Electrophysiological correlates of episodic memory retrieval are material sensitive

It remains unclear whether the event-related potential (ERP) correlates of episodic memory are modulated by the type of information retrieved. In two experiments, we recorded electrophysiological brain activity while participants discriminated between old and new items from three different stimulus categories (faces, objects, and words). In the first experiment, we used a randomized event-related design, whereas in the second experiment we used a block design. In both experiments, analyses of the electrophysiological data revealed robust ERP old/new effects for all types of material that differed in their qualitative characteristics, including topographical distribution. Our findings suggest that non-overlapping neural mechanisms support retrieval of mnemonic information differing in terms of perceptual and lexical characteristics.