The conditions of the experiment did not differ in terms of the perceptual display; only the content of the participant’s memory differed across conditions. Therefore, any engagement of visual attention occurred as a result of episodic retrieval processes. The attempt to retrieve perceptual detail from memory was associated with engagement of regions previously implicated in top-down attention, including the IPS, collectively referred to as the dorsal attention network (Kastner and Ungerleider, 2000; Corbetta and Shulman, 2002). These findings indicate

that the attempt to retrieve specific perceptual details from episodic memory in order to suppress false recognition is associated with engagement of the same neural systems for top-down visual attention that are utilized in other domains, such as visual detection or visual search of cluttered displays (Kastner and Ungerleider, see more 2000; Corbetta and Shulman, 2002). This observation contrasts

sharply with the finding that episodic retrieval in general—and the attempt to retrieve specific details in particular—is associated PFT�� with activity within components of the default network (Dobbins and Wagner, 2005; Wagner et al., 2005), that likely reflects, at least in part, a disengagement from processing of external stimuli and increased processing of internally generated representations (Buckner et al., 2008). Rather, the results suggest that the dorsal attention

network makes an important contribution to episodic retrieval when the retrieval of specific perceptual details is required. The recruitment of regions associated with top-down visual attention during the attempt to retrieve perceptual detail likely reflects perceptual processing of the cues themselves. Indeed, the pattern of eye movements clearly suggests that participants visually scrutinized the pictures to a greater degree in the Attention-High conditions. However, there is evidence that regions of the parietal Carnitine palmitoyltransferase II cortex associated with top-down visual attention can be engaged during recall of a picture even in the absence of any visual stimulus (Wheeler et al., 2006), suggesting that systems for top-down visual attention can also be recruited during processing of internally generated mnemonic representations. Future experiments should directly compare processing of internally generated mnemonic representations and externally perceived retrieval cues. There is a close relationship between the deployment of visual attention and the control of eye movements: the dorsal attention network is associated with both functions (Corbetta et al., 1998). In the current experiment, recruitment of visual attention during episodic retrieval was reflected in the pattern of eye movements. The differences in eye movements across conditions are a natural consequence of the engagement of visual attention during episodic retrieval.