive modelling to forecast the two OBs. The biases were quantified using a validated soccer paradigm, where personal (self versus rival) and social (in-group versus out-group) forms of OB were extracted at the participant level. Later, using gray matter cortical thickness, we predicted POB and SOB via machine-learning. Our model explained 17% variance (R² = 0.17) in individual variability for POB (but not SOB). Key predictors involved the rostral-caudal anterior cingulate cortex, pars orbitalis and entorhinal cortex-areas that have been associated with OB before. We need such predictive models on a larger scale, to help us better understand positive psychology and individual well-being.

Subjective distinguishability of seizure and non-seizure Déjà Vu: A case report, brief literature review, and research prospects

Roughly two-thirds of all people report having experienced déjà vu-the odd feeling that a current experience is both novel and a repeat or replay of a previous, unrecalled experience. Reports of an association between déjà vu and seizure aura symptomatology have accumulated for over a century, and frequent déjà vu is also now known to be associated with focal seizures, particularly those of a medial temporal lobe (MTL) origin. A longstanding question is whether seizure-related déjà vu has the same basis and is the same subjective experience as non-seizure déjà vu. Survey research suggests that people who experience both seizure-related and non-seizure déjà vu can often subjectively distinguish between the two. We present a case of a person with a history of focal MTL seizures who reports having experienced both seizure-related and non-seizure common déjà vu, though the non-seizure type was more frequent during this person's youth than it is currently. The patient was studied with a virtual tour paradigm that has previously been shown to elicit déjà vu among non-clinical, young adult participants. The patient reported experiencing déjà vu of the common non-seizure type during the virtual tour paradigm, without associated abnormalities of the intracranial EEG. We situate this work in the context of broader ongoing projects examining the subjective correlates of seizures. The importance for memory research of virtual scenes, spatial tasks, virtual reality (VR), and this paradigm for isolating familiarity in the context of recall failure are discussed.

A computational model of familiarity detection for natural pictures, abstract images, and random patterns: Combination of deep learning and anti-Hebbian training

We present a neural network model for familiarity recognition of different types of images in the perirhinal cortex (the FaRe model). The model is designed as a two-stage system. At the first stage, the parameters of an image are extracted by a pretrained deep learning convolutional neural network. At the second stage, a two-layer feed forward neural network with anti-Hebbian learning is used to make the decision about the familiarity of the image. FaRe model simulations demonstrate high capacity of familiarity recognition memory for natural pictures and low capacity for both abstract images and random patterns. These findings are in agreement with psychological experiments.

Recognition Receiver Operating Characteristic Curves: The Complex Influence of Input Statistics, Memory, and Decision-making

Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis is the standard tool for studying recognition memory. In particular, the curvilinearity and the y-offset of recognition ROC curves have been interpreted as indicative of either memory strength (single-process models) or different memory processes (dual-process model). The distinction between familiarity and recollection has been widely studied in cognitive neuroscience in a variety of conditions, including lesions of different brain regions. We develop a computational model that explicitly shows how performance in recognition memory is affected by a complex and, as yet, underappreciated interplay of various factors, such as stimulus statistics, memory processing, and decision-making. We demonstrate that (1) the factors in the model affect recognition ROC curves in unexpected ways, (2) fitting R and F parameters according to the dual-process model is not particularly useful for understanding the underlying processes, and (3) the variability of recognition ROC curves and the controversies they have caused might be due to the uncontrolled variability in the contributing factors. Although our model is abstract, its functional components can be mapped onto brain regions, which are involved in corresponding functions. This enables us to reproduce and interpret in a coherent framework the diverse effects on recognition memory that have been reported in patients with frontal and hippocampal lesions. To conclude, our work highlights the importance of the rich interplay of a variety of factors in driving recognition memory performance, which has to be taken into account when interpreting recognition ROC curves.

Deficits in recent but not lifetime familiarity in amnestic mild cognitive impairment

People with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) repeat questions, seemingly without any sense of familiarity (i.e., recognition of prior occurrence without recollection of episodic context). Accumulation of neurofibrillary tau in preclinical Alzheimer's disease begins in perirhinal cortex, a medial temporal lobe region linked to familiarity. Both observations would predict impaired familiarity assessment in aMCI; however, the extant evidence is mixed. To reveal familiarity impairments, it may be necessary to minimize the influence of recollection. In the current study, older adults with aMCI and healthy controls were administered two tasks on which a well-characterized patient (NB) with selective familiarity impairments due to surgical left temporal lobe excision sparing the hippocampus showed abnormal performance: frequency judgments for words exposed to in a recent study phase and judgments of cumulative lifetime familiarity for object concepts denoted by words. We also administered a process dissociation procedure (PDP) task that previously revealed spared familiarity in aMCI. We predicted that familiarity would be spared in aMCI on the PDP task, but impaired when assessed by frequency judgments for recent laboratory exposures and lifetime familiarity judgments. Familiarity was spared on the PDP task, but was impaired when probed with frequency judgments for recently exposed words in aMCI. Lifetime familiarity was also not impaired in aMCI. These results highlight the benefits of studying familiarity under conditions that minimize recollection and the value of frequency judgments in revealing familiarity deficits, and suggest that perirhinal cortex may not be necessary for accessing familiarity accumulated over a lifetime of experience.

Impaired recollection-based episodic memory as a cognitive endophenotype in schizophrenia

INTRODUCTION

Patients with schizophrenia show impaired recollection but largely preserved familiarity-based episodic memory. This study was done to clarify the endophenotypic nature of recollection and familiarity-based episodic memory in schizophrenia and the role of emotional valence of memoranda and degree of recall confidence in it.

METHOD

Twenty-five patients with schizophrenia, one unaffected sibling of each patient, and twenty-three healthy controls completed two tasks assessing recollection and familiarity-based processes in episodic memory. In the first task, participants were asked to remember positive, negative, and neutral emotional valence words in a remember-know paradigm. In the second task, in addition to recollection and familiarity-based responses, participants were asked to make confidence judgments about their responses.

RESULTS

Patients with schizophrenia and their first-degree relatives (FDRs) performed poorly on recollection but not familiarity-based responses, compared to healthy controls; performance of first-degree relatives was in between and significantly different from that of both patients and controls. The differences in recollection and familiarity-based responses across the three groups were not moderated by recall confidence judgments or emotional valence of memoranda. Furthermore, there was no correlation between recollection-based memory impairments and duration or severity of illness or current medication exposure.

CONCLUSIONS

Impaired recollection-based memory constitutes a potential cognitive endophenotype in schizophrenia. Furthermore, selective impairment of recollection-based, but sparing of familiarity-based, memory in patients and their FDRs supports the distinct nature of recollection and familiarity-based episodic memories.

Familiarity impairments after anterior temporal-lobe resection with hippocampal sparing: Lessons learned from case NB

We review evidence from an extensive single case study in an individual (NB) who underwent a rare left-sided anterior temporal-lobe resection with sparing of the hippocampus. Our study aimed to determine whether memory functions of perirhinal cortex, which was largely removed in the resection, can be impaired against a background of preserved hippocampus-dependent memory processing. This research was guided by the proposal that item-based familiarity assessment relies on contributions of perirhinal cortex, and that the hippocampus plays a unique role in the relational binding of items to episodic contexts, which is critical for recollection. Seven sets of findings have emerged from our research on NB (synthesized from five primary research articles), and from follow-up work in other patients: (i) Familiarity impairments can be selective and be revealed with multiple methods; (ii) selective familiarity and selective recollection impairments can be double dissociated; (iii) selective familiarity impairments show material specificity; (iv) selective familiarity impairments extend to assessment of cumulative lifetime experience; (v) selective familiarity impairments are sensitive to degree of feature overlap between object concepts; (vi) selective familiarity impairments are associated with preserved task-related fMRI signals in the hippocampus; (vii) selective familiarity impairments can be observed in other lesion cases. Despite our main focus on the dual-process framework, we also discuss implications for the functional organization of the medial temporal lobes in broader terms. We argue that our findings shed light on this organization even if the functional specialization of different medial temporal structures is ultimately not fully captured with reference to the cognitive distinction between familiarity and recollection.

Characterizing memory loss in patients with autoimmune limbic encephalitis hippocampal lesions

Since the publication of Scoville and Milner's (1957) seminal paper, the precise functional role played by the hippocampus in support of human memory has been fiercely debated. For instance, the single question of whether the hippocampus plays a time-limited or an indelible role in the recollection of personal memories led to a deep and tenacious schism within the field. Similar polarizations arose between those who debated the precise nature of the role played by the hippocampus in support of semantic relative to episodic memories and in recall/recollection relative to familiarity-based recognition. At the epicenter of these divisions lies conflicting neuropsychological findings. These differences likely arise due to the consistent use of heterogeneous patient populations to adjudicate between these positions. Here we utilized traditional neuropsychological measures in a homogenous patient population with a highly discrete hippocampal lesion (i.e., VGKCC-Ab related autoimmune limbic encephalitis patients). We observed consistent impairment of recent episodic memories, a present but less striking impairment of remote episodic memories, preservation of personal semantic memory, and recall but not recognition memory deficits. We conclude that this increasingly well-characterized patient group may represent an important homogeneous population in which the functional role played by the hippocampus may be more precisely delineated.

Déjà vu and prescience in a case of severe episodic amnesia following bilateral hippocampal lesions

Several studies pertaining to déjà vu have consistently made a connection with the perirhinal region, a region located below the hippocampus. This idea is strengthened by the fact that déjà vu is an erroneous sense of familiarity and that familiarity appears to largely depend on the perirhinal region in healthy subjects. In this context, the role of the hippocampus is particularly unclear as it is unknown whether or not it plays a role in the genesis of déjà vu. We report on the case of OHVR, an epileptic patient who suffers from severe episodic amnesia related to massive isolated bilateral damage to the hippocampus. In contrast, the perirhinal region is intact structurally and functionally. This patient reports frequent déjà vu but also another experiential phenomenon with a prominent feeling of prescience, which shows some of the characteristics of déjà vécu. She clearly distinguishes both. She also developed a form of synaesthesia by attributing affective valence to numbers. This study shows that déjà vu can occur in cases of amnesia with massively damaged hippocampi and confirms that the perirhinal region is a core region for déjà vu, using a different approach from previous reports. It also provides clues about a potential influence of hippocampal alterations in déjà vécu.

Left entorhinal cortex and object recognition

The present research explored the role of the medial temporal lobes in object memory in the unique patient MR, who has a selective lesion to her left lateral entorhinal cortex. Two experiments explored recognition memory for object identity and object location in MR and matched controls. The results showed that MR had intact performance in an object location task [MR=0.70, controls=0.69, t(6)=0.06, P>0.05], but was impaired in an object identity task [MR=0.62, controls=0.84, t(6)=-4.12, P<0.05]. No differences in correct recollection or familiarity emerged. These results suggest a differential role of the entorhinal cortex in object recognition memory. The current research is therefore the first patient study to show the role of the lateral entorhinal cortex in object identity recognition and suggests that current medial temporal lobe theoretical models on both object and recognition memory require a theoretical re-think to account for the contributions of the entorhinal cortex in these processes.

Episodic recognition memory and the hippocampus in Parkinson's disease: A review

Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder of aging. The hallmark pathophysiology includes the development of neuronal Lewy bodies in the substantia nigra of the midbrain with subsequent loss of dopaminergic neurons. These neuronal losses lead to the characteristic motor symptoms of bradykinesia, rigidity, and rest tremor. In addition to these cardinal motor symptoms patients with PD experience a wide range of non-motor symptoms, the most important being cognitive impairments that in many circumstances lead to dementia. People with PD experience a wide range of cognitive impairments; in this review we will focus on memory impairment in PD and specifically episodic memory, which are memories of day-to-day events of life. Importantly, these memory impairments severely impact the lives of patients and caregivers alike. Traditionally episodic memory is considered to be markedly dependent on the hippocampus; therefore, it is important to understand the exact nature of PD episodic memory deficits in relation to hippocampal function and dysfunction. In this review, we discuss an aspect of episodic memory called recognition memory and its subcomponents called recollection and familiarity. Recognition memory is believed to be impaired in PD; thus, we discuss what aspects of the hippocampus are expected to be deficient in function as they relate to these recognition memory impairments. In addition to the hippocampus as a whole, we will discuss the role of hippocampal subfields in recognition memory impairments.

It takes me back: The mnemonic time-travel effect

Given the links between motion and temporal thinking, it is surprising that no studies have examined the possibility that transporting participants back mentally towards the time of encoding could improve memory. Six experiments investigated whether backward motion would promote recall relative to forward motion or no-motion conditions. Participants saw a video of a staged crime (Experiments 1, 3 and 5), a word list (Experiments 2 and 4) or a set of pictures (Experiment 6). Then, they walked forward or backwards (Experiments 1 and 2), watched a forward- or backward-directed optic flow-inducing video (Experiments 3 and 4) or imagined walking forward or backwards (Experiments 5 and 6). Finally, they answered questions about the video or recalled words or pictures. The results demonstrated for the first time that motion-induced past-directed mental time travel improved mnemonic performance for different types of information. We briefly discuss theoretical and practical implications of this "mnemonic time-travel effect".

Medial thalamic stroke and its impact on familiarity and recollection

Models of recognition memory have postulated that the mammillo-thalamic tract (MTT)/anterior thalamic nucleus (AN) complex would be critical for recollection while the Mediodorsal nucleus (MD) of the thalamus would support familiarity and indirectly also be involved in recollection (Aggleton et al., 2011). 12 patients with left thalamic stroke underwent a neuropsychological assessment, three verbal recognition memory tasks assessing familiarity and recollection each using different procedures and a high-resolution structural MRI. Patients showed poor recollection on all three tasks. In contrast, familiarity was spared in each task. No patient had significant AN lesions. Critically, a subset of 5 patients had lesions of the MD without lesions of the MTT. They also showed impaired recollection but preserved familiarity. Recollection is therefore impaired following MD damage, but familiarity is not. This suggests that models of familiarity, which assign a critical role to the MD, should be reappraised.

Material Specificity Drives Medial Temporal Lobe Familiarity But Not Hippocampal Recollection

The specific role of the perirhinal (PRC), entorhinal (ERC) and parahippocampal cortices (PHC) in supporting familiarity‐based recognition remains unknown. An fMRI study explored whether these medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures responded in the same way or differentially to familiarity as a function of stimulus type at recognition. A secondary aim was to explore whether the hippocampus responds in the same way to equally strong familiarity and recollection and whether this is influenced by the kind of stimulus involved. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that familiarity responses in the PRC, ERC, PHC and the amygdala are material‐specific. Specifically, the PRC and ERC selectively responded to object familiarity, while the PHC responded to both object and scene familiarity. The amygdala only responded to familiarity memory for faces. The hippocampus did not respond to stimulus familiarity for any of the three types of stimuli, but it did respond to recollection for all three types of stimuli. This was true even when recollection was contrasted to equally accurate familiarity. Overall, the findings suggest that the role of the MTL neocortices and the amygdala in familiarity‐based recognition depends on the kind of stimulus in memory, whereas the role of the hippocampus in recollection is independent of the type of cuing stimulus. © 2016 The Authors Hippocampus Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.