Ventromedial prefrontal damage and memory for context: perceptual versus semantic features

Memory for context is known to rely on episodic binding and strategic retrieval processes. It is unclear, however, whether memory for different contextual features taps the same cognitive and neural mechanisms. Here, the authors compare memory for a perceptual feature (i.e., the format in which an item had been presented) and for a semantic feature (i.e., the concept with which an item had been paired) in 13 patients with lesions in ventromedial prefrontal cortex, including patients with and without confabulation, and 13 healthy controls. Participants studied picture-word pairs and received an old-new recognition test that included intact pairs, rearranged pairs, format pairs (studied pairs in which the picture-word format of each item was switched), old-new pairs, and new-new pairs. Hit rates for intact pairs were similar for all participant groups. Compared with controls, patients, especially those with confabulation, had higher false-alarm rates for format pairs but comparable false-alarm rates for rearranged pairs. The authors propose that distinct monitoring processes are engaged during retrieval of perceptual and semantic context, with only the former crucially dependent on ventromedial prefrontal cortex.