Examining the Neural Basis of Congruent and Incongruent Configural Contexts during Associative Retrieval

Abstract

Disrupting the configural context, or relative organization and orientation of paired stimuli, between encoding and retrieval negatively impacts memory. Using univariate and multivariate fMRI analyses, we examined the effect of retaining and manipulating the configural context on neural mechanisms supporting associative retrieval. Behavioral results showed participants had significantly higher hit rates for recollecting pairs in a contextually congruent, versus incongruent, configuration. In addition, contextual congruency between memory phases was a critical determinant to characterizing both the magnitude and patterns of neural activation within visual and parietal cortices. Regions within visual cortices also exhibited higher correlations between patterns of activity at encoding and retrieval when configural context was congruent across memory phases than incongruent. Collectively, these findings shed light on how manipulating configural context between encoding and retrieval affects associative recognition, with changes in the configural context leading to reductions in information transfer and increases in task difficulty.

Figure 1.

Depiction of task showing both encoding conditions (side-by-side and superimposed) and retrieval conditions as a function of configural context congruency. Encoding trials displayed the question, “How welcoming is the face and scene?” and the four response choices below the face scene pair on every trial. Retrieval trials displayed the text “Please identify the pairings that have been presented previously.” on every trial above the 3 responses choices, Remember, Know, New.

Figure 2.

Whole-brain activity for (a) congruent and incongruent targets and (b) congruent and incongruent recollection at retrieval. Red = greater activity for congruent compared to incongruent; Blue = greater activity for incongruent > congruent.

Figure 3.

Encoding-Retrieval Similarity for targets broken down by condition in the inferior and middle occipital cortex.