Brain activations associated with shifts in response criterion on a recognition test

Sensitivity and bias can be manipulated inde pendently on a recognition tes t. The goal of this fMRI study was to determine whether neural activations associated with manipulations of a decision criterion would be anatomically distinct from neural activations associated with manipulations of memory s trength and episodic retrieval. The results indicated that activations asso ciated with shifting criteria (a manipulation of bias) were located in bila teral regions of the lateral cerebellum. lateral parietal lobe, and the dor solateral prefrontal cortex extending from the supplementary motor area. Th ese regions were anatomically distinct from activations in the prefrontal c ortex produced during memory-based retrieval processes (manipulations of se nsitivity), which tended to be more medial and anterior. These later activa tions are consistent with previous studies of episodic retrieval. Determini ng patterns of neural activations associated with decision-making processes relative to memory processes has important implications for Cognitive neur oscience, including the use of these patterns to compare memory models in d ifferent paradigms.