False memories for shape activate the lateral occipital complex

Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging evidence has shown that false memories arise from higher-level conscious processing regions rather than lower-level sensory processing regions. In the present study, we assessed whether the lateral occipital complex (LOC)—a lower-level conscious shape processing region—was associated with false memories for shape. During encoding, participants viewed intact or scrambled colored abstract shapes. During retrieval, colored disks were presented and participants indicated whether the corresponding item was previously “intact” or “scrambled.” False memories for shape (“intact”/scrambled > “scrambled”/scrambled) activated LOC, which indicates lower-level sensory processing regions can support false memory.