The Role of Meaning in Visual Memory: Face-Selective Brain Activity Predicts Memory for Ambiguous Face Stimuli
The Role of Meaning in Visual Memory: Face-Selective Brain Activity Predicts Memory for Ambiguous Face Stimuli
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DOI：
10.1523/jneurosci.1693-18.2018
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发表时间：
2019-02-06
影响因子：
5.3
通讯作者：
Stormer, Viola S.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Brady, Timothy F.;Alvarez, George A.;Stormer, Viola S.
人们处理图像的方式会影响对这些图像的记忆，但这些影响通常是通过使用明确的任务指令来改变编码来研究的。在这里，我们调查的内在变化在后续的记忆处理的影响，测试是否识别一个模糊的刺激有意义的（作为一张脸与形状斑点）预测随后的视觉记忆，即使匹配的感知特征和编码策略之间随后记住，随后忘记的项目。我们在成年人中表明，无论性别如何，单次试验EEG活动都可以预测参与者是否会随后记住模糊的Mooney面部图像（例如，有时将被视为面部而有时不被视为面部的图像）。此外，我们表明，一个分类器训练只区分参与者是否感知到一个脸与非脸可以概括预测一个模糊的图像是否随后记住。此外，当我们检查N170（一种与事件相关的面部处理潜在指数）时，我们发现，引发较大N170的图像比引发较小N170的图像更容易被记住，即使完全相同的图像在参与者中引发较大或较小的N170。因此，在编码期间被处理为有意义的图像（在这种情况下为面部）比未被处理为面部的相同图像更好地被记住。这提供了强有力的证据表明，在编码过程中理解刺激的含义在视觉记忆中起着关键作用。
How people process images is known to affect memory for those images, but these effects have typically been studied using explicit task instructions to vary encoding. Here, we investigate the effects of intrinsic variation in processing on subsequent memory, testing whether recognizing an ambiguous stimulus as meaningful (as a face vs as shape blobs) predicts subsequent visual memory even when matching the perceptual features and the encoding strategy between subsequently remembered and subsequently forgotten items. We show in adult humans of either sex that single trial EEG activity can predict whether participants will subsequently remember an ambiguous Mooney face image (e.g., an image that will sometimes be seen as a face and sometimes not be seen as a face). In addition, we show that a classifier trained only to discriminate between whether participants perceive a face versus non-face can generalize to predict whether an ambiguous image is subsequently remembered. Furthermore, when we examine the N170, an event-related potential index of face processing, we find that images that elicit larger N170s are more likely to be remembered than those that elicit smaller N170s, even when the exact same image elicited larger or smaller N170s across participants. Thus, images processed as meaningful, in this case as a face, during encoding are better remembered than identical images that are not processed as a face. This provides strong evidence that understanding the meaning of a stimulus during encoding plays a critical role in visual memory.