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Mass univariate analysis implicates the late parietal positivity in associative recognition success

Poster Session E - Monday, March 9, 2026, 2:30 – 4:30 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Devon Yanitski¹ (), Tamari Shalamberidze¹, Yvonne Y. Chen², Jeremy B. Caplan¹; ¹University of Alberta, ²University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Successful associative recognition may recruit neural processes overlapping with item-memory, including the FN400 and late parietal positivity (LPP) event-related potentials. The FN400 is typically linked to item-specific familiarity, whereas the LPP is thought to reflect associative or recollective processing, suggesting it may serve as a robust marker of associative retrieval. Participants (N=112) studied 28 lists of 8 word pairs and performed an associative recognition task, distinguishing intact word pairs from pairs of rearranged words. Planned comparisons using electrodes and time windows pre-determined from published results replicated the significantly more positive FN400 old/new effect for hits versus correct rejections. However, this analysis revealed no significant retrieval success effects (contrasting hits with misses). Mass univariate analysis (MUA, Pernet et al., 2011), which analyzes all electrodes with cluster-based corrections for multiple comparisons, revealed significant clusters of activation in frontal and parietal electrodes for the old/new and retrieval success effects that extended beyond the planned electrodes and times of interest. Notably, both positive and negative old/new effects emerged bilaterally between approximately 600–1500 ms, overlapping with the temporal range of the LPP. For the retrieval success effect, MUA identified a right hemisphere posterior negativity from roughly 500–1500 ms that corresponds to both FN400 and LPP activity. The comprehensive, exploratory approach enabled by MUA revealed a nuanced pattern suggesting that the LPP may serve as a general neural marker of associative retrieval. However, the precise timing and topography of this effect appear to vary with task and stimulus characteristics.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic