QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

HOME  |   SEARCH  |   ARCHIVE  |   SUBSCRIBE  |   CONTACT  |   HELP

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (45) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Schnider, A. Articles by Buck, A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Schnider, A. Articles by Buck, A.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

The Journal of Neuroscience, August 1, 2000, 20(15):5880-5884

Selection of Currently Relevant Memories by the Human Posterior Medial Orbitofrontal Cortex

Armin Schnider¹, Valerie Treyer², and Alfred Buck²

¹ Clinique de Rééducation, University Hospital, CH-1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland, and ² PET Center, Division of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital, CH-8091 Zürich, Switzerland

We have demonstrated previously that patients producing spontaneous confabulations fail to suppress currently irrelevant memory traces, so that they act and think on the basis of a false, temporally displaced (past) reality. All spontaneous confabulators had anterior limbic damage, in particular of the orbitofrontal cortex and basal forebrain. These findings indicated that these structures are essential for distinguishing between mental representations of ongoing reality and currently irrelevant memories. In the present study, we used a similar experimental paradigm as in our clinical studies and H₂¹⁵O positron emission tomography to explore the selection of currently relevant memories by the healthy human brain. Subjects were repeatedly presented with the same set of pictures, arranged in different order each time, and were requested to indicate picture recurrences within the runs. Thus, performance in the first run depended on new learning, whereas subsequent runs required the distinction between picture repetitions within the current run ("now") and previous picture presentations in earlier runs. Whereas initial learning activated medial temporal structures, subsequent runs provoked circumscribed posterior medial orbitofrontal activation. We suggest that this area is essential for sorting out mental associations that pertain to ongoing reality.

Key words: human memory; spontaneous confabulation; anterior limbic system; reality monitoring; orbitofrontal cortex; parahippocampal gyrus; medial temporal lobe; functional imaging; PET

---

Copyright © 2000 Society for Neuroscience  0270-6474/00/20155880-05$05.00/0

This article has been cited by other articles:

				D. M. Barch, M. G. Berman, R. Engle, J. H. Jones, J. Jonides, A. MacDonald III, D. E. Nee, T. S. Redick, and S. R. Sponheim CNTRICS Final Task Selection: Working Memory Schizophr Bull, January 1, 2009; 35(1): 136 - 152. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Windmann, T. P. Urbach, and M. Kutas Cognitive and Neural Mechanisms of Decision Biases in Recognition Memory Cereb Cortex, August 1, 2002; 12(8): 808 - 817. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Petrides, B. Alivisatos, and S. Frey Differential activation of the human orbital, mid-ventrolateral, and mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during the processing of visual stimuli PNAS, April 16, 2002; 99(8): 5649 - 5654. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Schnider, N. Valenza, S. Morand, and C. M. Michel Early Cortical Distinction between Memories that Pertain to Ongoing Reality and Memories that Don't Cereb Cortex, January 1, 2002; 12(1): 54 - 61. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home  |   Search  |   Archive  |   Subscribe  |   Contact  |   Help