In our study, we investigated whether exploring a novel and unpredictable virtual reality environment could retroactively enhance spatial memory in humans, drawing inspiration from the robust behavioural tagging effects seen in rodents. Participants completed a two-day spatial memory task in virtual mazes, where object-location associations were learned under weak (single exposure) or strong (repeated exposure) encoding conditions. After encoding, they explored either a familiar, predictable city or a novel, unpredictable space environment featuring teleportation between distinct sites. Our key finding was a retroactive memory enhancement following novelty exposure but only when the novel environment was experienced on Day 2, after…
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I just posted a tutorial that explains how to get from this
Leave a CommentAbstract: Although the distinction between episodic and semantic memory is supported by numerous neuropsychological studies, neuroimaging data have shown considerable overlap between regions that are activated during semantic and episodic remembering. This might indicate similar or shared mechanisms but might also result from inadequate task designs or poor functional magnetic resonance imaging signal coverage. Here we compared neural activations and representations associated with successful retrieval of episodic and semantic memories, using tasks that are more closely matched. A total of n = 40 participants recalled pairings between logos and brand names, where the pairings corresponded to real-world knowledge (semantic task) or were…
Leave a CommentAbstract: Successful navigation relies on the ability to process and encode detailed information about our dynamic environments. Beyond familiarity, emerging studies now highlight the crucial role of novelty detection in this process, the precise neural mechanism of which remains poorly understood. Using ultra-high field 7T fMRI, we investigated how the human brain encodes spatial novelty during virtual navigation, with a particular focus on graded representations that follow systematic transitions between novel and familiar spaces. Our results revealed novelty and familiarity specific neural responses within the posterior and anterior poles of the bilateral hippocampus, respectively. On the cortical surface, two separable…
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Leave a CommentDownload the .pdf of the poster here. Password: OHBM2024 Jörn Alexander Quent1,2, Xinyu Liang1, Liangyue Song1, Yueting Su1, Kaixiang Zhuang1, Deniz Vatansever1 1Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, 200433 2MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, 200433 Introduction: Recognition of novelty constitutes a vital aspect of our ability to encode and navigate our surroundings. Though extensively studied e.g. in the context of item novelty [1], human neuroimaging studies of spatial novelty and its impact on long-term memory formation remains relatively scarce. Limited reports show that spatial novelty can boost long-term memory [e.g.…
Leave a CommentAfter years of work my new paper titled Shape of U: The Nonmonotonic Relationship Between Object–Location Memory and Expectedness is finally out in Psychological Science with Andrea Greve & Rik Henson (PDF, Supplementary). The idea for this work came from my desire to directly test these shiny pet examples that we use in our academic writing to provide real-world context. So I created a realistic virtual reality experiment with Unity3D, which can seen in this video. A particular example I was inspired by was the butcher-in-the-bus. In this context, a neuroscientific model called SLIMM predicts that the relationship between how…
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