Fig. 5: Perception and explicit memory recall (i.e. mental imagery) differentially engage the scene-perception and place-memory areas.
From: A network linking scene perception and spatial memory systems in posterior cerebral cortex
a In Experiment 4, participants (n = 14) saw panning movies of unfamiliar places (perception trials) or performed explicit memory recall (i.e. mental imagery) of personally familiar places (mental imagery trials). b BOLD activation during mental imagery of places compared to baseline for a representative subject. Below baseline activation within the perceptual areas PPA (ventral) and OPA (lateral) are highlighted. Only vertices within the scene-perception network (SPN; white) and place-memory network (PMN; burgundy) are shown. c The scene-perception areas and place-memory areas are differentially engaged during scene perception and mental imagery. Activation versus baseline of the scene-perception (open bars) and place-memory areas (filled bars) during perception of places (pink) or mental imagery of places (red). A linear mixed effects model analysis revealed that on each cortical surface, there was a significant dissociation in activation during perception and mental imagery, where the scene perception areas were significantly more active during perception, while the place-memory areas were significantly more active during mental imagery of places (ROI × Task interaction—Lateral: F(1,91) = 237.37; p < 0.001; Ventral: F(1,91) = 78.19; p < 0.001; Medial: F(1,91) = 28.96; p < 0.001). Early visual cortex (Supplementary Fig. 11) and amygdala (Supplementary Fig. 12) also showed below baseline responses during mental imagery; hippocampus responded more to perception compared to imagery, but positively in both conditions (Supplementary Fig. 12). In all plots, n.s., p > 0.05; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001. OPA—occipital place area, LPMA—lateral place-memory area, PPA—parahippocampal plaace area, VPMA—ventral place-memory area, MPA—medial place area, MPMA—medial place-memory area.
