Lateralization of the parietal old/new effect: An event-related fMRI study comparing recognition memory for words and faces

Although the parietal cortex is not conventionally thought of as a major component of the neural systems that mediate declarative memory, many fMRI studies of recognition memory have found that correctly identified old items produce greater activation than correctly rejected new items throughout parietal cortex. This effect is usually heavily lateralized to the left. However, the vast majority of previous studies have used verbal materials. Does the left-lateralization of this effect result from the left hemisphere's role in language or does it suggest the possibility of a specialized role for the left hemisphere in recognition memory that applies across stimulus domains? To address this question, we directly compared recognition memory for words and faces in two event-related fMRI experiments with a total of 38 subjects. In the second experiment, we included a manipulation of recognition difficulty. Despite extensive material-specific lateralization in terms of the brain's overall response to stimuli revealed by a direct comparison of words and faces, the parietal old/new effect did not exhibit material-specific lateralization. Rather, the lateralization of the effect depended on the region of parietal cortex in question. In lateral parietal cortex, the effect was left-lateralized. In medial parietal cortex, the effect was bilateral. These findings indicate that the left-lateralization of the parietal old/new effect is unrelated to the left hemisphere's role in language and raises the possibility of a specialized role for the left hemisphere in recognition memory.