Pinpointing the neural mechanisms that support the remarkable visual fidelity of visual recognition memory

我们都有过这样令人困惑的经历：看到某人，记得我们认识他们，但却无法回忆起任何其他细节，比如他们是谁，或者我们是如何认识他们的。在那些时刻，有时我们所能记得的只是一个我们熟悉的人。这突出了熟悉记忆和更详细的回忆记忆之间的识别记忆的差异。我们每天依靠熟悉性记忆来记住我们是否认识特定的人和事。尽管这种类型的记忆是多么重要，我们仍然不知道熟悉记忆在我们的大脑中是如何工作的，尽管以前的研究表明，它可能利用了与回忆记忆不同的大脑网络。了解熟悉性记忆将有助于我们开发治疗记忆障碍的方法，如阿尔茨海默病和其他类型的痴呆症。 它还可以帮助我们创造更有效的教育工具，以加强儿童和成人的学习。这个项目旨在了解大脑的不同部分如何帮助我们记住我们以前是否见过的东西。为了弄清楚这一点，这个项目集中在这个问题上：一张图片必须有多大的不同，我们才能知道它与我们以前看到的图像有什么不同？该项目比较了准确熟悉性记忆过程中的大脑激活模式与熟悉性记忆混乱过程中的大脑活动，以准确确定哪些大脑区域参与支持熟悉性记忆，并加深我们对识别记忆的神经基础和结构的理解。更具体地说，这项跨物种研究的重点是了解关键大脑区域的网络，这些区域被认为在记忆中发挥作用，包括下颞叶皮层、嗅周皮层、内嗅皮层和海马体，这些区域有助于视觉识别记忆。该研究在记忆相似性任务的背景下探讨了这个问题，该任务探讨了人类和猴子在与已经看到的图像相似的诱饵图像存在的情况下区分新颖和熟悉图像的能力。目标1的重点是量化人类和猴子错误地记住看到的图像的频率，作为图像相似程度的函数。目的2：探讨熟悉性记忆的神经基础，比较猴颞下皮层、嗅周皮层、内嗅皮层和海马的神经元细胞和整体活动与记忆行为的关系。总之，这些结果将首次描述这些大脑区域对塑造视觉熟悉度和视觉识别记忆的视觉细节的差异和集体贡献。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

We have all had the perplexing experience of seeing someone and remembering that we know them, but not being able to recall any other details, such as who they are or how we know them. In those moments, sometimes all that we can remember is that a person is familiar to us. This highlights a difference in recognition memory between familiarity memory and more detailed recollection memory. We rely on familiarity memory every day to remember whether we know specific people and things. Despite how important this type of memory is, we still do not understand how familiarity memory works in our brains, although previous studies have suggested that it may utilize a different brain network than recollection memory. Understanding familiarity memory will help us develop therapeutic approaches to treat memory disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. It could also help us create more effective educational tools to enhance learning in children and adults. This project seeks to understand how different parts of the brain help us remember whether we’ve seen something before. To figure this out, this project focuses on the question: how different does a picture have to be for us to know that it’s different from an image that we remember seeing before? This project compares the pattern of brain activation during accurate familiarity memory with brain activity during confusions in familiarity memory, in order to determine precisely what brain regions are involved in supporting familiarity memory and in order to deepen our understanding of the neural basis and architecture of recognition memory. More specifically, this cross-species study focuses on understanding how a network of key brain regions, believed to play a role in memory, including inferotemporal cortex, perirhinal cortex, entorhinal cortex and the hippocampus contribute to visual recognition memory. The research explores this question in the context of a Mnemonic Similarity task, which probes the ability of humans and monkeys to distinguish novel and familiar images in the presence of lure images that are similar to images that have already been seen. Aim 1 focuses on quantifying how often humans and monkeys falsely remember seeing images as a function of how similar that the images are. Aim 2 focuses on the neural basis of familiarity memory and investigates how neuronal cell and ensemble activity in monkey inferotemporal cortex, perirhinal cortex, entorhinal cortex and the hippocampus compare with one another and correlate with memory behavior. Together, these results will, for the first time, describe the differential and collective contributions of these brain areas to shaping visual familiarity and the visual detail of visual recognition memory.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.