From vision to memory: How scene-sensitive regions support episodic memory formation during child development

Abstract

Previous brain imaging studies have identified three brain regions that selectively respond to visual scenes, the parahippocampal place area (PPA), the occipital place area (OPA), and the retrosplenial cortex (RSC). There is growing evidence that these visual scene-sensitive regions process different types of scene information and may have different developmental timelines in supporting scene perception. How these scene-sensitive regions support memory functions during child development is largely unknown. We investigated PPA, OPA and RSC activations associated with episodic memory formation in childhood (5-7 years of age) and young adulthood, using a subsequent scene memory paradigm and a functional localizer for scenes. PPA, OPA, and RSC subsequent memory activation and functional connectivity differed between children and adults. Subsequent memory effects were found in activations of all three scene regions in adults. In children, however, robust subsequent memory effects were only found in the PPA. Functional connectivity during successful encoding was significant among the three regions in adults, but not in children. PPA subsequently memory activations and PPA-RSC subsequent memory functional connectivity correlated with accuracy in adults, but not children. These age-related differences add new evidence linking protracted development of the scene-sensitive regions to the protracted development of episodic memory.

Keywords: FMRI; High-level vision; Memory development; Perception; Scene; Subsequent memory.

Fig. 1

Memory accuracy for adults and children (Sites denoted by color. Red = MIT. Gold = WSU).

Fig. 2

Subsequent memory effects (subsequent Hit > subsequent Miss) in the group of adults (A) and children (B), and the direct contrast between subsequent memory effects in adults and children (C) (adults > children, red; children > adults, blue). For visualization purpose, subsequent memory effects are threshold at p < .005, 100 contiguous voxels. See text for robust effects threshold at p < .001, FWE cluster corrected at p < .05.

Fig. 3

Scene-sensitive regions of interest (ROIs) localization. Activations maps based on the localizer task (Scenes > Objects; overlay depicts activation in left (top) and right (bottom) hemispheres) were used to define PPA, RSC and OPA ROIs as 6 mm sphere centered at the peak activation within posterior parahippocampal gyrus (A), retrosplenial cortex (B), and lateral occipital cortex (C), respectively. PPA, parahippocampal place area; RSC, retrosplenial cortex; OPA, occipital place area.

Fig. 4

Subsequent memory activation (Hit, Miss) in scene-sensitive regions in adults and children. (Left) Adults: subsequent memory effects observed in PPA, RSC, OPA. (Right) Children: subsequent memory effects in PPA, but not RSC or OPA. PPA, parahippocampal place area; RSC, retrosplenial cortex; OPA, occipital place area. Error bars, SEM significance determined with multiple comparison correction for 6 comparisons. * p < .05; * * p < .01; * ** p < .001.

Fig. 5

Age difference in the correlation between subsequent memory activation in PPA and memory accuracy. Magnitude of subsequent memory PPA activation (subsequent Hit > subsequent Miss) was associated with memory performance in adults, but not in children. Adults: filled circles, solid line; Children: open circles, dotted line.

Fig. 6

Subsequent memory functional connectivity among the three scene-sensitive regions, separated by age groups. Mean PPI effect per group is depicted for pair-wise ROIs by hemisphere: Top, Right; Bottom, Left.

Fig. 7

Age difference in the correlation between PPA-RSC subsequent memory functional connectivity and memory accuracy. The magnitude of PPA-RSC subsequent memory functional connectivity was associated with memory performance in adults, but not in children. Adults: filled circles, solid line; Children: open circles, dotted line.

Fig. 8

Whole-brain exploratory analysis of PPA subsequent memory functional connectivity (PPI effects) in the group of adults (A), children (B), and the direct contrast between adults and children (C). Effects obtained using seed region in the right PPA. Similar patterns were observed using seed region in the left PPA. For visualization purposes, PPI effects are threshold at p < .005, 100 contiguous voxels. See text for robust effects threshold at p < .001, FWE cluster corrected at p < .05.