title: Ventral fronto-temporal pathway supporting cognitive control of episodic memory retrieval.
abstract: Achieving our goals often requires guiding access to relevant information from memory. Such goal-directed retrieval requires interactions between systems supporting cognitive control, including ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), and those supporting declarative memory, such as the medial temporal lobes (MTL). However, the pathways by which VLPFC interacts with MTL during retrieval are underspecified. Prior neuroanatomical evidence suggests that a polysynaptic ventral fronto-temporal pathway may support VLPFC-MTL interactions. To test this hypothesis, human participants were scanned using fMRI during performance of a source-monitoring task. The strength of source information was varied via repetition during encoding. Single encoding events should produce a weaker memory trace, thus recovering source information about these items should demand greater cognitive control. Results demonstrated that cortical targets along the ventral path--anterior VLPFC, temporal pole, anterior parahippocampus, and hippocampus--exhibited increases in univariate BOLD response correlated with increases in controlled retrieval demand, independent of factors related to response selection. Further, a functional connectivity analysis indicated that these regions functionally couple and are distinguishable from a dorsal pathway related to response selection demands. These data support a ventral retrieval pathway linking PFC and MTL.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Graduate Program.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barredo
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Koç University, Sariyer 34450, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ilke
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Öztekin
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences Neuroscience Graduate Program Brown Institute for Brain Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Badre
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D012146:Rest; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: VLPFC; functional connectivity; retrieval