Recollection versus strength as the primary determinant of hippocampal engagement at retrieval

We examined whether hippocampal activity in recognition relates to the strength of the memory or to recollective experience, a subject of considerable current debate. Participants studied word pairs and then made two successive recognition decisions on each item: first on the uncued target and then on the target presented with the studied cue word. We compared recollection and familiarity patterns of activation in fMRI for these decisions. Critically, our analyses attempted in two ways to equate perceived memory strength while varying the associative information available. First, activity for targets judged familiar before cueing was contrasted with activity for the same items in the second decision as a function of whether the targets converted to recollection or remained familiar when the context cues were provided. We found increased hippocampal activity following cueing only with recollective conversion. Second, we investigated whether hippocampal activity was modulated by the rated familiarity strength of cued items or whether it increased uniquely in recollection. Hippocampal activation was not modulated parametrically by familiarity strength and recollected items were associated with greater activity relative to highly familiar items. Together, our results support the notion that it is recollection of context, rather than memory strength, that underlies hippocampal engagement at retrieval.