Schedule of Events | Symposia

Lateral Prefrontal Cortex is Similarly Associated With Color Source Memory and Spatial Source Memory

Poster Session E - Monday, March 31, 2025, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Carolina E Carneiro¹ (carneir@bc.edu), Haley A Fritch², Ashley C Steinkrauss¹, Robert S Ross³, Scott D Slotnick¹; ¹Boston College, ²Broad Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Harvard University, ³Johns Hopkins University

Source memory refers to retrieval of contextual information (e.g., whether an object was presented on an indoor vs. outdoor scene, red vs. green background color, left vs. right spatial location, etc.). Although source memory has been associated with the lateral prefrontal cortex, the parietal cortex, and the medial temporal lobe, it is unknown whether different types of source memory are associated with the same brain regions. In this fMRI study, during spatial memory encoding, line drawings of objects or animals were presented to the left or right of fixation. During spatial memory retrieval, participants classified old or new items as “left”, “right”, or “new.” During color memory encoding, line drawings of objects or animals were presented at fixation on a red or green background. During color memory retrieval, participants classified old or new items as “red”, “green”, or “new”. A conjunction analysis between spatial memory hits vs. new correct rejections and color memory hits vs. new correct rejections revealed common activity in the left dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, bilateral inferior parietal lobule, bilateral retrosplenial cortex, and bilateral thalamus. The contrast of spatial memory hits versus color memory hits produced activity in the left hippocampus, bilateral parahippocampal cortex, bilateral primary visual cortex and extrastriate cortex, bilateral intraparietal sulcus, and the right thalamus. There were no activations for the opposite contrast. These findings suggest the lateral prefrontal cortex is similarly associated with spatial and color source memory, while other regions are preferentially associated with spatial memory.

Topic Area: OTHER