Fornix Microstructure Correlates with Recollection But Not Familiarity Memory

The fornix is the main tract between the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and medial diencephalon, both of which are critical for episodic memory. The precise involvement of the fornix in memory, however, has been difficult to ascertain since damage to this tract in human amnesics is invariably accompanie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of neuroscience 2009-11, Vol.29 (47), p.14987-14992
Main Authors: Rudebeck, Sarah R, Scholz, Jan, Millington, Rebecca, Rohenkohl, Gustavo, Johansen-Berg, Heidi, Lee, Andy C. H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Anterior Thalamic Nuclei - anatomy & histology
Anterior Thalamic Nuclei - physiology
Anthropometry
Brain Mapping
Brief Communications
Cognition - physiology
Diencephalon - physiology
Female
Fornix, Brain - anatomy & histology
Fornix, Brain - physiology
Hippocampus - anatomy & histology
Hippocampus - physiology
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Mammillary Bodies - anatomy & histology
Mammillary Bodies - physiology
Memory - physiology
Neural Pathways - anatomy & histology
Neural Pathways - physiology
Neuropsychological Tests
Photic Stimulation
Recognition (Psychology) - physiology
Reference Values
Young Adult
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Summary:The fornix is the main tract between the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and medial diencephalon, both of which are critical for episodic memory. The precise involvement of the fornix in memory, however, has been difficult to ascertain since damage to this tract in human amnesics is invariably accompanied by atrophy to surrounding structures. We used diffusion-weighted imaging to investigate whether individual differences in fornix white matter microstructure in neurologically healthy participants were related to differences in memory as assessed by two recognition tasks. Higher microstructural integrity in the fornix tail was found to be associated with significantly better recollection memory. In contrast, there was no significant correlation between fornix microstructure and familiarity memory or performance on two non-mnemonic tasks. Our findings support the idea that there are distinct MTL-diencephalon pathways that subserve differing memory processes.
ISSN:0270-6474
1529-2401
DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4707-09.2009