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Dissociable engagement in rostrolateral prefrontal cortex during retrieval monitoring and relational reasoning

Poster Session D - Monday, March 9, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Allison Chen¹, Margaret Vashel¹, Mariam Aly¹, Silvia Bunge^1,2; ¹Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, ²Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley

Rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC) has been consistently implicated in retrieval monitoring and relational reasoning. However, few studies have examined its role across these domains within the same individuals, prompting the question of whether there are core characteristics that engage RLPFC or if there are distinct subregions responsible for distinct processes. A previous study found overlap in activation of left RLPFC between a verbal analogy task and a source memory retrieval task, using tightly matched word stimuli (Westphal et al., 2016). To address the question of whether this overlap in activation extends to other stimulus types and task designs, we collected fMRI data from 35 healthy young adults who completed a relational memory task and four versions of a relational reasoning paradigm that reliably engages RLPFC. During memory encoding, participants studied word pairs and decided whether the two words were related. At retrieval, they viewed pairs of previously seen words and judged whether the pair was Intact (words paired together at encoding) or Recombined. Participants had slower response times and stronger RLPFC responses for Recombined vs. Intact pairs, consistent with heightened retrieval monitoring. A group-level conjunction analysis demonstrated strong overlap across vertices between tasks in RLPFC and additional reasoning-related activation. However, the constellation of most strongly active vertices within-participants overlapped weakly between tasks, on average, with pronounced variability across participants. We conclude that relational reasoning and retrieval monitoring may share a common RLPFC mechanism but that they do not reliably elicit the same neural pattern.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic