Disrupting the configural context, or relative organization and orientation of paired stimuli, between encoding and retrieval negatively impacts memory. Using univariate and multivariate fMRI analyses, we examined the effect of retaining and manipulating the configural context on neural mechanisms supporting associative retrieval. Behavioral results showed participants had significantly higher hit rates for recollecting pairs in a contextually congruent, versus incongruent, configuration. In addition, contextual congruency between memory phases was a critical determinant to characterizing both the magnitude and patterns of neural activation within visual and parietal cortices. Regions within visual cortices also exhibited higher correlations between patterns of activity at encoding and retrieval when configural context was congruent across memory phases than incongruent. Collectively, these findings shed light on how manipulating configural context between encoding and retrieval affects associative recognition, with changes in the configural context leading to reductions in information transfer and increases in task difficulty.

在编码和检索之间破坏配置上下文或配对刺激的相对组织和方向会对记忆产生负面影响。使用单变量和多变量 fMRI 分析，我们检查了保留和操纵配置上下文对支持联想检索的神经机制的影响。行为结果显示，与上下文不一致的配置相比，参与者在回忆上下文一致的配对时的命中率要高得多。此外，记忆阶段之间的上下文一致性是表征视觉和顶叶皮质内神经激活的大小和模式的关键决定因素。当配置上下文在整个记忆阶段一致而不是不一致时，视觉皮层内的区域在编码和检索的活动模式之间也表现出更高的相关性。总的来说，这些发现阐明了在编码和检索之间操纵配置上下文如何影响联想识别，配置上下文的变化导致信息传递的减少和任务难度的增加。