Abstract :
[en] The ability to detect novelty is crucial for survival, yet it is complex. To capture this complexity, researchers distinguish between different types of novelty, as neuroscientific evidence shows that distinct brain circuits process novelty depending on its nature. Absolute novelty refers to stimuli that are entirely unfamiliar to the observer and is thought to rely on the perirhinal cortex, whereas associative novelty arises from unfamiliar combinations of familiar elements and is presumably detected by the hippocampus.
Despite this distinction, methodological tools specifically designed to investigate different forms of novelty remain scarce. Moreover, given that the perirhinal cortex is assumed to primarily support object processing and the hippocampus scene processing, it remains unclear how novelty is detected across representational levels.
To address this gap, we developed the NOVITAS database, enabling direct and systematic comparison of absolute and associative novelty for objects and scenes within the same experimental tasks. We provide a large database of stimuli that assess novelty detection without prior lab exposure, relying solely on pre-existing knowledge.
In this talk, I will first introduce the experimental tasks we designed to validate the database, showing that our stimuli reliably elicit behavioral and eye-tracking markers of novelty attraction. I will then present findings exploring the relationship between novelty detection and episodic memory, including how novelty sensitivity relates to memory performance in aging, with a focus on memory tests associated with the perirhinal cortex and hippocampus. Finally, I will discuss recent work examining how absolute and associative novelty differentially influence memory encoding.
