title: Consolidation of Associative and Item Memory Is Related to Post-Encoding Functional Connectivity between the Ventral Tegmental Area and Different Medial Temporal Lobe Subregions during an Unrelated Task.
abstract: It is well established that the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex (PrC) encode associative and item representations, respectively. However, less is known about how item and associative memories are consolidated. We used high-resolution fMRI in humans to measure how functional connectivity between these distinct medial temporal lobe regions with the ventral tegmental area (VTA) after a paired associate encoding task is related to both immediate and 24 h item and associative memory performance. We found that the strength of post-encoding functional connectivity between the VTA and CA1 selectively correlated with long-term associative memory, despite subjects actively engaging in an unrelated task during this period. Conversely, VTA-PrC functional connectivity during the same period correlated with long-term item memory. Critically, connectivity between VTA and these MTL regions were only related to memory tested at a 24 h delay, implicating midbrain connectivity in the consolidation of distinct forms of memory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and.
authors.forename: Alexa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tompary
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York 10003 and lila.davachi@nyu.edu.
authors.forename: Lila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Davachi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D017557:Ventral Tegmental Area / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: VTA; consolidation; functional connectivity; high-resolution fMRI; medial temporal lobe