TY  - JOUR
AU  - Monzel, Merlin
AU  - Leelaarporn, Pitshaporn
AU  - Lutz, Teresa
AU  - Schultz, Johannes
AU  - Brunheim, Sascha
AU  - Reuter, Martin
AU  - McCormick, Cornelia
TI  - Hippocampal-occipital connectivity reflects autobiographical memory deficits in aphantasia
JO  - eLife
VL  - 13
SN  - 2050-084X
CY  - Cambridge
PB  - eLife Sciences Publications
M1  - DZNE-2024-01166
SP  - RP94916
PY  - 2024
AB  - Aphantasia refers to reduced or absent visual imagery. While most of us can readily recall decade-old personal experiences (autobiographical memories, AM) with vivid mental images, there is a dearth of information about whether the loss of visual imagery in aphantasics affects their AM retrieval. The hippocampus is thought to be a crucial hub in a brain-wide network underlying AM. One important question is whether this network, especially the connectivity of the hippocampus, is altered in aphantasia. In the current study, we tested 14 congenital aphantasics and 16 demographically matched controls in an AM fMRI task to investigate how key brain regions (i.e. hippocampus and visual-perceptual cortices) interact with each other during AM re-experiencing. All participants were interviewed regarding their autobiographical memory to examine their episodic and semantic recall of specific events. Aphantasics reported more difficulties in recalling AM, were less confident about their memories, and described less internal and emotional details than controls. Neurally, aphantasics displayed decreased hippocampal and increased visual-perceptual cortex activation during AM retrieval compared to controls. In addition, controls showed strong negative functional connectivity between the hippocampus and the visual cortex during AM and resting-state functional connectivity between these two brain structures predicted better visualization skills. Our results indicate that visual mental imagery plays an important role in detail-rich vivid AM, and that this type of cognitive function is supported by the functional connection between the hippocampus and the visual-perceptual cortex.
KW  - Humans
KW  - Hippocampus: physiopathology
KW  - Male
KW  - Female
KW  - Memory, Episodic
KW  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging
KW  - Adult
KW  - Middle Aged
KW  - Mental Recall: physiology
KW  - Memory Disorders: physiopathology
KW  - Occipital Lobe: physiopathology
KW  - Occipital Lobe: diagnostic imaging
KW  - Young Adult
KW  - aphantasia (Other)
KW  - autobiographical retrieval (Other)
KW  - episodic memory (Other)
KW  - functional connectivity (Other)
KW  - human (Other)
KW  - neural networks (Other)
KW  - neuroscience (Other)
KW  - visual cortex (Other)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C2  - pmc:PMC11426968
C6  - pmid:39325034
DO  - DOI:10.7554/eLife.94916
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/272349
ER  -