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Differentiable Processing of Objects, Associations, and Scenes within the Hippocampus
The hippocampus is known to be important for a range of cognitive functions, including episodic memory, spatial navigation, and thinking about the future. However, researchers have found it difficult to agree on the exact nature of this brain structure's contribution to cognition. Some theories...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Society for Neuroscience
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6146500/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30082418 http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0263-18.2018 |
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author | Dalton, Marshall A. Zeidman, Peter McCormick, Cornelia Maguire, Eleanor A. |
author_facet | Dalton, Marshall A. Zeidman, Peter McCormick, Cornelia Maguire, Eleanor A. |
author_sort | Dalton, Marshall A. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The hippocampus is known to be important for a range of cognitive functions, including episodic memory, spatial navigation, and thinking about the future. However, researchers have found it difficult to agree on the exact nature of this brain structure's contribution to cognition. Some theories emphasize the role of the hippocampus in associative processes. Another theory proposes that scene construction is its primary role. To directly compare these accounts of hippocampal function in human males and females, we devised a novel mental imagery paradigm where different tasks were closely matched for associative processing and mental construction, but either did or did not evoke scene representations, and we combined this with high-resolution functional MRI. The results were striking in showing that different parts of the hippocampus, along with distinct cortical regions, were recruited for scene construction or nonscene-evoking associative processing. The contrasting patterns of neural engagement could not be accounted for by differences in eye movements, mnemonic processing, or the phenomenology of mental imagery. These results inform conceptual debates in the field by showing that the hippocampus does not seem to favor one type of process over another; it is not a story of exclusivity. Rather, there may be different circuits within the hippocampus, each associated with different cortical inputs, which become engaged depending on the nature of the stimuli and the task at hand. Overall, our findings emphasize the importance of considering the hippocampus as a heterogeneous structure, and that a focus on characterizing how specific portions of the hippocampus interact with other brain regions may promote a better understanding of its role in cognition. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The hippocampus is known to be important for a range of cognitive functions, including episodic memory, spatial navigation, and thinking about the future. However, researchers have found it difficult to agree on the exact nature of this brain structure's contribution to cognition. Here we used a novel mental imagery paradigm and high-resolution functional MRI to compare accounts of hippocampal function that emphasize associative processes with a theory that proposes scene construction as a primary role. The results were striking in showing that different parts of the hippocampus, along with distinct cortical regions, were recruited for scene construction or nonscene-evoking associative processing. We conclude that a greater emphasis on characterizing how specific portions of the hippocampus interact with other brain regions may promote a better understanding of its role in cognition. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6146500 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Society for Neuroscience |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-61465002018-09-25 Differentiable Processing of Objects, Associations, and Scenes within the Hippocampus Dalton, Marshall A. Zeidman, Peter McCormick, Cornelia Maguire, Eleanor A. J Neurosci Research Articles The hippocampus is known to be important for a range of cognitive functions, including episodic memory, spatial navigation, and thinking about the future. However, researchers have found it difficult to agree on the exact nature of this brain structure's contribution to cognition. Some theories emphasize the role of the hippocampus in associative processes. Another theory proposes that scene construction is its primary role. To directly compare these accounts of hippocampal function in human males and females, we devised a novel mental imagery paradigm where different tasks were closely matched for associative processing and mental construction, but either did or did not evoke scene representations, and we combined this with high-resolution functional MRI. The results were striking in showing that different parts of the hippocampus, along with distinct cortical regions, were recruited for scene construction or nonscene-evoking associative processing. The contrasting patterns of neural engagement could not be accounted for by differences in eye movements, mnemonic processing, or the phenomenology of mental imagery. These results inform conceptual debates in the field by showing that the hippocampus does not seem to favor one type of process over another; it is not a story of exclusivity. Rather, there may be different circuits within the hippocampus, each associated with different cortical inputs, which become engaged depending on the nature of the stimuli and the task at hand. Overall, our findings emphasize the importance of considering the hippocampus as a heterogeneous structure, and that a focus on characterizing how specific portions of the hippocampus interact with other brain regions may promote a better understanding of its role in cognition. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The hippocampus is known to be important for a range of cognitive functions, including episodic memory, spatial navigation, and thinking about the future. However, researchers have found it difficult to agree on the exact nature of this brain structure's contribution to cognition. Here we used a novel mental imagery paradigm and high-resolution functional MRI to compare accounts of hippocampal function that emphasize associative processes with a theory that proposes scene construction as a primary role. The results were striking in showing that different parts of the hippocampus, along with distinct cortical regions, were recruited for scene construction or nonscene-evoking associative processing. We conclude that a greater emphasis on characterizing how specific portions of the hippocampus interact with other brain regions may promote a better understanding of its role in cognition. Society for Neuroscience 2018-09-19 /pmc/articles/PMC6146500/ /pubmed/30082418 http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0263-18.2018 Text en Copyright © 2018 Dalton et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed. |
spellingShingle | Research Articles Dalton, Marshall A. Zeidman, Peter McCormick, Cornelia Maguire, Eleanor A. Differentiable Processing of Objects, Associations, and Scenes within the Hippocampus |
title | Differentiable Processing of Objects, Associations, and Scenes within the Hippocampus |
title_full | Differentiable Processing of Objects, Associations, and Scenes within the Hippocampus |
title_fullStr | Differentiable Processing of Objects, Associations, and Scenes within the Hippocampus |
title_full_unstemmed | Differentiable Processing of Objects, Associations, and Scenes within the Hippocampus |
title_short | Differentiable Processing of Objects, Associations, and Scenes within the Hippocampus |
title_sort | differentiable processing of objects, associations, and scenes within the hippocampus |
topic | Research Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6146500/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30082418 http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0263-18.2018 |
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