Intact perceptual ability, but impaired familiarity judgment, after neonatal perirhinal lesions in rhesus macaques

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Alison R. Weiss, Emory University; Wendi Guo, Emory University; Rebecca Richardson, Yerkes National Primate Research Center; Jocelyne Bachevalier, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2017-12
• Publisher: Elsevier: Creative Commons Licenses
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2017.10.006
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
• ISSN: 1878-9293
• Volume: 28
• Start Page: 54
• End Page: 64
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported by grants MH-58846 to JB and NSFGRFPDGE-1444932 to ARW.
• Keywords: Recognition; Visual Perception; Medial temporal lobe; Monkey; Development
• Research Categories: Psychology, Cognitive; Biology, Neuroscience

Abstract

The perirhinal cortex is known to support high-level perceptual abilities as well as familiarity judgments that may affect recognition memory. We tested whether poor perceptual abilities or a loss of familiarity judgment contributed to the recognition memory impairments reported earlier in monkeys with PRh lesions received in infancy (Neo-PRh) (Weiss & Bachevalier, 2016; Zeamer et al., 2015). Perceptual abilities were assessed using a version of the Visual Paired Comparison task with black&white (B&W) stimuli, and familiarity judgments were assessed using the Constant Negative task requiring repeated familiarization exposures. Adult monkeys with Neo-PRh lesions were able to recognize B&W stimuli after short delays, suggesting that their perceptual abilities were within the range of control animals. However, the same Neo-PRh monkeys were slower to acquire the Constant Negative task, requiring more exposures to objects before judging them as familiar compared to control animals. Taken together, the data help to account for the differential patterns of functional compensation on previously reported recognition tasks following neonatal versus adult-onset PRh lesions, and provide further support to the view that the PRh is involved in familiarity processes.