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Deconstructing the regional contributions within the Posterior Medial Episodic Network to vivid memory recollection.

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 30, 2025, 5:00 – 7:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Kasia M Mojescik¹ (k.mojescik@sussex.ac.uk), Atusa J Saeipour¹, Jessica Daly¹, Annabel Rowney-Smith¹, Alberto Mariola¹, Sam C Berens¹, Flavia De Luca¹, Jon S Simons², Maureen Ritchey³, Chris M Bird¹; ¹University of Sussex, UK, ²University of Cambridge, UK, ³Boston College, USA

The Posterior Medial Episodic Network (PM) is critically implicated in episodic recollection. However, episodic recollection is inherently multi-dimensional and the specific contributions of individual regions within this network to distinct components of episodic memory remain poorly understood. Such components include the degree to which recollection is narrative-, emotion-, or detail-focused, and whether recall is accompanied by rich sensory imagery. We aim to deconstruct the PM network by exploring the relationship between individual differences in brain activity and behaviour. We collected a rich set of cognitive and neuroimaging data from 150 healthy young adult participants. The dataset includes: 1. An fMRI memory task employing audiovisual stimuli depicting everyday social interactions between individuals, including encoding, retrieval and vividness of recall ratings. 2. Verbal recall scored in terms of central and spatial, emotional, visual, and temporal peripheral details. 3. Ratings of each video stimulus in terms of emotionality, relatability, interest and vividness. 4. Object-location precision memory task. 5. Questionnaires of sensory imagery, autobiographical memory, sleep quality, empathy, affect and autism traits. 6. Neuropsychological tests of memory, verbal and semantic fluency, digit span, and abstract reasoning. Planned analyses include testing whether high vividness ratings correlate with increased activity in the precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex and angular gyrus, which are associated with memory elaboration. Additionally, we will use representational similarity analyses to examine whether individuals with highly vivid memories exhibit greater neural reinstatement in these regions, reflecting stable individual differences. We are planning to make this dataset freely available in the future.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic