Attention is crucial for encoding information into memory, and current dual-process models seek to explain the roles of attention in both recollection memory and incidental-perceptual memory processes. The present study combined an incidental memory paradigm with event-related functional MRI to examine the effect of attention at encoding on the subsequent neural activation associated with unintended perceptual memory for spoken words. At encoding, we systematically varied attention levels as listeners heard a list of single English nouns. We then presented these words again in the context of a recognition task and assessed the effect of modulating attention at encoding on the BOLD responses to words that were either attended strongly, weakly, or not heard previously. MRI revealed activity in right-lateralized inferior parietal and prefrontal regions, and positive BOLD signals varied with the relative level of attention present at encoding. Temporal analysis of hemodynamic responses further showed that the time course of BOLD activity was modulated differentially by unintentionally encoded words compared to novel items. Our findings largely support current models of memory consolidation and retrieval, but they also provide fresh evidence for hemispheric differences and functional subdivisions in right frontoparietal attention networks that help shape auditory episodic recall. 1. Introduction Attention is known to alter neural processing at multiple levels of both the peripheral and central nervous systems, and both auditory and visual attention have been conceptualized as operating in both “top-down” and “bottom-up” modes [1–7]. Top-down mechanisms reflect goal-based control in order to direct attention to particular targets or to sustain attention over time. In contrast, bottom-up mechanisms have traditionally been defined by the phenomenon of reflexive attentional orienting, as when attention is drawn without intent by highly salient sensory stimuli such as a sudden loud noise or flash of light. Recently, however, some investigators have more broadly considered bottom-up effects as relevant for any incoming stimuli, with the relative saliency of the stimulus influencing whether it is ultimately encoded into memory [8]. Two recent theoretical models address the question of what roles stimulus saliency might play in first successfully encoding information into memory and then later retrieving it. As discussed below, the “Embedded Processes” model and the “Attention-to-Memory” model, while similar, also highlight the potentially divergent roles that
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