The Effect of Bilateral Eye Movements on Emotional Face Recognition Memory Task

AbstractMounting evidence linking gaze reinstatement- the recapitulation of encoding-related gaze patterns during retrieval- to behavioral measures of memory suggests that eye movements play an important role in mnemonic processing. Yet, the nature of the gaze scanpath, including its informational content and neural correlates, has remained in question. In the present study, we examined eye movement and neural data from a recognition memory task to further elucidate the behavioral and neural bases of functional gaze reinstatement. Consistent with previous work, gaze reinstatement during retrieval of freely-viewed scene images was greater than chance and predictive of recognition memory performance. Gaze reinstatement was also associated with viewing of informationally salient image regions at encoding, suggesting that scanpaths may encode and contain high-level scene content. At the brain level, gaze reinstatement was predicted by encoding-related activity in the occipital pole and basal ganglia, neural regions associated with visual processing and oculomotor control. Finally, cross-voxel brain pattern similarity analysis revealed overlapping subsequent memory and subsequent gaze reinstatement modulation effects in the parahippocampal place area and hippocampus, in addition to the occipital pole and basal ganglia. Together, these findings suggest that encoding-related activity in brain regions associated with scene processing, oculomotor control, and memory supports the formation, and subsequent recapitulation, of functional scanpaths. More broadly, these findings lend support to Scanpath Theory’s assertion that eye movements both encode, and are themselves embedded in, mnemonic representations.

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Mnemonic firing of neurons in the monkey temporal pole during a visual recognition memory task

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.1995.74.1.162 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 74 (1) ◽

pp. 162-178 ◽

Cited By ~ 90

Author(s):

K. Nakamura ◽

K. Kubota

Keyword(s):

Recognition Memory ◽

Visual Information ◽

Visual Recognition ◽

Discharge Rate ◽

Memory Task ◽

Delay Period ◽

Recognition Memory Task ◽

Visual Response ◽

Visual Recognition Memory ◽

Temporal Pole

1. We examined single-neuronal activity in the temporal pole of monkeys, including the anterior ventromedial temporal (VMT) cortex (the temporopolar cortex, area 36, area 35, and the entorhinal cortex) and the anterior inferotemporal (IT) cortex, during a visual recognition memory task. In the task, a trial began when the monkey pressed a lever. After a waiting period, a visual sample stimulus (S) was presented one to four times on a monitor with an interstimulus delay. Thereafter, a new stimulus (R) was presented. The monkeys were trained to remember S during the delay period and to release the lever in response to R. Colored photographs of natural objects were used as visual stimuli. 2. About 70% of the recorded neurons (225 of 311) responded to at least one of the Ss tested. Thirty percent of these neurons (68 of 225) continued to fire during the subsequent delay periods. In 75% of these neurons (51 of 68), the firing during the delay period strongly correlated with the response to S. 3. The discharge rate during the delay period did not correlate with the monkey's eye movements, pressing or releasing of the lever, or the reaction time. 4. If the monkey erroneously released the lever in response to S or during the delay period, the firing disappeared after the erroneous lever release. If the monkey failed to release the lever in response to R, the firing persisted even after R was withdrawn. The discharge rate in incorrect trials was comparable with that in correct trials. The neurons were considered to fire for as long as the memory of S was necessary. 5. Firing persisted even when an achromatic version or half (even a portion) of S was presented, indicating that the color, a particular portion, or the entire shape of S was not always necessary to elicit firing. 6. An S that elicited firing during the delay period invariably elicited a visual response. Neurons that fired during the delay period showed a higher stimulus selectivity than other visually responsive neurons in the anterior VMT cortex. Thus neurons that fire during the delay period represent a subgroup of visually responsive neurons that are selectively tuned to a certain stimulus. 7. More neurons fired during the delay period in the anterior VMT cortex than in the anterior IT cortex. 8. We conclude that firing during the delay period by neurons in the temporal pole reflects the short-term storage of visual information regarding a particular S.

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Reward motivation influences response bias on a recognition memory task

Cognition ◽

10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104337 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 203 ◽

pp. 104337

Author(s):

Holly J. Bowen ◽

Michelle L. Marchesi ◽

Elizabeth A. Kensinger

Keyword(s):

Recognition Memory ◽

Response Bias ◽

Memory Task ◽

Recognition Memory Task ◽

Reward Motivation

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Young infants' event-related potentials (ERPs) to familiar and unfamiliar visual and auditory events in a recognition memory task

Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology ◽

10.1016/0013-4694(81)90023-7 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 52 (5) ◽

pp. 405-417 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Martin J Hofmann ◽

Philip Salapatek

Keyword(s):

Recognition Memory ◽

Memory Task ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Recognition Memory Task ◽

Young Infants ◽

Related Potentials

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Aesthetic Stimuli Attract Visual Spatial Attention

Art & Perception ◽

10.1163/22134913-20191101 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 52-81

Author(s):

Bettina Rolke ◽

Madeleine Y. Stepper ◽

Verena C. Seibold ◽

Elisabeth Hein

Keyword(s):

Recognition Memory ◽

Cognitive Processing ◽

Memory Task ◽

Recognition Memory Task ◽

Dot Probe ◽

Aesthetic Value ◽

Visual Spatial ◽

Probe Task ◽

Aesthetic Appearance ◽

The Aesthetic

We investigated the relationship between attention and the aesthetic appearance of visual stimuli. In a first study, we evaluated the aesthetic value of pictures depicting chairs by means of a questionnaire. These pictures were categorized as aesthetic, neutral, or non-aesthetic and used in a second study, in which we employed a dot-probe task and a recognition memory task. In the dot-probe task, two pictures of chairs were presented to the left and to the right of fixation, followed by a dot at one of the chair pictures’ positions. Participants decided at which side the dot had been presented. To investigate the relation between the aesthetic value of the chairs and the orientation of attention, we paired either aesthetic or non-aesthetic pictures with neutral pictures. The results showed that participants reacted faster when the dot appeared at the position of the aesthetic chair than when it appeared at the position of the neutral one. Such a ‘congruency’ effect was absent for non-aesthetic chairs. This interactive pattern of results shows that aesthetic stimuli capture attention. In the recognition memory task, in which participants were asked to decide whether a chair had been presented before or not, aesthetic chairs were more accurately and faster recognized than neutral or non-aesthetic ones. Taken together, these results show that aesthetic stimuli entail prioritized cognitive processing. In a final study, we investigated which particular features of the aesthetic stimuli might be important for this effect by correlating the aesthetic evaluation of the pictures with their Gestalt impression.

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