The Path to Memory Is Guided by Strategy: Distinct Networks Are Engaged in Associative Encoding under Visual and Verbal Strategy and Influence Memory Performance in Healthy and Impaired Individuals

摘要

Given the diversity of stimuli encountered in daily life, a varietynof strategies must be used for learning new information.nRelating and encoding visual and verbal stimuli into memorynhas been probed using various tasks and stimulus types. Engagementnof specific subsequent memory and cortical processingnregions depends on the stimulus modality of studiednmaterial; however, it remains unclear whether different encodingnstrategies similarly influence regional activity when stimulusntype is held constant. In this study, participants encoded objectnpairs using a visual or verbal associative strategy during fMRI,nand subsequent memory was assessed for pairs encoded underneach strategy. Each strategy elicited distinct regional processingnand subsequent memory effects: middle/superior frontal, lateralnparietal, and lateral occipital for visually associated pairs andninferior frontal, medial frontal, and medial occipital for verballynassociated pairs. This regional selectivity mimics the effects ofnstimulus modality, suggesting that cortical involvement in associativenencoding is driven by strategy and not simply by stimulusntype. The clinical relevance of these findings, probed in anpatient with a recent aphasic stroke, suggest that training withnstrategies utilizing unaffected cortical regions might improvenmemory ability in patients with brain damage. ■