Overlapping parietal activity in memory and perception: evidence for the attention to memory model

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroimaging
• Human Brain Function

Background:

• The precise roles of parietal cortex regions in episodic memory retrieval are debated.
• The Attention to Memory (AtoM) model proposes distinct roles for dorsal parietal cortex (DPC) in top-down attention and ventral parietal cortex (VPC) in bottom-up attention.
• AtoM posits these attentional functions are shared between memory and perception.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test the hypothesis that DPC and VPC have similar attentional functions in both memory and perception tasks.
• To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying attention during episodic retrieval and sensory detection.

Main Methods:

• Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to scan participants.
• Participants performed both memory and perception tasks, each with an orienting (top-down attention) and a detection (bottom-up attention) phase.
• Connectivity analyses examined interactions between parietal regions and other brain areas.

Main Results:

• Activity related to orienting overlapped in DPC for both memory and perception, particularly in the left intraparietal sulcus.
• Activity related to detection overlapped in VPC for both memory and perception, particularly in the left temporoparietal junction (TPJ).
• DPC and VPC showed stronger connectivity with the medial-temporal lobe during memory tasks and with visual cortex during perception tasks.

Conclusions:

• Findings support the AtoM model, indicating shared attentional control mechanisms in DPC and VPC for memory and perception.
• Parietal regions mediate similar attentional processes (orienting in DPC, detection in VPC) for different information types (mnemonic vs. sensory).
• The study highlights the functional overlap and distinct connectivity patterns of parietal regions in attention across memory and perception.