Dissociable contributions of the medial parietal cortex to recognition memory

Abstract

Human neuroimaging studies of episodic memory retrieval routinely observe the engagement of specific cortical regions beyond the medial temporal lobe. Of these, medial parietal cortex (MPC) is of particular interest given its ubiquitous, and yet distinct, functional characteristics during different types of retrieval tasks. Specifically, while recognition memory and autobiographical recall tasks are both used to probe episodic retrieval, these paradigms consistently drive distinct patterns of response within MPC. This dissociation adds to growing evidence suggesting a common principle of functional organization across memory related brain structures, specifically regarding the control or content demands of memory-based decisions. To carefully examine this putative organization, we used a high-resolution fMRI dataset collected at ultra-high field (7T) while subjects performed thousands of recognition-memory trials to identify MPC regions responsive to recognition-decisions or semantic content of stimuli within and across individuals. We observed interleaving, though distinct, functional subregions of MPC where responses were sensitive to either recognition decisions or the semantic representation of stimuli, but rarely both. In addition, this functional dissociation within MPC was further accentuated by distinct profiles of connectivity bias with the hippocampus during task and rest. Finally, we show that recent observations of person and place selectivity within MPC reflect category specific responses from within identified semantic regions that are sensitive to mnemonic demands. Together, these data better account for how distinct patterns of MPC responses can occur as a result of task demands during episodic retrieval and may reflect a common principle of organization throughout hippocampal-neocortical memory systems. Significance statementMedial parietal cortex (MPC) plays a growing role in contemporary theories of episodic memory, as it is reliably observed in human neuroimaging to be engaged during tasks of recognition and retrieval. However, the spatial pattern of MPC engagement consistently differs across these putatively similar episodic memory tasks. Despite a large literature indicating that the MPC is important for episodic memory, there is little consensus about its specific role. Here, we employed precision-neuroimaging to identify dissociable interleaving MPC subregions, where activity reflected either memory-based decision-making or stimulus content. This dissociation within MPC provides a better understanding for how retrieval demands shape response patterns and speaks to growing evidence for a common principle of organization across memory structures of the human brain.