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Hippocampal size is related to short-term true and false memory, and right fusiform size is related to long-term true and false memory

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Abstract

There is a keen interest in identifying specific brain regions that are related to individual differences in true and false memories. Previous functional neuroimaging studies showed that activities in the hippocampus, right fusiform gyrus, and parahippocampal gyrus were associated with true and false memories, but no study thus far has examined whether the structures of these brain regions are associated with short-term and long-term true and false memories. To address that question, the current study analyzed data from 205 healthy young adults, who had valid data from both structural brain imaging and a misinformation task. In the misinformation task, subjects saw the crime scenarios, received misinformation, and took memory tests about the crimes an hour later and again after 1.5 years. Results showed that bilateral hippocampal volume was associated with short-term true and false memories, whereas right fusiform gyrus volume and surface area were associated with long-term true and false memories. This study provides the first evidence for the structural neural bases of individual differences in short-term and long-term true and false memories.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31571132), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2013YB27), and the 111 Project of the Ministry of Education of China (B07008). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors thank Yoko Okado and Craig Stark for sharing their slides with us and for their valuable input.

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Correspondence to Bi Zhu or Elizabeth F. Loftus.

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Zhu, B., Chen, C., Loftus, E.F. et al. Hippocampal size is related to short-term true and false memory, and right fusiform size is related to long-term true and false memory. Brain Struct Funct 221, 4045–4057 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-015-1145-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-015-1145-1

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