Neuropsychologia

The absence of voluntary visual imagery, known as aphantasia, offers a unique lens into the role of visual imagery in visual memory processes such as face recognition. While aphantasics often report difficulties, behavioral differences in standard tasks have generally been small. One possibility is that the contribution of visual imagery becomes apparent only when face recognition is especially demanding. We compared age- and gender-matched aphantasics and typical imagers on the more challenging long-form version of the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT+) and on a measure of inverted face recognition. We also included tasks assessing object recognition and face perception. No group differences emerged for face perception or object recognition. By contrast, typical imagers outperformed aphantasics under high visual and mnemonic demands in face recognition in the laboratory cohort, particularly at the highest difficulty level of the CFMT+ and in inverted face recognition. This effect was attenuated or even absent in the online cohort. Drift-diffusion modelling indicated that this discrepancy was primarily driven by reduced response caution in online typical imagers. A meta-analysis of published short-form CFMT studies (total N = 432) revealed a moderate and reliable advantage for typical imagers (hedges g [≤] 0.41). Finally, across cohorts and tasks, aphantasics reported consistently lower subjective confidence, independent of accuracy. Overall, these findings suggest that visual imagery benefits face recognition, and highlight the need for caution in online testing, the predominant approach in aphantasia research.

Many forms of memory are thought to rely on visual imagery, but individuals who report lacking visual imagery (aphantasia) can still perform various memory tasks. There is, however, evidence that aphantasia may lead to less detailed autobiographical memories, suggesting there may be deficits in the underlying cognitive processes that support personal memories. One such process is associative memory, which requires binding of different types of information. Here, we tested whether associative visual memory is intact in aphantasia. We assessed 72 self-identified individuals with aphantasia and 77 controls who reported having visual imagery. Participants completed an associative memory task which involved memorising displays where a unique object in a specific location was associated with a particular colour fixation point. Individuals with aphantasia performed equivalently to controls for object locations and outperformed controls on the associated object-identity. In addition, whereas controls were significantly worse at remembering associated object-identity than object-location, individuals with aphantasia showed no such difference. Both groups showed good metacognitive performance evidenced by a positive correlation between confidence and accuracy; there were no significant differences in confidence between the groups. Reported strategies varied between groups: a large proportion of control participants reported using visual imagery and self-reported use of imagery positively correlated with performance. Conversely, individuals with aphantasia mostly reported using nonvisual strategies to remember the associations. Overall, the findings suggest that individuals with aphantasia can form associative memories using nonvisual strategies. Thus, difficulties with autobiographical memory in aphantasia seem unlikely to be due to fundamental issues with associative memory.

Research suggests that motor difficulties in Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) are related to altered motor sequence planning, but it is unclear which mechanisms are affected, particularly in adults. This study addresses that gap by examining how the order of upcoming movements during the planning of skilled typing sequences affects motor production in adults with DCD. Previous monkey neurophysiology and behavioural findings in humans have shown that elements of a sequence are pre-ordered prior to execution, known as competitive queuing (CQ). CQ quality is predictive of subsequent performance, with skilled performers, those with fewer errors, having a larger position-dependent difference. DCD (N=28) and control participants (N=54) performed two 4-element finger sequences from memory in a delayed sequence production task over 3 sessions. Probe trials, which involved participants performing a single press after the Go Cue, assessed motor planning at each sequence position by measuring reaction time (RT) and error rate. We found that adults with DCD had a higher error rate and were slower to initiate and perform correct sequences. In terms of planning, the DCD group showed reduced preordering of sequence elements. Whilst the DCD group had a higher error rate on a working memory task, this was not correlated with the degree of pre-ordering of presses of the upcoming sequence. These findings suggest that disrupted motor sequence planning in DCD is characterised specifically by a failure to pre-order movements during the retrieval of sequences from memory. Additionally, motor sequence pre-ordering deficits in DCD are independent of general working memory impairments. These results extend prior evidence from motor imagery paradigms, demonstrating that internal modelling deficits are evident during the execution of motor plans. HighlightsO_LIAdults with DCD show diminished pre-ordering of sequential movements during planning. C_LIO_LIThe DCD group were slower to initiate and perform correct sequences from memory. C_LIO_LIMotor sequence planning is distinct from working memory performance. C_LIO_LIThis provides evidence for the IMD hypothesis in a skilled sequential task. C_LI

This study investigated the hemispheric contributions of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) to word production across constrained and unconstrained tasks. In the present study, we used focal ring transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in a sham-controlled, double-blind design, combined with a Picture-Word Interference (PWI) task and a picture description task. Fifty-four healthy young adults completed both tasks within the same stimulation sessions, receiving anodal stimulation over either the left or right IFG. Following task-specific data exclusions, 52 participants were included in each of the two task analyses. In the PWI task, categorically related distractors produced semantic interference and associatively related distractors facilitated naming in response times, consistent with previous findings. Stimulation did not affect response times. In error rates, the two stimulation sites modulated the associative effect in opposite directions. Anodal stimulation of the left IFG enhanced the associative advantage in error rates, whereas anodal stimulation of the right IFG produced the opposite pattern. In the picture description task, anodal stimulation of the right IFG increased speech rate, producing significant effects on words per minute, unpruned words per minute, and syllables per minute. No equivalent effects emerged in the left IFG group. Lexical diversity and utterance length were unaffected by stimulation. Taken together, these findings provide convergent evidence for a hemispheric dissociation in word production. The right IFG appears to contribute to the regulation of speech output and the control of distractor interference, whereas the left IFG appears to support the retrieval and selection of word meanings.

Verbal fluency (VF) tasks are widely used to differentiate patients with cognitive impairment from healthy controls, but total word count produced during these tasks becomes unreliable when patients and controls exhibit comparable proficiency. This study examined, in detail, whether item-level and sequential properties of words produced during a VF task could reliably differentiate high-proficiency patients indistinguishable from controls by word count alone. Seventy-seven native Mandarin Chinese speakers (38 controls and 39 patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia) completed a semantic VF task. Participants were subdivided by proficiency into four groups: high-proficiency controls (HC), low-proficiency controls (LC), high-proficiency patients (HP), and low-proficiency patients (LP). The LC and HP subgroups were matched on semantic fluency scores and thus provided a key focus for the investigation. We examined item-level properties (word frequency, contextual diversity, semantic diversity, surprisal) and sequential properties (positional frequency variation) of the words produced. Significant group differences emerged across item-level psycholinguistic properties, though these were primarily driven by the LP group, with no reliable differentiation between LC and HP. Crucially, positional frequency variation distinguished LC from HP. LC participants began their lists with high-frequency words followed by a systematic decline, whereas HP patients produced words within a consistently narrow frequency band throughout. These findings indicate that item-level psycholinguistic properties alone are insufficient to differentiate HP from LC, whereas sequential word frequency variation provides a potential index of cognitive impairment, reflecting underlying differences in semantic retrieval and memory organisation. Future work with larger samples is needed to validate generalisability.

Prior studies in bilinguals have reported relationships between brain structure and the dimensions of (i) language proficiency or (ii) language balance (the discrepancy between a bilinguals two proficiencies), but rarely both, even though they are highly related. These studies were often conducted in late bilinguals and the analyses limited to regions of interest. Here, we tested for relationships between brain structure and these two dimensions in 46 early cultural Spanish-English bilinguals (mean age = 16.7 years) at the level of the whole brain for gray matter volume (GMV) and cortical thickness (CT). Results revealed a positive association between GMV and proficiency in the weaker language in the right angular gyrus (AG; BA 39) extending into the superior temporal gyrus (BA 22). More balanced bilingualism was also associated with more GMV in the AG (BA 39), in addition to less GMV in left postcentral gyrus (BA 1), right cerebellum lobule IX and right superior occipital gyrus (BA 18). However, these relationships between GMV and balance disappeared after controlling for language proficiency. No significant associations were observed for CT and these two dimensions of language. Our findings suggest that relationships between GMV and balance are driven by language proficiency, and that the relationship between GMV and language proficiency likely does not involve language-specific mechanisms, given the location of the association is in the right inferior parietal cortex. Together, this study separates the neuroanatomical bases of these two language dimensions and places them in brain regions outside those usually targeted in prior studies. HighlightsO_LINeuroanatomy was correlated with proficiencies in early Spanish-English bilinguals C_LIO_LIRight angular gyrus gray matter volume (GMV) was positively related to proficiency C_LIO_LIGMV was positively related to balance, but not after controlling for proficiency C_LIO_LIRelations with these language dimensions are located outside of language cortex C_LIO_LINo significant associations were observed for cortical thickness C_LI

Bayesian accounts of autism propose that perception is less influenced by prior expectations and more strongly driven by incoming sensory information in autistic than non-autistic individuals, with this altered balance cascading through the cognitive hierarchy to also influence higher cognitive functions. However, empirical support for these accounts remains mixed. Previous work has mostly tested these ideas in the context of objective environmental statistics, but recent work suggests that it may be subjective experience of structure, rather than structure itself, that shapes perceptual processing. Characterising these subjective experiences in autistic individuals is therefore crucial for understanding predictive processing in autism. In the present study, we thus examined subjective experience of statistical structure in autistic and non-autistic adults and tested how this experience relates to perceptual decisions. Participants were exposed to statistical regularities between action cues and visual stimuli (shapes), and we measured their speed and accuracy in reporting which shape they had seen. At the end of the study, participants were asked to estimate the probability and rate their surprise for each action-shape combination. Autistic and non-autistic participants showed similar subjective probability and surprise ratings and a comparable relationship between these ratings and perceptual decisions. Across participants, subjective ratings explained perceptual decisions better than objective structure. Together, these findings show that autistic and non-autistic adults experience statistical structure similarly, with these experiences exerting a similar influence on perceptual decisions - therefore suggesting that subjective experience plays a comparable role in predictive processing in autistic and non-autistic adults.

Language production requires the coordination of multiple cognitive processes. The ability to anticipate and override a habitual response in favor of a contextually-appropriate response are key subprocesses of cognitive control which enable speakers to communicate effectively. Word retrieval involves the co-activation of semantically related alternatives from which the speaker must select the appropriate target representation. Although cognitive control mechanisms have been proposed to contribute to resolving semantic interference during language production, the nature of these control processes remain unclear. Studies investigating the temporal dynamics of cognitive control during decision making tasks have led to a distinction between two operating processes: proactive control, initiated prior to the occurrence of conflict, and reactive control recruited after conflict is detected. We investigated the roles of proactive and reactive control in resolving interference between competing linguistic representations during word retrieval. We analyzed congruency sequence effects combined with delta-plot distributional analyses to dissociate potential adjustments in proactive versus reactive cognitive control in a picture-naming task manipulating semantic context compared to a minimally-linguistic Stroop-like paradigm. Reaction time distributional properties following semantically related trials revealed the engagement of proactive control in semantic interference resolution during word retrieval in the PWI task. In contrast, reactive inhibitory control was engaged in resolving semantic interference following low conflict trials. This distinction was not present in the minimally-linguistic task, which did not appear to engage adaptive control to the same extent. These findings demonstrate that both proactive and reactive cognitive control mechanisms contribute to language production, and are engaged dynamically, adjusting trial-by-trial to resolve semantic interference during word retrieval. In addition, our study provides important insight into the comparison of language with other cognitive domains and positions linguistic paradigms as being instrumental in the study of cognitive control dynamics.

The persistence of a left-handed minority of slightly over 10% of the population is enigmatic because it is associated with stigma, increased psychopathology, and cognitive deficits. In a community sample of 9,352 individuals (age range 8-21 years) with neurobehavioral assessments, left-handers (N=1,281, 673 male) indeed showed greater psychopathology and performed more poorly than right-handers (N=8,076, 3,839 male) on tests of executive function, memory, complex cognition, and social cognition, while excelling in motor speed. Furthermore, the variance was higher and within-individual variability (WIV) - the extent to which scores in the different domains varied within individuals - was higher in left-handers. Since low WIV indicates even distribution of abilities while high WIV reflects specialization in circumscribed areas, the finding indicates that left-handers are "neurocognitive specialists". This combination of behavioral traits could confer resilience against natural selection pressures and help explain preponderance of left-handers in highly specialized professions requiring specific talents. Our findings encourage more research on left-handers, who are currently excluded from multiple brain behavior studies.

Verbal fluency is a behavioral task that requires the generation of words from a semantic category (category fluency) or words beginning with a specific letter (letter fluency). Although word production engages a frontal-temporal-parietal network, no studies have tested how lesions to temporal and parietal lobe areas that represent semantic and phonological knowledge dampen neural responses in the left pars triangularis and the left pars opercularis, two adjacent regions in the left inferior frontal gyrus implicated in word search and retrieval. Here, 52 patients with temporal lobe lesions underwent clinical functional MRI while performing the category and letter fluency tasks. We investigated where lesion presence was inversely related to the magnitude of task-specific neural responses in pars triangularis and pars opercularis using a technique referred to as voxel-based lesion activity mapping (VLAM). We found that lesions to the left anterior superior temporal gyrus, left temporal pole, left hippocampus, left insula, and underlying inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus were associated with reduced neural responses in the left pars triangularis during the category fluency task. Lesion damage to the right hippocampus was associated with reduced neural responses in the left pars opercularis during category fluency. By contrast, lesions to the left posterior superior temporal gyrus, left supramarginal gyrus, left parietal operculum, and the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus and left arcuate fasciculus were associated with reduced neural responses in the left pars triangularis and the left pars opercularis during the letter fluency task. These results suggest that anatomically dissociable brain networks interact with the left inferior frontal gyrus when different search strategies constrain the retrieval of word representations.

People frequently gesture while speaking, even when listeners cannot see them--for instance, during phone calls or behind barriers. Congenitally blind individuals also gesture, indicating that gestures serve functions beyond visual communication. Previous models of gesture production (e.g., Kita & Ozyurek, 2003; Rauscher et al., 1996) suggest that gestures facilitate speech, but they rely heavily on behavioural data and provide limited insight into temporal dynamics. This study used magnetoencephalography (MEG), a neuroimaging technique with high temporal resolution, to investigate when gestures influence speech. Twenty-three native Japanese speakers took part in a storytelling task under two conditions: Gesture-Required (gesture use instructed) and Gesture-Prohibited (hands kept still). Participants described cartoon clips across multiple sessions (30 trials x 3 sessions per condition). Using speech onset as the reference point, we compared root mean square (RMS) values within a -0.25 to 0 second window. RMS values were higher in the Gesture-Prohibited condition, with increased activity in the bilateral anterior temporal lobes (Left ATL: p = .049; Right ATL: p = .027), but not in motor regions (p = .29). These findings suggest that gestures reduce neural load in language-related regions before articulation. Co-speech gestures may support speech planning by facilitating lexical retrieval or semantic structuring. The lack of motor region effects indicates that this influence is linguistic rather than motoric. This study provides direct direct neurophysiological evidence of the timing of gesture-speech interaction, supporting models that view gestures as an integral part of speech production.

The present study examined whether thematic reversal anomalies are processed similarly across subject and object experiencer constructions in Malayalam. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded as 30 first-language speakers of Malayalam read transitive sentences with the two types of experiencer verbs, in which the thematic role assignment for the preceding arguments was either correct or reverse. The reversal anomaly became apparent only at the position of the experiencer verb. A linear mixed-models analysis confirmed a biphasic N400-P600 effect at the verb for both verb types when the argument roles were reverse. Thus, our results suggest a uniform processing strategy for TRAs irrespective of the type of experiencer verb involved. However, the N400 amplitude was larger for the object experiencer verb compared to subject experiencer verbs. We suggest that the quantitative difference observed for object experiencer verbs is due to the inverse linking of grammatical function and thematic roles associated with these verbs. In other words, verb-specific linking properties modulate the processing of TRAs involving object experiencer verbs. We argue that this modulation occurs because the parser recalibrates cue weighting when the expected form-to-meaning mappings are overridden by the inverse linking properties of object experiencer verbs.

It has been proposed that bilinguals have better executive function (EF) arising from the constant selection of one language while inhibiting the other, and gray matter has been found to differ in bilinguals in regions linked to EF (frontal-parietal and subcortical structures). Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with poorer EF and neuroanatomical differences underlying EF. Given the EF advantage in bilinguals, we investigated whether a bilingual experience affects EF performance and brain structure differentially in those with ADHD. Using the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study, we compared early Spanish-English bilinguals and English-speaking monolinguals with and without ADHD. ANOVAs for the Flanker, Working Memory, and Card Sort Tasks revealed no main effects of Language Experience (Bilingual versus Monolingual), a main effect of Diagnostic Group for Card Sort (ADHD worse than Controls), and no interaction effects on performance for any task. ANOVAs for gray matter volume (GMV) revealed a main effect of Language Experience in many regions, a main effect of Diagnostic Group in some regions, but no interactions. GMV in left thalamus was affected by both ADHD and bilingualism, but the effect of ADHD was not significantly diminished or enhanced by the dual-language experience. For cortical thickness, there was a main effect of Language Experience in several regions, no main effect of Diagnostic Group, and no interactions. Taken together, bilingualism has some impact on EF performance, a strong impact on neuroanatomy, but there was no disproportionate impact by bilingualism on the differences caused by ADHD for any measure. Research HighlightsExecutive function and brain structure differ in ADHD and in bilinguals, prompting the need to investigate interactive effects. Bilingualism did not disproportionately affect performance differences in ADHD for executive function, nor for gray matter volume or for cortical thickness differences in ADHD. Gray matter volume was less in ADHD than non-ADHD, as well as greater in bilinguals than monolinguals in the left thalamus, but without interaction effect. These independent effects indicate that the brain basis of ADHD is not impacted by a dual-language experience.

Memorizing a new phone number or address is hard at first, but becomes easier with repetition, as information shifts from working memory to long-term memory. Here we investigated how repetition affects the storage and transition of different aspects of mnemonic information by comparing univariate neural markers of active object storage with multivariate decoding of memory content. Thirty participants encoded lateralized stimuli from a continuous shape space into memory. Memory items were repeated six times in a row to induce learning. In line with earlier work, EEG recordings revealed that repetition led to a reduction in contralateral delay activity (CDA), a measure of active storage that has been taken to reflect a pointer-like representation of the individual object or its original source. In contrast, shape decoding during the retention and also after an impulse perturbation remained constant across repetitions. These results suggest that learning over repetitions reflects the abolishment of active and individuated object memory representations while passive, source-independent memory representations are retained.

Iconicity refers to systematic links between word form and meaning. Although evidence for iconicity in natural language continues to grow, its neural basis remains unclear. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA), we examined iconic shape associations of auditory real words and pseudowords. The pseudowords were matched to the real words in phonemic and phonotactic properties, while differing primarily in the absence of learned semantic representations. Participants listened to each item and judged whether it sounded rounded or pointed. Searchlight MVPA revealed significant decoding for both stimulus types. For real words, iconic shape associations were decoded above chance in regions associated with visual and haptic shape processing (left lateral occipital complex and left anterior intraparietal sulcus), visual imagery (bilateral precuneus), phonological processing (bilateral supramarginal gyri), and semantic processing (left middle frontal and right superior frontal gyri). For pseudowords, significant decoding was found in regions associated with multisensory feature organization (right posterior intraparietal sulcus) and language processing (left angular and inferior frontal gyri). Together, these findings provide evidence for neural mechanisms mediating iconic associations, with language-related areas involved for both real words and pseudowords, and visual processing for real words.

Working memory unfolds over time, yet how different working memory operations are temporally coordinated remains unclear. Building on prior links between low-frequency neural oscillations and working memory maintenance and retrieval, as well as evidence that low-frequency oscillations help coordinate cognitive functions, we tested whether low-frequency neural oscillations bridge and/or differentiate distinct working memory operations. Specifically, we tested whether low-frequency phase was linked to memory accuracy and event-related neural responses across three operations: (i) encoding, (ii) retrieval, and (iii) distractor processing during maintenance. Using EEG in human participants, we found that encoding and retrieval were most strongly linked to memory accuracy through theta phase ([~]4-7 Hz), measured just prior to each task event. Pre-encoding theta phase also modulated the neural response to memory item onset, suggesting that theta phase influences encoding strength. Critically, the theta phase associated with better memory accuracy differed significantly between encoding and retrieval, consistent with temporally distinct and functionally specific states supporting each working memory operation. In contrast, the influence of distractors on memory accuracy was linked to alpha phase ([~]8-10 Hz), with distractor occurrence also appearing to re-engage theta-dependent processes associated with encoding and retrieval. Together, these findings suggest that low-frequency neural oscillations provide a temporal framework that bridges multiple operations of working memory. SignificanceWorking memory (WM) relies on multiple operations that must be coordinated over time, yet how these processes are temporally organized remains unclear. Neural oscillations have been proposed as a timing mechanism for cognition, yet evidence linking distinct oscillatory phases to distinct WM operations remains limited. Here, we show that memory accuracy depends on the phase of low-frequency neural activity, with encoding and retrieval linked to opposing theta phases ([~]4-7 Hz), and distractor interference during maintenance linked to alpha phase ([~]8-10 Hz). These findings indicate that distinct WM operations are temporally coordinated within oscillatory cycles, providing evidence that low-frequency neural activity both coordinates and segregates cognitive processes over time.

Impaired reading, i.e., alexia, is common after left hemisphere stroke. The most common deficit in alexia is a difficulty reading aloud pronounceable novel words, also called pseudowords. While semantic and phonological processes both subserve reading real words, pseudoword reading deficits in alexia are typically ascribed to phonological deficits alone. Some theories, however, suggest that pseudoword reading relies in part on lexical-semantic knowledge, such that semantic deficits could also contribute to poor pseudoword reading in alexia. Leveraging a large sample of left-hemisphere stroke survivors, we examine the cognitive and neural substrates of pseudoword reading accuracy and two error types: lexicalization errors, where a pseudoword is incorrectly read as a real word, and nonword errors, where a pseudoword is read as an incorrect nonword. 76 left-hemisphere stroke survivors read 60 pseudowords aloud, and performed two pseudoword repetition tasks to assess phonological processing and two picture naming tasks to assess mappings between lexical semantics and phonology. Regression models assessed how pseudoword repetition and naming related to overall accuracy and rates of lexicalization and nonword errors in pseudoword reading. Voxel-based and connectome lesion-symptom mapping localized the neural territory responsible for these errors. Both pseudoword repetition and naming independently related to pseudoword reading accuracy. Pseudoword repetition but not naming deficits predicted higher rates of lexicalization errors, while naming but not pseudoword repetition deficits predicted higher rates of nonword errors. Greater nonword error rate also predicted smaller imageability effects in real word reading (t(71)=-3.2, p=0.002). Lexicalization errors were associated with lesions to and disconnections of the left putamen and basal ganglia. Nonword errors were associated with lesions to the superior and middle temporal gyri, as well as broad temporo-parietal disconnections, overlapping with previous lesion-mapping results implicating these regions in semantic contributions to word reading. These results suggest that lexicalization errors result from impaired planning and execution of novel motor plans, causing a reliance on the well-learned motor plans associated with lexical items. In contrast, greater rates of nonword errors, relative to lexicalization errors, occur when semantic contributions to reading are impaired. Overall, these findings demonstrate that semantic processes are involved in reading pseudowords, at least in stroke alexia. These findings support connectionist accounts of reading in which damage in the direct orthography to phonology route for reading leads to reliance on semantic representations, even for pseudowords, suggesting a reinterpretation of pseudoword reading as a pure measure of phonological reading deficits.

Episodic memory involves reconstruction of past events through integration of multiple types of information, including perceptual details, narrative content, and emotional tone. The default mode network (DMN) is a set of regions thought to support episodic retrieval, yet it remains unclear how distinct subnetworks contribute to recall of these different memory features. Here, we examined how DMN subnetworks support and represent memory for naturalistic emotional events. Male and female human participants encoded short news videos that varied in emotional valence and recalled them in response to neutral cues during functional MRI scanning. Videos were again recalled one day later and memories were scored for perceptual and narrative details. Activity in the dorsomedial subnetwork was related to the emotional valence of the memory, while activity in the medial temporal subnetwork was associated with the number of perceptual details recalled. Multivariate pattern analyses further revealed that the medial temporal subnetwork exhibited greater pattern stability across recalls when recalling more perceptual details, while stability in the dorsomedial and core subnetworks was tied to emotional remembering. Our findings suggest that the dorsomedial subnetwork provides an affective frame for a memory, while the medial temporal subnetwork contributes perceptual specificity. These results demonstrate that the contents of memory retrieval shape network engagement during emotional recall, providing insight into how the brain reconstructs complex real-world experiences. Significance StatementHow do we remember the emotional tone of an event versus its visual details? This study examines how distinct subnetworks within the brains default mode network (DMN) contribute to remembering different features of memory. While the medial temporal subnetwork is connected to retrieving the perceptual details of past events, the dorsomedial subnetwork supports recall of the emotional tone. Furthermore, patterns of activity in the medial temporal subnetwork are more stable when recalling more perceptually rich memories, while stability in the dorsomedial subnetwork is tied to emotional remembering. These findings suggest that the default mode network flexibly responds to different kinds of memory features, supporting the reconstruction of rich emotional memories from complex real-world experiences.

Building upon foundational psychological theories of event segmentation, this study addresses the limitation of overreliance on temporal boundaries as the primary segmentation criterion. Drawing on two experiments of direct and indirect causation in Mandarin Chinese, this study demonstrates how cognitive segmentation granularity and semantic integration jointly shape syntactic encoding. Results reveal distinct event encoding patterns for direct and indirect causation: coarse-grained segmentation leads to compact syntactic structures (e.g., verb-resultatives), while fine-grained segmentation yields varied multi-clausal expressions. Chinese speakers update event models via prediction errors of intentionality and protagonists, and tend to establish event boundaries at goal-relevant action endpoints when construing causal chains. These conceptual dimensions exert a modulating influence on both event segmentation and semantic integration. We propose a triad model integrating event segmentation, semantic integration, and linguistic specificity, providing a unified framework for elucidating the mind-language interface in conceptual construction and event coding of causation.

Post-encoding sleep plays an essential role in episodic memory consolidation. Much of the existing literature on sleep and memory relies on deprivation paradigms or laboratory-controlled sleep. Relatively few studies have examined how naturalistic post-encoding sleep relates to memory retrieval and its supporting neural activity, or whether age-related impairments in this sleep are linked to those in episodic memory. In the present study, we used actigraphy and electroencephalography to examine how post-encoding sleep quality relates to context memory performance and retrieval-related ERPs supporting performance in younger and older adults. Participants encoded object-scene pairs and were tested on matching and mismatching pairs after a 96-hour sleep-filled delay. We found that greater post-encoding sleep continuity predicted better delayed context memory performance for mismatching pairs across age groups. Post-encoding sleep continuity was also associated with larger ERP differences between context hits and misses for context-matching pairs, for ERP effects associated with post-retrieval monitoring operations across age groups. Together, these findings suggest that more continuous, naturalistic post-encoding sleep facilitates episodic memory performance and neural mechanisms supporting episodic memory retrieval across adult age.