TY - JOUR

T1 - Human parahippocampal cortex supports spatial binding in visual working memory

AU - Dundon, Neil

AU - Katshu, Mohammad Zia Ul

AU - Harry, Bronson

AU - Roberts, Daniel

AU - Leek, Charles

AU - Downing, Paul

AU - Sapir, Ayelet

AU - Roberts, Craig

AU - D-Avossa, Giovanni

N1 - This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Cerebral Cortex following peer review. The version of record is available online via the DOI in the record

PY - 2017/9/15

Y1 - 2017/9/15

N2 - Studies investigating the functional organisation of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) suggest that parahippocampal cortex (PHC) generates representations of spatial and contextual information used by the hippocampus in the formation of episodic memories. However, evidence from animal studies also implicates PHC in spatial binding of visual information held in short term, working memory. Here we examined a 46-year-old man (PJ), after he had recovered from bilateral medial occipitotemporal cortex strokes resulting in ischemic lesions of PHC and hippocampal atrophy, and a group of age-matched healthy controls. When recalling the colour of one of two objects, PJ misidentified the target when cued by its location, but not shape. When recalling the position of one of three objects, he frequently misidentified the target, which was cued by its colour. Increasing the duration of the memory delay had no impact on the proportion of binding errors, but did significantly worsen recall precision in both PJ and controls. We conclude that PHC may play a crucial role in spatial binding during encoding of visual information in working memory.

AB - Studies investigating the functional organisation of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) suggest that parahippocampal cortex (PHC) generates representations of spatial and contextual information used by the hippocampus in the formation of episodic memories. However, evidence from animal studies also implicates PHC in spatial binding of visual information held in short term, working memory. Here we examined a 46-year-old man (PJ), after he had recovered from bilateral medial occipitotemporal cortex strokes resulting in ischemic lesions of PHC and hippocampal atrophy, and a group of age-matched healthy controls. When recalling the colour of one of two objects, PJ misidentified the target when cued by its location, but not shape. When recalling the position of one of three objects, he frequently misidentified the target, which was cued by its colour. Increasing the duration of the memory delay had no impact on the proportion of binding errors, but did significantly worsen recall precision in both PJ and controls. We conclude that PHC may play a crucial role in spatial binding during encoding of visual information in working memory.

KW - Feature Binding

KW - Medial temporal lobe

KW - Parahippocampal cortex

KW - Spatial Memory

KW - Visual working memory

U2 - 10.1093/cercor/bhx231

DO - 10.1093/cercor/bhx231

M3 - Article

VL - 2017

SP - 1

EP - 11

JO - Cerebral Cortex

JF - Cerebral Cortex

SN - 1047-3211

ER -