Inferotemporal Cortex Reflects Single-exposure Visual Memory Judgments

Published

As we go about our daily lives, we store visual memories of the objects and scenes that we encounter. This type of memory, known as visual recognition memory, can be remarkably powerful.

Imagine viewing thousands of images for only a few seconds each, for example. Several days later, you will still be able to distinguish most of those images from previously unseen ones.

How does the brain do this?

Inferotemporal Cortex Neurons

Visual information travels from the eyes to an area of the brain called visual cortex. Neurons in a region of visual cortex called inferotemporal cortex fire in a particular pattern to reflect what is being seen.

These neurons also reflect memories of whether those things have been seen before, by firing more when things are new and less when they are viewed again. This decrease in firing, known as repetition suppression, may be the signal in the brain responsible for the sense of remembering.

Travis Meyer and Nicole Rust from the University of Pennsylvania have now tested this idea by training macaque monkeys to report whether images on a screen were new or familiar. The monkeys were very good at remembering the images they had seen more recently, although they tended to forget some of the images with time.

Then, the rate at which the monkeys forgot the images was compared with the rate at which repetition suppression disappeared in inferotemporal cortex.

Visual Recognition Memory

The results showed that the total number of firing events in this region was not a great predictor of how long the monkeys remembered images.

However, a decrease in the number of firing events for a particular subset of the neurons did predict the remembering and forgetting. Repetition suppression in certain inferotemporal cortex neurons can thus account for visual recognition memory.

Brain disorders and aging can both give rise to memory deficits. Identifying the mechanisms underlying memory may lead to new treatments for memory-related disorders.

Visual recognition memory may be a good place to start because of our existing knowledge of how the brain processes visual information. Understanding visual recognition memory could help us understand the mechanisms of memory more broadly.

Funding support for the work came from the National Eye Institute, Simons Foundation, and McNight Endowment for Neuroscience.

Travis Meyer, Nicole Rust
Single-exposure visual memory judgments are reflected in inferotemporal cortex
eLife 2018;7:e32259

Authors: Travis Meyer, Nicole Rust. © 2018 eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. Republished via Creative Commons Attribution license.