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PubMed2006

Cortical mechanisms of person representation: recognition of famous and personally familiar names.

Personally familiar people are likely to be represented more richly in episodic, emotional, and behavioral contexts than famous people, who are usually represented predominantly in semantic context. To reveal cortical mechanisms supporting this differential person representation, we compared cortical activation during name recognition tasks between personally familiar and famous names, using an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Normal subjects performed familiar- or unfamiliar-name detection tasks during visual presentation of personally familiar (Personal), famous (Famous), and unfamiliar (Unfamiliar) names. The bilateral temporal poles and anterolateral temporal cortices, as well as the left temporoparietal junction, were activated in the contrasts Personal-Unfamiliar and Famous-Unfamiliar to a similar extent. The bilateral occipitotemporoparietal junctions, precuneus, and posterior cingulate cortex showed activation in the contrasts Personal-Unfamiliar and Personal-Famous. Together with previous findings, differential activation in the occipitotemporoparietal junction, precuneus, and posterior cingulate cortex between personally familiar and famous names is considered to reflect differential person representation. The similar extent of activation for personally familiar and famous names in the temporal pole and anterolateral temporal cortex is consistent with the associative role of the anterior temporal cortex in person identification, which has been conceptualized as a person identity node in many models of person identification. The left temporoparietal junction was considered to process familiar written names. The results illustrated the neural correlates of the person representation as a network of discrete regions in the bilateral posterior cortices, with the anterior temporal cortices having a unique associative role.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

The fractionation of remote memory. Evidence from a longitudinal study of dementia of Alzheimer type.

We studied remote memory, both autobiographical and public, longitudinally over a 1-year period in 24 patients with dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT) and 30 matched controls. Although both public and autobiographical memory were impaired in DAT, public memory deteriorated longitudinally, while autobiographical memory did not. These data support the hypothesis that remote memory may be fractionated and that one important dichotomy is autobiographical memory versus famous person knowledge. A cognitive analysis of famous face and name processing showed evidence of progressive breakdown in the identification of famous faces and names, with preservation of face and name recognition, and face naming. The declining performance on identification appeared to be due primarily to loss of semantic knowledge regarding famous persons, while retrieval a deficit contributed more significantly to the proper name anomia which was over and above the semantic deficit in DAT.

Aged↗
PubMed2005

Processing of famous faces and medial temporal lobe event-related potentials: a depth electrode study.

The present study aims at analyzing the modulation of two types of event-related potentials originating from the human medial temporal lobe, the rhinal AMTL-N400 and the hippocampal P600 by the processing of famous faces. Therefore, we used a face recognition paradigm in which subjects had to discriminate the faces of famous persons from the faces of non-famous persons. Eleven patients with unilateral medial temporal lobe epilepsy undergoing intrahippocampal depth electrode recording for presurgical evaluation participated in this study. Event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded while a sequence of famous and non-famous faces was presented to the patients. The presentation of each face was repeated. The faces evoked N400-like potentials (anterior medial temporal lobe N400, AMTL-N400) in the rhinal cortex and P600-like potentials in the hippocampus. ERPs elicited by famous faces were contrasted with ERPs elicited by non-famous faces. The first presentation of famous faces elicited an enhanced AMTL-N400 and an enhanced hippocampal P600 in comparison to the second presentations of the famous faces or the (first and second presentation of the) non-famous faces. This findings are discussed in terms of associative semantic memory processes and the retrieval of person-specific information from long-term memory stores triggered by the processing of famous faces.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Identification of famous faces and famous names in early Alzheimer's disease. Relationship to anterograde episodic and general semantic memory.

We assessed remote memory in 33 patients with dementia of Alzheimer's type (DAT) with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores between 17 and 30, and 30 matched controls using a Famous Faces Test and Famous Names Test designed to assess face recognition, identification and naming, and name recognition and identification, respectively, together with a range of anterograde episodic and semantic memory tests. Patients with DAT were impaired on all components of the remote memory tests, i.e. famous face recognition, identification and naming, and famous name recognition and identification. There was also evidence of a modest temporal gradient, with relatively greater impairment of more recent memory, which may be artefactual resulting from the very insidious onset of their anterograde amnesia. In contrast to the uniform impairment of anterograde memory, there was considerable heterogeneity in performance on remote memory. Although the DAT patient group's performance on remote memory measures was impaired with respect to controls, some patients had significant impairment on all measures, whereas others had intact remote memory. Overall, there was only a weak correlation between dementia severity and remote memory, and no correlation between performance on the Faces and Names tests and measures of anterograde memory. At a cognitive level, the deficit in face and name processing in DAT involved recognition, identification and naming. This would suggest that so called 'face and name recognition units', semantic knowledge of famous persons and post-semantic processing are all affected by the disease. There was also supporting evidence for the concept that recognition of famous faces and names both draw on common sources. Similar results were found for face and name identification. This suggests that face and name recognition units are closely linked, and that identification of a face or name accesses the same central pool of semantic knowledge regarding the famous person. Performance on famous names tests correlated, to a limited degree, with that on general semantic tests, suggesting that knowledge of famous people, at least as accessed by names, is associated with general semantic memory. By contrast, no correlation was found between performance on the famous faces and on other general semantic tasks.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

Retrograde amnesia: a study of its relation to anterograde amnesia and semantic memory deficits.

This group study of 24 amnesic patients and 40 control subjects examined the hypothesis that retrograde memory deficits result from a combination of two impairment mechanisms: (1) a deficit in the retrieval of contents that is related to dysfunctioning of the hippocampal anterograde memory system, and (2) a deficit in the storage and/or retrieval of contents that is related to concomitant neocortical lesions. Retrograde amnesia was evaluated with the use of new Famous Persons and Autobiographical Memory Tests. The postulated components of retrograde memory impairment were assessed using the Wechsler Memory Scale and a new Semantic Memory Test, respectively. Regression analyses showed that recent episodic autobiography was exclusively related to the hippocampal component, while memory for famous persons and childhood autobiography was related to the neocortical component. In the case of details concerning people of recent fame, both components were identified as independent determinants. The temporal gradient of patients' impairment at the Famous Persons Test was marked for detailed knowledge, but small for overlearned knowledge. The present results thus support the combination hypothesis. They conform to the view that the transition from a hippocampus-dependent to a neocortex-dependent mnemonic representation of new contents is mediated by reiteration, and occurs within 5-10 years.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Memory for famous faces and the temporal pole: functional imaging findings in temporal lobe epilepsy.

The ability to recognize, name, and provide information about famous persons is deficient in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), although the neural basis for these deficits is not well understood. We examined the relationship of resting metabolism of the temporal poles, as determined by [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography, to performance on a task of famous face recognition, naming, and generation of semantic information in 12 patients with TLE. Correlations between metabolic measures of the temporal poles and performance on the Famous Faces Task revealed strong relationships between all aspects of the Famous Faces Task and the left temporal pole, whereas Famous Faces Task correlations with the right temporal pole were not significant. These findings indicate that the left temporal pole is associated with lexical and semantic retrieval of knowledge of famous persons in patients with TLE. Further study appears warranted to elucidate the networks involved in semantic knowledge for famous faces.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

The semantic organisation of proper nouns: the case of people and brand names.

We describe the performance of a patient (AZ) with a semantic refractory access disorder on a series of experiments probing comprehension of two broad proper noun categories, namely person names and brand names. By inducing and manipulating the semantic relatedness effects which are commonly observed in semantic refractory access patients, we demonstrate that famous person knowledge is primarily organised by occupation, whilst knowledge of brands is organised by product type. For instance, we show that AZ has significantly greater difficulty identifying a famous person from among distractor personalities who have the same occupation (e.g. composers: Beethoven, Mozart, Handel, and Bach) than those who have different occupations (e.g. Beethoven, Picasso, Shakespeare, and Jefferson). We also show that such semantic relatedness effects do not occur when stimuli are grouped by another variable such as nationality. We argue that these semantic distance effects reflect the greater build-up of refractoriness among concepts which are supported by shared neural circuitry. In psychological space, it seems natural that these individuals should be classified in this way. The strength of our findings lie in the fact that this organisation of psychological space is mirrored by neural organisation. Thus, we report a previously undocumented degree of fine-grain organisation within conceptual knowledge of these classes of proper nouns. We also interpret our data as providing the strongest empirical support to date for the semantic module of cognitive models of person recognition.

Aged↗
PubMed2003

Neural systems underlying lexical retrieval for sign language.

Positron emission tomography was used to investigate whether signed languages exhibit the same neural organization for lexical retrieval within classical and non-classical language areas as has been described for spoken English. Ten deaf native American sign language (ASL) signers were shown pictures of unique entities (famous persons) and non-unique entities (animals) and were asked to name each stimulus with an overt signed response. Proper name signed responses to famous people were fingerspelled, and common noun responses to animals were both fingerspelled and signed with native ASL signs. In general, retrieving ASL signs activated neural sites similar to those activated by hearing subjects retrieving English words. Naming famous persons activated the left temporal pole (TP), whereas naming animals (whether fingerspelled or signed) activated left inferotemporal (IT) cortex. The retrieval of fingerspelled and native signs generally engaged the same cortical regions, but fingerspelled signs in addition activated a premotor region, perhaps due to the increased motor planning and sequencing demanded by fingerspelling. Native signs activated portions of the left supramarginal gyrus (SMG), an area previously implicated in the retrieval of phonological features of ASL signs. Overall, the findings indicate that similar neuroanatomical areas are involved in lexical retrieval for both signs and words.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Retrieval of famous names on a Rebus Riddle task by middle-aged and older subjects.

This study compared the performances of 20 middle-aged and 20 older subjects on a Rebus Riddle task that required they retrieve the names of famous persons. Older subjects solved significantly more riddles and responded to prompts designed to aid riddle-solving efforts with significantly greater success than middle-aged subjects. Older subjects also had nonsignificantly faster riddle-solving times than middle-aged subjects. Similar riddles were difficult or easy for both groups. Superior performance of the older group appeared to be related to the age of the subject at the time the persons in the riddles had become famous.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1991

Recognition memory across the adult life span: the role of prior knowledge.

Two experiments were performed to investigate the effects of prior knowledge on recognition memory in young adults, younger old adults, 76-year-olds, and 85-year-olds. In Experiment 1, we examined episodic recognition of dated and contemporary famous persons presented as faces, names, and faces plus names. In Experiment 2, four types of faces were presented for later recognition: dated familiar, contemporary familiar, old unfamiliar, and young unfamiliar. The results of both experiments showed that young adults performed better with contemporary than with dated famous persons, whereas the reverse was true for all groups of older adults. In addition, the data of Experiment 2 indicated that (1) young adults showed better recognition for young than for old unfamiliar faces, (2) younger old adults performed better with old than with young unfamiliar faces, and (3) the two oldest age groups showed no effect of age of face. These results suggest that the ability to utilize rich semantic knowledge to improve episodic memory is preserved in very old age, although the aging process may be associated with deficits in the ability to utilize prior knowledge to support memory when the underlying representation lacks semantic and contextual features. The overall data pattern was discussed in relation to the notion that, with increasing adult age, there is an increase in the level of cognitive support required to enhance episodic remembering.

Adolescent↗