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Adjacent but Dissociable: Content-selective and generic retrieval-related effects

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 5:00 – 7:00 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Sarah Monier¹ (), Marianne de Chastelaine¹, Ambereen Kidwai¹, Michael D. Rugg¹; ¹The University of Texas at Dallas

Episodic memory retrieval engages both content-selective and ‘core’ recollection regions. Few studies have directly examined regional dissociations between category-selective and generic retrieval activity. We investigated the extent to which content-selective and core regions are segregated during successful recollection. 31 younger and 40 middle-aged adults underwent fMRI during an associative memory task. At encoding, participants viewed words paired with faces or scenes, and at retrieval, identified studied words and attempted to recall their associated image category. Recollection effects were operationalized as greater activity for correct vs. incorrect source retrieval. Content-independent effects were identified using a conjunction analysis that inclusively masked face and scene recollection contrasts (main contrast: FWE p < .05, mask: p < .001). Category-selective effects were identified with two exclusive masking analyses (main contrast: FWE p < .05, mask: p < .05). Content-independent effects were identified in the left hippocampus, dorsal and ventral parietal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, middle temporal gyrus, and bilateral putamen. Scene-selective effects were identified in bilateral parahippocampal cortex, medial parietal cortex, and left lateral superior occipital cortex. Conversely, face recollection effects were observed in bilateral precuneus, medial prefrontal cortex, and left anterior temporal cortex. Our findings reveal a clear dissociation between content-selective and generic recollection effects within prefrontal, medial parietal, and left temporal cortices. The emergence of these effects in distinct, yet anatomically adjacent regions highlights the complexity of the functional neuroanatomy of episodic retrieval. Together, the findings advance our understanding of the neural basis of episodic memory retrieval.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic