Interactivity within large-scale brain network recruited for retrieval of temporally organized events

Retrieving temporal information of encoded events is one of the core control processes in episodic memory. Despite much prior neuroimaging research on episodic retrieval, little is known about how large-scale connectivity patterns are involved in the retrieval of sequentially organized episodes. Task-related functional connectivity multivariate pattern analysis was used to distinguish the different sequential retrieval. In this study, participants performed temporal episodic memory tasks in which they were required to retrieve the encoded items in either the forward or backward direction. While separately parsed local networks did not yield substantial efficiency in classification performance, the large-scale patterns of interactivity across the cortical and sub-cortical brain regions implicated in both the cognitive control of memory and goal-directed cognitive processes encompassing lateral and medial prefrontal regions, inferior parietal lobules, middle temporal gyrus, and caudate yielded high discriminative power in classification of temporal retrieval processes. These findings demonstrate that mnemonic control processes across cortical and subcortical regions are recruited to re-experience temporally-linked series of memoranda in episodic memory and are mirrored in the qualitatively distinct global network patterns of functional connectivity.