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The Journal of Neuroscience, August 20, 2008, 28(34):8539-8544; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0987-08.2008

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Scenes Unseen: The Parahippocampal Cortex Intrinsically Subserves Contextual Associations, Not Scenes or Places Per Se

Moshe Bar,¹ Elissa Aminoff,^1,2 and Daniel L. Schacter^1,2

¹Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, and ²Psychology Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02115

Correspondence should be addressed to Moshe Bar, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 149 Thirteenth Street, Charlestown, MA 02129. Email: bar{at}nmr.mgh.harvard.edu

The parahippocampal cortex (PHC) has been implicated in both place/scene processing and episodic memory. We proposed that this region should instead be seen as intrinsically mediating contextual associations and not place/scene processing or episodic memory exclusively. Given that place/scene processing and episodic memory both rely on associations, this modified framework provides a platform for reconciling what seemed like different roles assigned to the same region. Comparing scenes with scenes, we show here that the PHC responds significantly more strongly to scenes with rich contextual associations compared with scenes of equal visual qualities but less associations. This result adds unequivocal support to the view that the PHC mediates contextual associations in general rather than places or scenes proper, and necessitates a revision of the current view that the PHC contains a dedicated place/scenes "module."

Key words: context; PPA; scenes; associations; parahippocampal cortex; fMRI

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Received Nov. 15, 2007; revised June 17, 2008; accepted July 9, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Moshe Bar, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 149 Thirteenth Street, Charlestown, MA 02129. Email: bar{at}nmr.mgh.harvard.edu

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. A. Epstein and E. J. Ward How Reliable Are Visual Context Effects in the Parahippocampal Place Area? Cereb Cortex, June 16, 2009; (2009) bhp099v2. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. L. Schacter and D. R. Addis On the nature of medial temporal lobe contributions to the constructive simulation of future events Phil Trans R Soc B, May 12, 2009; 364(1521): 1245 - 1253. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				H. Lehn, H.-A. Steffenach, N. M. van Strien, D. J. Veltman, M. P. Witter, and A. K. Haberg A Specific Role of the Human Hippocampus in Recall of Temporal Sequences J. Neurosci., March 18, 2009; 29(11): 3475 - 3484. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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