Teresa Lutz’s research while affiliated with German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and other places

What is this page?


This page lists works of an author who doesn't have a ResearchGate profile or hasn't added the works to their profile yet. It is automatically generated from public (personal) data to further our legitimate goal of comprehensive and accurate scientific recordkeeping. If you are this author and want this page removed, please let us know.

Publications (5)


Figure 2. Reduced hippocampal activity during autobiographical memory retrieval associated with aphantasia. The signal intensities during autobiographical memory (AM) and mental arithmetic (MA) were extracted from anatomical hippocampal masks created from each individual participant. (A) An example of a 3D reconstruction of the hippocampus, separated into anterior and posterior portions for the left hippocampus. (B) The comparison between the percentage of signal change during the AM and MA tasks in the hippocampus of aphantasics and controls. Aphantasics show reduced differentiation between AM and MA than controls in all portions of the hippocampus. * p<0.05.
Figure 4. Functional connectivity between the visual-perceptual cortex and hippocampus during AM retrieval. (A) During AM retrieval, group differences in functional connectivity amongst the ROIs were only found between the right hippocampus, and left visual-perceptual cortices. (B) Controls displayed a stark negative correlation, whereas aphantasics did not. Image is displayed at p<0.05, small volume corrected, and a voxel cluster threshold of 10 adjacent voxels.
Figure 5. Functional connectivity between the visual-perceptual cortex and hippocampus during resting-state explains visualization abilities. Resting-state functional connectivity between the right hippocampus and the right visual-perceptual cortex correlates with visualization abilities. Fitted straight lines indicate a negative correlation for aphantasics (red) and a positive correlation for controls (blue).
Peak coordinates of the AM and MA activation for Aphantasia.
Demographic data for aphantasics, controls and the total sample.
Hippocampal-occipital connectivity reflects autobiographical memory deficits in aphantasia
  • Article
  • Full-text available

September 2024

·

58 Reads

·

1 Citation

eLife

·

·

Teresa Lutz

·

[...]

·

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.

Download

Hippocampal-occipital connectivity reflects autobiographical memory deficits in aphantasia

September 2024

·

24 Reads

·

7 Citations

eLife

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.


Hippocampal-occipital connectivity reflects autobiographical memory deficits in aphantasia

June 2024

·

56 Reads

·

1 Citation

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.


Figure 1. Behavioral AM deficits associated with aphantasia. (A) Mean amount (± SEM) of
Figure 2. Activation during AM retrieval. (A) Stronger activated cortical regions during AM
Hippocampal-occipital connectivity reflects autobiographical memory deficits in aphantasia

February 2024

·

442 Reads

Aphantasia prohibits people from experiencing 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 is essential for 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.


Figure 1. AM deficits associated with aphantasia. (A) Mean amount (± SEM) of episodic richness and confidence in the Autobiographical Interview for controls and aphantasics. (B) Mean amount (± SEM) of internal details and external details for recent and remote memories. (C) Mean amount (± SEM)
Figure 2. Reduced hippocampal activity during AM retrieval associated with aphantasia. The signal intensities during AM and MA were extracted from anatomical hippocampal masks created from each individual participant. (A) An example of a 3D reconstruction of the hippocampus, separated into anterior and posterior portions for the left hippocampus. (B) The comparison between the percentage of signal change during the AM and MA tasks in the hippocampus of aphantasics and controls. Aphantasics show reduced differentiation between AM and MA than controls in all portions of the hippocampus. * p < .05.
Figure 3. Activation during AM retrieval task. (A) Stronger activated cortical regions during AM retrieval (in warm colors) in comparison to math problem solving (in cool colors) in aphantasics and (B) controls. (C) Aphantasics showed greater activation in visual-perceptual cortices than controls, and (D) controls showed stronger activation in the right posterior hippocampus than aphantasics. Images are thresholded at p < .001, cluster size 10, uncorrected, except (D) which is thresholded at p < .01, cluster size 10, for display purposes. (E) The percentage of signal change for the contrast AM versus MA were extracted from the peaks of activated voxels, each with 1 mm sphere for display purposes. * p < .05
Figure 4.
Figure 5. Functional connectivity between the visual-perceptual cortex and hippocampus during resting-state explains visualization abilities. Resting-state functional connectivity between the right hippocampus and the right visual-perceptual cortex correlates with visualization abilities. Fitted straight lines indicate a negative correlation for aphantasics (red) and a positive correlation for controls (blue).
Hippocampal-occipital connectivity reflects autobiographical memory deficits in aphantasia

February 2024

·

113 Reads

·

2 Citations

eLife

Aphantasia prohibits people from experiencing 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 is essential for 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.

Citations (2)


... For instance, although occipital regions have been previously linked to the quality of VSTM representation (Emrich et al. 2013;Ester et al. 2013;Zhao, Zhang, and Ku 2024), intracranial recording studies rarely involve direct recording from visual cortices. While past neuroimaging research has suggested that MTL's pattern separation/completion processes may interact with neural representations in the primary visual cortices to facilitate visual cognitive functions, such as retrieving associative prediction (Hindy, Ng, and Turk-Browne 2016;Kok and Turk-Browne 2018), generating visual imagery (Monzel et al. 2024), and forming visual long-term memory (Ranganath et al. 2005), the evidence supporting the role of MTL-visual cortical connectivity in VSTM precision remains scarce. ...

Reference:

Transcranial direct current stimulation over bilateral anterior temporal lobes modulates hippocampal-occipital functional connectivity and visual short-term memory precision
Hippocampal-occipital connectivity reflects autobiographical memory deficits in aphantasia
  • Citing Article
  • September 2024

eLife

... In this article, I use it in the more narrow sense, unless otherwise stated. Moreover, though commonly associated with memory and imagination, the generation of an image is not necessary for any of these experiences, as demonstrated by research into aphantasia-an individual difference in the generation of voluntary visual imagery, which is associated with reduced (but not absent) detailedness in autobiographical memory and future imagination [4][5][6]. ...

Hippocampal-occipital connectivity reflects autobiographical memory deficits in aphantasia
  • Citing Preprint
  • June 2024