Neural mechanisms of context effects on face recognition: automatic binding and context shift decrements.
Abstract
Although people do not normally try to remember associations between faces and physical
contexts, these associations are established automatically, as indicated by the difficulty
of recognizing familiar faces in different contexts ("butcher-on-the-bus" phenomenon).
The present fMRI study investigated the automatic binding of faces and scenes. In
the face-face (F-F) condition, faces were presented alone during both encoding and
retrieval, whereas in the face/scene-face (FS-F) condition, they were presented overlaid
on scenes during encoding but alone during retrieval (context change). Although participants
were instructed to focus only on the faces during both encoding and retrieval, recognition
performance was worse in the FS-F than in the F-F condition ("context shift decrement"
[CSD]), confirming automatic face-scene binding during encoding. This binding was
mediated by the hippocampus as indicated by greater subsequent memory effects (remembered
> forgotten) in this region for the FS-F than the F-F condition. Scene memory was
mediated by right parahippocampal cortex, which was reactivated during successful
retrieval when the faces were associated with a scene during encoding (FS-F condition).
Analyses using the CSD as a regressor yielded a clear hemispheric asymmetry in medial
temporal lobe activity during encoding: Left hippocampal and parahippocampal activity
was associated with a smaller CSD, indicating more flexible memory representations
immune to context changes, whereas right hippocampal/rhinal activity was associated
with a larger CSD, indicating less flexible representations sensitive to context change.
Taken together, the results clarify the neural mechanisms of context effects on face
recognition.
Type
Journal articleSubject
AdultAutomatism
Brain
Brain Mapping
Face
Female
Functional Laterality
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Mental Recall
Oxygen
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Photic Stimulation
Reaction Time
Recognition (Psychology)
Statistics as Topic
Young Adult
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4621Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1162/jocn.2009.21379Publication Info
Hayes, Scott M; Baena, Elsa; Truong, Trong-Kha; & Cabeza, Roberto (2010). Neural mechanisms of context effects on face recognition: automatic binding and context
shift decrements. J Cogn Neurosci, 22(11). pp. 2541-2554. 10.1162/jocn.2009.21379. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4621.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Roberto Cabeza
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
My laboratory investigates the neural correlates of memory and cognition in young
and older adults using fMRI. We have three main lines of research: First, we distinguish
the neural correlates of various episodic memory processes. For example, we have compared
encoding vs. retrieval, item vs. source memory, recall vs. recognition, true vs. false
memory, and emotional vs. nonemotional memory. We are particularly interested in the
contribution of prefrontal cortex (PFC) and medial temporal lobe (M
Trong-Kha Truong
Associate Professor in Radiology
My research involves the development of innovative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
coil technologies, image acquisition and reconstruction methods, artifact correction
methods, and contrast mechanisms for various MRI applications in the human brain and
body, such as diffusion-weighted imaging and functional MRI.
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