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Basic perceptual changes that alter meaning and neural correlates of recognition memory

It is difficult to pinpoint the border between perceptual and conceptual processing, despite their treatment as distinct entities in many studies of recognition memory. For instance, alteration of simple perceptual characteristics of a stimulus can radically change meaning, such as the color of brea...

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Autores principales: Gao, Chuanji, Hermiller, Molly S., Voss, Joel L., Guo, Chunyan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4324141/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25717298
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00049
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author Gao, Chuanji
Hermiller, Molly S.
Voss, Joel L.
Guo, Chunyan
author_facet Gao, Chuanji
Hermiller, Molly S.
Voss, Joel L.
Guo, Chunyan
author_sort Gao, Chuanji
collection PubMed
description It is difficult to pinpoint the border between perceptual and conceptual processing, despite their treatment as distinct entities in many studies of recognition memory. For instance, alteration of simple perceptual characteristics of a stimulus can radically change meaning, such as the color of bread changing from white to green. We sought to better understand the role of perceptual and conceptual processing in memory by identifying the effects of changing a basic perceptual feature (color) on behavioral and neural correlates of memory in circumstances when this change would be expected to either change the meaning of a stimulus or to have no effect on meaning (i.e., to influence conceptual processing or not). Abstract visual shapes (“squiggles”) were colorized during study and presented during test in either the same color or a different color. Those squiggles that subjects found to resemble meaningful objects supported behavioral measures of conceptual priming, whereas meaningless squiggles did not. Further, changing color from study to test had a selective effect on behavioral correlates of priming for meaningful squiggles, indicating that color change altered conceptual processing. During a recognition memory test, color change altered event-related brain potential (ERP) correlates of memory for meaningful squiggles but not for meaningless squiggles. Specifically, color change reduced the amplitude of frontally distributed N400 potentials (FN400), implying that these potentials indicated conceptual processing during recognition memory that was sensitive to color change. In contrast, color change had no effect on FN400 correlates of recognition for meaningless squiggles, which were overall smaller in amplitude than for meaningful squiggles (further indicating that these potentials signal conceptual processing during recognition). Thus, merely changing the color of abstract visual shapes can alter their meaning, changing behavioral and neural correlates of memory. These findings are relevant to understanding similarities and distinctions between perceptual and conceptual processing as well as the functional interpretation of neural correlates of recognition memory.
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spelling pubmed-43241412015-02-25 Basic perceptual changes that alter meaning and neural correlates of recognition memory Gao, Chuanji Hermiller, Molly S. Voss, Joel L. Guo, Chunyan Front Hum Neurosci Neuroscience It is difficult to pinpoint the border between perceptual and conceptual processing, despite their treatment as distinct entities in many studies of recognition memory. For instance, alteration of simple perceptual characteristics of a stimulus can radically change meaning, such as the color of bread changing from white to green. We sought to better understand the role of perceptual and conceptual processing in memory by identifying the effects of changing a basic perceptual feature (color) on behavioral and neural correlates of memory in circumstances when this change would be expected to either change the meaning of a stimulus or to have no effect on meaning (i.e., to influence conceptual processing or not). Abstract visual shapes (“squiggles”) were colorized during study and presented during test in either the same color or a different color. Those squiggles that subjects found to resemble meaningful objects supported behavioral measures of conceptual priming, whereas meaningless squiggles did not. Further, changing color from study to test had a selective effect on behavioral correlates of priming for meaningful squiggles, indicating that color change altered conceptual processing. During a recognition memory test, color change altered event-related brain potential (ERP) correlates of memory for meaningful squiggles but not for meaningless squiggles. Specifically, color change reduced the amplitude of frontally distributed N400 potentials (FN400), implying that these potentials indicated conceptual processing during recognition memory that was sensitive to color change. In contrast, color change had no effect on FN400 correlates of recognition for meaningless squiggles, which were overall smaller in amplitude than for meaningful squiggles (further indicating that these potentials signal conceptual processing during recognition). Thus, merely changing the color of abstract visual shapes can alter their meaning, changing behavioral and neural correlates of memory. These findings are relevant to understanding similarities and distinctions between perceptual and conceptual processing as well as the functional interpretation of neural correlates of recognition memory. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-02-11 /pmc/articles/PMC4324141/ /pubmed/25717298 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00049 Text en Copyright © 2015 Gao, Hermiller, Voss and Guo. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Gao, Chuanji
Hermiller, Molly S.
Voss, Joel L.
Guo, Chunyan
Basic perceptual changes that alter meaning and neural correlates of recognition memory
title Basic perceptual changes that alter meaning and neural correlates of recognition memory
title_full Basic perceptual changes that alter meaning and neural correlates of recognition memory
title_fullStr Basic perceptual changes that alter meaning and neural correlates of recognition memory
title_full_unstemmed Basic perceptual changes that alter meaning and neural correlates of recognition memory
title_short Basic perceptual changes that alter meaning and neural correlates of recognition memory
title_sort basic perceptual changes that alter meaning and neural correlates of recognition memory
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4324141/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25717298
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00049
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