Perception and Memory Reinstatement Engage Overlapping Face-Selective Regions within Human Ventral Temporal Cortex

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroimaging
• Human Intracranial Recordings

Background:

• The theory of sensory reinstatement posits that recalling past experiences reactivates specific brain regions involved in initial perception.
• Studies on scene memory suggest a spatial shift (anteriorization) of neural activity during retrieval compared to perception.
• Evidence for such spatial transformations in other stimulus categories, like faces, remains inconsistent, posing challenges due to individual differences in brain organization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether spatial transformations in neural activity occur during face memory retrieval.
• To examine the pattern of activity within individual face-selective regions in the ventral temporal cortex (VTC) during face perception and retrieval.
• To compare neural activity patterns during face memory with findings from scene memory studies.

Main Methods:

• Multisession neuroimaging study with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to map individual face-selective regions in the VTC.
• Second session focused on examining activity patterns during face memory encoding and retrieval within these mapped regions.
• Inclusion of human intracranial recordings from the VTC under identical experimental conditions.

Main Results:

• Face-selective regions in the VTC were engaged during both face perception at encoding and during memory retrieval.
• Memory retrieval showed a more selective and constricted pattern of reinstatement within face-selective regions compared to perception.
• No consistent spatial transformation (e.g., anteriorization) of activity was observed during face memory retrieval.
• Intracranial recordings corroborated the fMRI findings regarding activity patterns during face memory.

Conclusions:

• Neural activity during face memory retrieval is characterized by a selective and constricted reinstatement within category-selective cortices.
• Unlike scene memory, face memory retrieval in the VTC does not exhibit a consistent anterior spatial shift.
• The complex, individual-specific organization of category-selective cortex is crucial for understanding perception-to-memory transformations.