The Executive Control of Face Memory
Patients with frontal lobe damage and cognitively normal elderly individuals demonstrate increased susceptibility to false facial recognition. In this paper we review neuropsychological evidence consistent with the notion that the common functional impairment underlying face memory distortions in bo...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2011-01-01
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| Series: | Behavioural Neurology |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/BEN-2011-0339 |
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| _version_ | 1832565848110268416 |
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| author | Steven Z. Rapcsak Emily C. Edmonds |
| author_facet | Steven Z. Rapcsak Emily C. Edmonds |
| author_sort | Steven Z. Rapcsak |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Patients with frontal lobe damage and cognitively normal elderly individuals demonstrate increased susceptibility to false facial recognition. In this paper we review neuropsychological evidence consistent with the notion that the common functional impairment underlying face memory distortions in both subject populations is a context recollection/source monitoring deficit, coupled with excessive reliance on relatively preserved facial familiarity signals in recognition decisions. In particular, we suggest that due to the breakdown of strategic memory retrieval, monitoring, and decision operations, individuals with frontal lobe impairment caused by focal damage or age-related functional decline do not have a reliable mechanism for attributing the experience of familiarity to the correct context or source. Memory illusions are mostly apparent under conditions of uncertainty when the face cue does not directly elicit relevant identity-specific contextual information, leaving the source of familiarity unspecified or ambiguous. Based on these findings, we propose that remembering faces is a constructive process that requires dynamic interactions between temporal lobe memory systems that operate in an automatic or bottom-up fashion and frontal executive systems that provide strategic top-down control of recollection. Executive memory control functions implemented by prefrontal cortex play a critical role in suppressing false facial recognition and related source memory misattributions. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-38aa36bb49a04cf986876d1308c4d123 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0953-4180 1875-8584 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2011-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Behavioural Neurology |
| spelling | doaj-art-38aa36bb49a04cf986876d1308c4d1232025-02-03T01:06:21ZengWileyBehavioural Neurology0953-41801875-85842011-01-0124428529810.3233/BEN-2011-0339The Executive Control of Face MemorySteven Z. Rapcsak0Emily C. Edmonds1Department of Neurology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USADepartment of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USAPatients with frontal lobe damage and cognitively normal elderly individuals demonstrate increased susceptibility to false facial recognition. In this paper we review neuropsychological evidence consistent with the notion that the common functional impairment underlying face memory distortions in both subject populations is a context recollection/source monitoring deficit, coupled with excessive reliance on relatively preserved facial familiarity signals in recognition decisions. In particular, we suggest that due to the breakdown of strategic memory retrieval, monitoring, and decision operations, individuals with frontal lobe impairment caused by focal damage or age-related functional decline do not have a reliable mechanism for attributing the experience of familiarity to the correct context or source. Memory illusions are mostly apparent under conditions of uncertainty when the face cue does not directly elicit relevant identity-specific contextual information, leaving the source of familiarity unspecified or ambiguous. Based on these findings, we propose that remembering faces is a constructive process that requires dynamic interactions between temporal lobe memory systems that operate in an automatic or bottom-up fashion and frontal executive systems that provide strategic top-down control of recollection. Executive memory control functions implemented by prefrontal cortex play a critical role in suppressing false facial recognition and related source memory misattributions.http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/BEN-2011-0339 |
| spellingShingle | Steven Z. Rapcsak Emily C. Edmonds The Executive Control of Face Memory Behavioural Neurology |
| title | The Executive Control of Face Memory |
| title_full | The Executive Control of Face Memory |
| title_fullStr | The Executive Control of Face Memory |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Executive Control of Face Memory |
| title_short | The Executive Control of Face Memory |
| title_sort | executive control of face memory |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/BEN-2011-0339 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT stevenzrapcsak theexecutivecontroloffacememory AT emilycedmonds theexecutivecontroloffacememory AT stevenzrapcsak executivecontroloffacememory AT emilycedmonds executivecontroloffacememory |