Stefan
Köhler
Western
University
Mechanisms
of
Familiarity
Assessment
in
Humans
The
ability
to
consciously
recognize
the
prior
occurrence
of
objects,
people,
or
other
aspects
of
the
environment
is
critical
to
many
aspects
of
adaptive
behavior.
Recognition
memory
can
succeed
in
the
absence
of
successful
recollection
of
episodic
detail
about
a
pertinent
past
stimulus
encounter.
For
example,
we
have
all
been
in
situations
in
which
a
person
we
interact
with
feels
familiar,
but
we
cannot
conjure
up
any
information
as
to
where
or
when
we
met
her
before.
The
process
that
allows
for
recognition
under
such
circumstances
is
often
referred
to
as
familiarity
assessment.
In the present talk, I plan to review recent neuropsychological, neuroimaging, and psychophysiological research that aimed to shed light on the neural mechanisms that support familiarity and that shape its phenomenology. The work that I plan to discuss will speak to the following questions: How are memory representations that are tied to impressions of familiarity organized in the human brain? Can familiarity assessment be selectively affected by brain lesions? Does familiarity have an affective component?