Cortico-hippocampal network connections support the multidimensional quality of episodic memory

Abstract
Data availability
Article and author information
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Abstract

Episodic memories reflect a bound representation of multimodal features that can be reinstated with varying precision. Yet little is known about how brain networks involved in memory, including the hippocampus and posterior-medial (PM) and anterior-temporal (AT) systems, interact to support the quality and content of recollection. Participants learned color, spatial, and emotion associations of objects, later reconstructing the visual features using a continuous color spectrum and 360-degree panorama scenes. Behaviorally, dependencies in memory were observed for the gist but not precision of event associations. Supporting this integration, hippocampus, AT, and PM regions showed increased connectivity and reduced modularity during retrieval compared to encoding. These inter-network connections tracked a multidimensional, objective measure of memory quality. Moreover, distinct patterns of connectivity tracked item color and spatial memory precision. These findings demonstrate how hippocampal-cortical connections reconfigure during episodic retrieval, and how such dynamic interactions might flexibly support the multidimensional quality of remembered events.

Data availability

Data and code have been made available via GitHub: https://github.com/memobc/paper-orbitfmri

The following data sets were generated

1. Cooper RA
2. Ritchey M
(2019) A functional neuroimaging study of item and spatial context memory precision
GitHub, memobc/paper-orbitfmri.

https://github.com/memobc/paper-orbitfmri

The following previously published data sets were used

1. Brady TF
2. Konkle T
3. Gill J
4. Oliva A
5. Alvarez GA
(2013) Visual long-term memory has the same limit on fidelity as visual working memory
bradylab.ucsd.edu, stimuli.

https://bradylab.ucsd.edu/stimuli.html
1. Xiao J
2. Ehinger KA
3. Oliva A
4. Torralba A
(2012) Recognizing Scene Viewpoint using Panoramic Place Representation
people.csail.mit.edu/jxiao, SUN360.

http://people.csail.mit.edu/jxiao/SUN360/
1. Bradley MM
2. Lang PJ
(2007) The International Affective Digitized Sounds (2nd Edition; IADS-2)
csea.phhp.ufl.edu, IADS.

https://csea.phhp.ufl.edu/media/iadsmessage.html

Article and author information

Author details

Rose A Cooper

Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, United States

For correspondence
rose.cooper@bc.edu

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1521-8371
Maureen Ritchey

Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5957-3642

Funding

National Institutes of Health (R00MH103401)

Maureen Ritchey

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Human subjects: Informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to the experiment. Procedures were approved by the Boston College Institutional Review Board (17.026).

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.