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Dissociation between memory accuracy and memory confidence following bilateral parietal lesions
Jon S Simons1, Polly V Peers, Yonatan S Mazuz
1Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. jss30@cam.ac.uk
Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
|June 23, 2009
Summary
Parietal lobe lesions in patients do not impair source memory recollection but may reduce confidence in episodic memory recall. This suggests a role for the parietal lobe in the subjective experience of memory.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neurology
Background:
- Functional neuroimaging links lateral parietal lobe activation to memory tasks, challenging traditional views.
- Neuropsychological studies show mixed results regarding parietal lobe lesions and memory deficits.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate differing results in patients with parietal lobe lesions on memory tasks.
- Clarify the parietal lobe's role in episodic recollection and autobiographical memory.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments were conducted with patients exhibiting bilateral parietal lobe lesions.
- Tasks included source recollection and autobiographical memory recall assessments.
- Behavioral relevance of mnemonic information was manipulated.
Main Results:
- Bilateral parietal lesion patients performed comparably to controls on source recollection tasks.
- Performance was not affected by reducing the behavioral relevance of mnemonic information.
- Bilateral patients reported reduced confidence in their source recollection abilities.
Conclusions:
- Parietal lobe lesions do not impair source recollection, challenging previous findings.
- Impaired autobiographical recall may not stem from bottom-up attention deficits.
- Parietal lobe damage might affect the subjective experience of episodic memory recollection.
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