Fiber density between rhinal cortex and activated ventrolateral prefrontal regions predicts episodic memory performance in humans

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is assumed to contribute to goaldirected episodic encoding by exerting cognitive control on medial temporal lobe (MTL) memory processes. However, it is thus far unclear to what extent the contribution of PFC-MTL interactions to memory manifests at a structural anatomical...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2011-03, Vol.108 (13), p.5408-5413
Main Authors: Schott, Björn H., Niklas, Christoph, Kaufmann, Jörn, Bodammer, Nils C., Machts, Judith, Schütze, Hartmut, Düzel, Emrah, Mishkin, Mortimer
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Anatomy
Behavior - physiology
Biological Sciences
Body regions
Brain
Brain Mapping - methods
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive ability
Connected regions
Connectivity
Correlation analysis
Diffusion Tensor Imaging - methods
Female
Hippocampus
Human subjects
Humans
Magnetic resonance imaging
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Memory
Memory encoding
Mental Recall - physiology
Neural Pathways - anatomy & histology
Prefrontal cortex
Prefrontal Cortex - cytology
Prefrontal Cortex - physiology
Recall
Social Sciences
Temporal Lobe - cytology
Temporal Lobe - physiology
White matter
Young Adult
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Summary:The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is assumed to contribute to goaldirected episodic encoding by exerting cognitive control on medial temporal lobe (MTL) memory processes. However, it is thus far unclear to what extent the contribution of PFC-MTL interactions to memory manifests at a structural anatomical level. We combined functional magnetic resonance imaging and fiber tracking based on diffusion tensor imaging in 28 young, healthy adults to quantify the density of white matter tracts between PFC regions that were activated during the encoding period of a verbal free-recall task and MTL subregions. Across the cohort, the strength of fiber bundles linking activated ventrolateral PFC regions and the rhinal cortex (comprising the peri-and entorhinal cortices) of the MTL correlated positively with free-recall performance. These direct white matter connections provide a basis through which activated regions in the PFC can interact with the MTL and contribute to interindividual differences in human episodic memory.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1013287108