Memory-guided attention: bilateral hippocampal volume positively predicts implicit contextual learning

Several studies have begun to demonstrate that contextual memories constitute an important mechanism to guide our attention. Although there is general consensus that the hippocampus is involved in the encoding of contextual memories, it is controversial whether this structure can support implicit fo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Brain Structure and Function 2019-07, Vol.224 (6), p.1999-2008
Main Authors: Rosero, Mario A., Winkelmann, Tobias, Pohlack, Sebastian, Cavalli, Juliana, Nees, Frauke, Flor, Herta
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Attention - physiology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Cell Biology
Cues
Female
Hippocampus
Hippocampus - pathology
Hippocampus - physiology
Humans
Image processing
Learning
Learning - physiology
Magnetic resonance imaging
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Memory - physiology
Neuroimaging
Neurology
Neurosciences
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Original Article
Reaction Time
Segmentation
Temporal Lobe - pathology
Temporal Lobe - physiology
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Several studies have begun to demonstrate that contextual memories constitute an important mechanism to guide our attention. Although there is general consensus that the hippocampus is involved in the encoding of contextual memories, it is controversial whether this structure can support implicit forms of contextual memory. Here, we combine automated segmentation of structural MRI with neurobehavioral assessment of implicit contextual memory-guided attention to test the hypothesis that hippocampal volume would predict the magnitude of implicit contextual learning. Forty healthy subjects underwent 3T magnetic resonance imaging brain scanning with subsequent automatic measurement of the total brain and hippocampal (right and left) volumes. Implicit learning of contextual information was measured using the contextual cueing task. We found that both left and right hippocampal volumes positively predicted the magnitude of implicit contextual learning. Larger hippocampal volume was associated with superior implicit contextual memory performance. This study provides compelling evidence that implicit contextual memory-guided attention is hippocampus-dependent.
ISSN:1863-2653
1863-2661
0340-2061
DOI:10.1007/s00429-019-01887-9