Eye fixation-related fronto-parietal neural network correlates of memory retrieval

Abstract

Eye movements are considered to be informative with regard to the underlying cognitive processes of human beings. Previous studies have reported that eye movements are associated with which scientific concepts are retrieved correctly. Moreover, other studies have also suggested that eye movements involve the cooperative activity of the human brain's fronto-parietal circuits. Less research has been conducted to investigate whether fronto-parietal EEG oscillations are associated with the retrieval processing of scientific concepts. Our findings in this study demonstrated that the fronto-parietal network is indeed crucial for successful memory retrieval. In short, significantly lower theta augmentation in the frontal midline and lower alpha suppression in the right parietal region were observed at the 5th eye fixation for physics concepts that were correctly retrieved than for those that were incorrectly retrieved. Moreover, the visual cortex in the occipital lobe exhibits a significantly greater theta augmentation followed by an alpha suppression following each eye fixation, while a right frontoparietal asymmetry was also found for the successful retrieval of presentations of physics concepts. In particular, the study results showed that eye fixation-related frontal midline theta power and right parietal alpha power at the 5th eye fixation have the greatest predictive power regarding the correctness of the retrieval of physics concepts.