For a time, memory research parted ways with the rest of the N400 literature, in large part because the N400-like response studied in the context of recognition memory came to be regarded as a separable component – the “FN400” (frontal N400) – based on its apparently different scalp topograhpy and purported link with explicit, familiarity signals. In a pivotal study, Curran (2000) investigated FN400 effects using a plurality reversal manipulation shown to reduce recollection but to have little effect on familiarity. This manipulation had no effect on FN400 repetition effects, but did influence ERPs associated with recollection (LPCs), supporting an association between FN400 and familiarity. Many studies followed using similar techniques to associate FN400s with familiarity and LPCs with recollection thereby supporting dual process memory models that posit a qualitative distinction between the brain areas and processing involved in feelings of familiarity from that involved in conscious recollection (reviewed in Rugg & Curran 2007).
