Research Article

Hippocampal activation during transitive inference in humans

  1. Stephan Heckers1,2,*,
  2. Martin Zalesak1,2,
  3. Anthony P. Weiss1,2,
  4. Tali Ditman1,2,
  5. Debra Titone3

Article first published online: 10 FEB 2004

DOI: 10.1002/hipo.10189

Issue

Hippocampus

Hippocampus

Volume 14, Issue 2, pages 153–162, 2004

Additional Information

How to Cite

Heckers, S., Zalesak, M., Weiss, A. P., Ditman, T. and Titone, D. (2004), Hippocampal activation during transitive inference in humans. Hippocampus, 14: 153–162. doi: 10.1002/hipo.10189

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

  2. 2

    Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, Massachusetts

  3. 3

    Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

*Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, East CNY-9112, Bldg. 149, Thirteenth Street, Charlestown, MA 02129

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 9 MAR 2004
  2. Article first published online: 10 FEB 2004
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 23 JUN 2003

Funded by

  • NIMH. Grant Numbers: MH01763-01, MH60272
  • MIND Institute
  • NARSAD
  • Essel Foundation

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Keywords:

  • neuroimaging;
  • fMRI;
  • relational memory;
  • parahippocampal gyrus

Abstract

Studies in rodents have demonstrated that the integration and flexible expression of memories, necessary for transitive inference, depend on an intact hippocampus. To test this hypothesis in humans, we studied brain activation during the discrimination of a series of overlapping and non-overlapping arbitrary visual stimulus pairs. We report that transitive inference about overlapping pairs is associated with right anterior hippocampal activation, whereas recognition of non-overlapping stimulus pairs is associated with bilateral medial temporal lobe activation centered in the anterior parahippocampal gyrus. We conclude that immediate access to simple stimulus-stimulus relationships is mediated via the parahippocampal gyrus, whereas the flexible representation of memory requires the recruitment of the hippocampus. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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