Hippocampal functional connectivity and episodic memory in early childhood.

PubMed

Riggins, Tracy; Geng, Fengji; Blankenship, Sarah L; Redcay, Elizabeth

2016-06-01

Episodic memory relies on a distributed network of brain regions, with the hippocampus playing a critical and irreplaceable role. Few studies have examined how changes in this network contribute to episodic memory development early in life. The present addressed this gap by examining relations between hippocampal functional connectivity and episodic memory in 4- and 6-year-old children (n=40). Results revealed similar hippocampal functional connectivity between age groups, which included lateral temporal regions, precuneus, and multiple parietal and prefrontal regions, and functional specialization along the longitudinal axis. Despite these similarities, developmental differences were also observed. Specifically, 3 (of 4) regions within the hippocampal memory network were positively associated with episodic memory in 6-year-old children, but negatively associated with episodic memory in 4-year-old children. In contrast, all 3 regions outside the hippocampal memory network were negatively associated with episodic memory in older children, but positively associated with episodic memory in younger children. These interactions are interpreted within an interactive specialization framework and suggest the hippocampus becomes functionally integrated with cortical regions that are part of the hippocampal memory network in adults and functionally segregated from regions unrelated to memory in adults, both of which are associated with age-related improvements in episodic memory ability. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Influence of early attentional modulation on working memory

PubMed Central

Gazzaley, Adam

2011-01-01

It is now established that attention influences working memory (WM) at multiple processing stages. This liaison between attention and WM poses several interesting empirical questions. Notably, does attention impact WM via its influences on early perceptual processing? If so, what are the critical factors at play in this attention-perception-WM interaction. I review recent data from our laboratory utilizing a variety of techniques (electroencephalography (EEG), functional MRI (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)), stimuli (features and complex objects), novel experimental paradigms, and research populations (younger and older adults), which converge to support the conclusion that top-down modulation of visual cortical activity at early perceptual processing stages (100–200 ms after stimulus onset) impacts subsequent WM performance. Factors that affect attentional control at this stage include cognitive load, task practice, perceptual training, and aging. These developments highlight the complex and dynamic relationships among perception, attention, and memory. PMID:21184764

Early remodeling of the neocortex upon episodic memory encoding

PubMed Central

Bero, Adam W.; Meng, Jia; Cho, Sukhee; Shen, Abra H.; Canter, Rebecca G.; Ericsson, Maria; Tsai, Li-Huei

2014-01-01

Understanding the mechanisms by which long-term memories are formed and stored in the brain represents a central aim of neuroscience. Prevailing theory suggests that long-term memory encoding involves early plasticity within hippocampal circuits, whereas reorganization of the neocortex is thought to occur weeks to months later to subserve remote memory storage. Here we report that long-term memory encoding can elicit early transcriptional, structural, and functional remodeling of the neocortex. Parallel studies using genome-wide RNA sequencing, ultrastructural imaging, and whole-cell recording in wild-type mice suggest that contextual fear conditioning initiates a transcriptional program in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) that is accompanied by rapid expansion of the synaptic active zone and postsynaptic density, enhanced dendritic spine plasticity, and increased synaptic efficacy. To address the real-time contribution of the mPFC to long-term memory encoding, we performed temporally precise optogenetic inhibition of excitatory mPFC neurons during contextual fear conditioning. Using this approach, we found that real-time inhibition of the mPFC inhibited activation of the entorhinal–hippocampal circuit and impaired the formation of long-term associative memory. These findings suggest that encoding of long-term episodic memory is associated with early remodeling of neocortical circuits, identify the prefrontal cortex as a critical regulator of encoding-induced hippocampal activation and long-term memory formation, and have important implications for understanding memory processing in healthy and diseased brain states. PMID:25071187

Effects of Early Serotonin Programming on Fear Response, Memory and Aggression

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT) also acts as a neurogenic compound in the developing brain. Early administration of a 5-HT agonist could alter development of serotonergic circuitry, altering behaviors mediated by 5-HT signaling, including memory, fear and aggression. The present study was desi...

White Matter Structural Connectivity and Episodic Memory in Early Childhood

PubMed Central

Ngo, Chi T.; Alm, Kylie H.; Metoki, Athanasia; Hampton, William; Riggins, Tracy; Newcombe, Nora S.; Olson, Ingrid R.

2018-01-01

Episodic memory undergoes dramatic improvement in early childhood; the reason for this is poorly understood. In adults, episodic memory relies on a distributed neural network. Key brain regions that supporting these processes include the hippocampus, portions of the parietal cortex, and portions of prefrontal cortex, each of which shows different developmental profiles. Here we asked whether developmental differences in the axonal pathways connecting these regions may account for the robust gains in episodic memory in young children. Using diffusion weighted imaging, we examined whether white matter connectivity between brain regions implicated in episodic memory differed with age, and were associated with memory performance differences in 4- and 6-year-old children. Results revealed that white matter connecting the hippocampus to the inferior parietal lobule significantly predicted children’s performance on episodic memory tasks. In contrast, variation in the white matter connecting the hippocampus to the medial prefrontal cortex did not relate to memory performance. These findings suggest that structural connectivity between the hippocampus and lateral parietal regions is relevant to the development of episodic memory PMID:29175538

[Early episodic memory impairments in Alzheimer's disease].

PubMed

Ergis, A-M; Eusop-Roussel, E

2008-05-01

Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show early episodic memory impairments. Such deficits reflect specific impairments affecting one or several stages of encoding, storage and retrieval processes. However, AD patients not only have great difficulty retrieving memories and information but also suffer from distortions of memory, as intrusions and false recognitions. Intrusions can be defined as the unintentional recall of inappropriate information in a laboratory-learning tasks such as word-list recall and story recall. False recognition refers to the erroneous recognition of information that was not previously presented. The first objective of this review is to present studies from the literature that allowed a better understanding of the nature of episodic memory deficits in AD, and to examine recent research on false memories. The second part of this review is aimed at presenting recent research conducted on prospective memory (PM) in Alzheimer's disease. Prospective memory situations involve forming intentions and then realizing those intentions at some appropriate time in the future. Everyday examples of prospective memory include remembering to buy bread on the way home from work, remembering to give friends a message upon next encountering them, and remembering to take medication. Patients suffering from AD show difficulties in performing prospective tasks in daily life, according to the complaints of their care givers, and these difficulties are massively present at the first stages of the disease. Nevertheless, very few studies have been dedicated to this subject, although the evaluation of PM could be helpful for the early diagnosis of AD.

The Self-Reference Effect on Memory in Early Childhood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cunningham, Sheila J.; Brebner, Joanne L.; Quinn, Francis; Turk, David J.

2014-01-01

The self-reference effect in memory is the advantage for information encoded about self, relative to other people. The early development of this effect was explored here using a concrete encoding paradigm. Trials comprised presentation of a self- or other-image paired with a concrete object. In Study 1, 4- to 6-year-old children (N = 53) were…

Functional neuroanatomical associations of working memory in early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Kobylecki, Christopher; Haense, Cathleen; Harris, Jennifer M; Stopford, Cheryl L; Segobin, Shailendra H; Jones, Matthew; Richardson, Anna M T; Gerhard, Alexander; Anton-Rodriguez, José; Thompson, Jennifer C; Herholz, Karl; Snowden, Julie S

2018-01-01

To characterize metabolic correlates of working memory impairment in clinically defined subtypes of early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Established models of working memory suggest a key role for frontal lobe function, yet the association in Alzheimer's disease between working memory impairment and visuospatial and language symptoms suggests that temporoparietal neocortical dysfunction may be responsible. Twenty-four patients with predominantly early-onset Alzheimer's disease were clinically classified into groups with predominantly amnestic, multidomain or visual deficits. Patients underwent neuropsychological evaluation focused on the domains of episodic and working memory, T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging and brain fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography. Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography data were analysed by using a region-of-interest approach. Patients with multidomain and visual presentations performed more poorly on tests of working memory compared with amnestic Alzheimer's disease. Working memory performance correlated with glucose metabolism in left-sided temporoparietal, but not frontal neocortex. Carriers of the apolipoprotein E4 gene showed poorer episodic memory and better working memory performance compared with noncarriers. Our findings support the hypothesis that working memory changes in early-onset Alzheimer's disease are related to temporoparietal rather than frontal hypometabolism and show dissociation from episodic memory performance. They further support the concept of subtypes of Alzheimer's disease with distinct cognitive profiles due to prominent neocortical dysfunction early in the disease course. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Multiple Memory Systems Are Unnecessary to Account for Infant Memory Development: An Ecological Model

PubMed Central

Rovee-Collier, Carolyn; Cuevas, Kimberly

2009-01-01

How the memory of adults evolves from the memory abilities of infants is a central problem in cognitive development. The popular solution holds that the multiple memory systems of adults mature at different rates during infancy. The early-maturing system (implicit or nondeclarative memory) functions automatically from birth, whereas the late-maturing system (explicit or declarative memory) functions intentionally, with awareness, from late in the first year. Data are presented from research on deferred imitation, sensory preconditioning, potentiation, and context for which this solution cannot account and present an alternative model that eschews the need for multiple memory systems. The ecological model of infant memory development (N. E. Spear, 1984) holds that members of all species are perfectly adapted to their niche at each point in ontogeny and exhibit effective, evolutionarily selected solutions to whatever challenges each new niche poses. Because adults and infants occupy different niches, what they perceive, learn, and remember about the same event differs, but their raw capacity to learn and remember does not. PMID:19209999

White matter structural connectivity and episodic memory in early childhood.

PubMed

Ngo, Chi T; Alm, Kylie H; Metoki, Athanasia; Hampton, William; Riggins, Tracy; Newcombe, Nora S; Olson, Ingrid R

2017-12-01

Episodic memory undergoes dramatic improvement in early childhood; the reason for this is poorly understood. In adults, episodic memory relies on a distributed neural network. Key brain regions that supporting these processes include the hippocampus, portions of the parietal cortex, and portions of prefrontal cortex, each of which shows different developmental profiles. Here we asked whether developmental differences in the axonal pathways connecting these regions may account for the robust gains in episodic memory in young children. Using diffusion weighted imaging, we examined whether white matter connectivity between brain regions implicated in episodic memory differed with age, and were associated with memory performance differences in 4- and 6-year-old children. Results revealed that white matter connecting the hippocampus to the inferior parietal lobule significantly predicted children's performance on episodic memory tasks. In contrast, variation in the white matter connecting the hippocampus to the medial prefrontal cortex did not relate to memory performance. These findings suggest that structural connectivity between the hippocampus and lateral parietal regions is relevant to the development of episodic memory. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Representational constraints on the development of memory and metamemory: a developmental-representational theory.

PubMed

Ceci, Stephen J; Fitneva, Stanka A; Williams, Wendy M

2010-04-01

Traditional accounts of memory development suggest that maturation of prefrontal cortex (PFC) enables efficient metamemory, which enhances memory. An alternative theory is described, in which changes in early memory and metamemory are mediated by representational changes, independent of PFC maturation. In a pilot study and Experiment 1, younger children failed to recognize previously presented pictures, yet the children could identify the context in which they occurred, suggesting these failures resulted from inefficient metamemory. Older children seldom exhibited such failure. Experiment 2 established that this was not due to retrieval-time recoding. Experiment 3 suggested that young children's representation of a picture's attributes explained their metamemory failure. Experiment 4 demonstrated that metamemory is age-invariant when representational quality is controlled: When stimuli were equivalently represented, age differences in memory and metamemory declined. These findings do not support the traditional view that as children develop, neural maturation permits more efficient monitoring, which leads to improved memory. These findings support a theory based on developmental-representational synthesis, in which constraints on metamemory are independent of neurological development; representational features drive early memory to a greater extent than previously acknowledged, suggesting that neural maturation has been overimputed as a source of early metamemory and memory failure. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Early working memory and maternal communication in toddlers born very low birth weight.

PubMed

Lowe, Jean; Erickson, Sarah J; Maclean, Peggy; Duvall, Susanne W

2009-04-01

Early working memory is emerging as an important indicator of developmental outcome predicting later cognitive, behavioural and academic competencies. The current study compared early working memory in a sample of toddlers (18-22 months) born very low birth weight (VLBW; n = 40) and full term (n = 51) and the relationship between early working memory, mental developmental index (MDI), and maternal communication in both samples. Early working memory, measured by object permanence; Bayley mental developmental index; and maternal communication, coded during mother-toddler play interaction, were examined in 39 toddlers born VLBW and 41 toddlers born full term. Toddlers born VLBW were found to be 6.4 times less likely to demonstrate attainment of object permanence than were toddlers born full term, adjusting for age at testing. MDI and maternal communication were found to be positively associated with attainment of object permanence in the VLBW group only. The difference found in the early working memory performance of toddlers born VLBW, compared with those born full term, emphasizes the importance of assessing early working memory in at-risk populations, while the maternal communication finding highlights potential targets of intervention for improving working memory in toddlers born VLBW.

Episodic and Semantic Autobiographical Memory and Everyday Memory during Late Childhood and Early Adolescence

PubMed Central

Willoughby, Karen A.; Desrocher, Mary; Levine, Brian; Rovet, Joanne F.

2012-01-01

Few studies have examined both episodic and semantic autobiographical memory (AM) performance during late childhood and early adolescence. Using the newly developed Children’s Autobiographical Interview (CAI), the present study examined the effects of age and sex on episodic and semantic AM and everyday memory in 182 children and adolescents. Results indicated that episodic and semantic AM both improved between 8 and 16 years of age; however, age-related changes were larger for episodic AM than for semantic AM. In addition, females were found to recall more episodic AM details, but not more semantic AM details, than males. Importantly, this sex difference in episodic AM recall was attenuated under conditions of high retrieval support (i.e., the use of probing questions). The ability to clearly visualize past events at the time of recollection was related to children’s episodic AM recall performance, particularly the retrieval of perceptual details. Finally, similar age and sex effects were found between episodic AM and everyday memory ability (e.g., memory for everyday activities). More specifically, older participants and females exhibited better episodic AM and everyday memory performance than younger participants and males. Overall, the present study provides important new insight into both episodic and semantic AM performance, as well as the relation between episodic AM and everyday memory, during late childhood and adolescence. PMID:22403560

Episodic and Semantic Autobiographical Memory and Everyday Memory during Late Childhood and Early Adolescence.

PubMed

Willoughby, Karen A; Desrocher, Mary; Levine, Brian; Rovet, Joanne F

2012-01-01

Few studies have examined both episodic and semantic autobiographical memory (AM) performance during late childhood and early adolescence. Using the newly developed Children's Autobiographical Interview (CAI), the present study examined the effects of age and sex on episodic and semantic AM and everyday memory in 182 children and adolescents. Results indicated that episodic and semantic AM both improved between 8 and 16 years of age; however, age-related changes were larger for episodic AM than for semantic AM. In addition, females were found to recall more episodic AM details, but not more semantic AM details, than males. Importantly, this sex difference in episodic AM recall was attenuated under conditions of high retrieval support (i.e., the use of probing questions). The ability to clearly visualize past events at the time of recollection was related to children's episodic AM recall performance, particularly the retrieval of perceptual details. Finally, similar age and sex effects were found between episodic AM and everyday memory ability (e.g., memory for everyday activities). More specifically, older participants and females exhibited better episodic AM and everyday memory performance than younger participants and males. Overall, the present study provides important new insight into both episodic and semantic AM performance, as well as the relation between episodic AM and everyday memory, during late childhood and adolescence.

Martin Mayman's early memories technique: bridging the gap between personality assessment and psychotherapy.

PubMed

Fowler, J C; Hilsenroth, M J; Handler, L

2000-08-01

In this article, we describe Martin Mayman's approach to early childhood memories as a projective technique, beginning with his scientific interest in learning theory, coupled with his interest in ego psychology and object relations theory. We describe Mayman's contributions to the use of the early memories technique to inform the psychotherapy process, tying assessment closely to psychotherapy and making assessment more useful in treatment. In this article, we describe a representative sample of research studies that demonstrate the reliability and validity of early memories, followed by case examples in which the early memories informed the therapy process, including issues of transference and countertransference.

Early working memory and maternal communication in toddlers born very low birth weight

PubMed Central

Lowe, Jean; Erickson, Sarah J; MacLean, Peggy; Duvall, Susanne W

2010-01-01

Aim Early working memory is emerging as an important indicator of developmental outcome predicting later cognitive, behavioural and academic competencies. The current study compared early working memory in a sample of toddlers (18–22 months) born very low birth weight (VLBW; n = 40) and full term (n = 51) and the relationship between early working memory, mental developmental index (MDI), and maternal communication in both samples. Methods Early working memory, measured by object permanence; Bayley mental developmental index; and maternal communication, coded during mother-toddler play interaction, were examined in 39 toddlers born VLBW and 41 toddlers born full term. Results Toddlers born VLBW were found to be 6.4 times less likely to demonstrate attainment of object permanence than were toddlers born full term, adjusting for age at testing. MDI and maternal communication were found to be positively associated with attainment of object permanence in the VLBW group only. Conclusion The difference found in the early working memory performance of toddlers born VLBW, compared with those born full term, emphasizes the importance of assessing early working memory in at-risk populations, while the maternal communication finding highlights potential targets of intervention for improving working memory in toddlers born VLBW. PMID:19154525

Neural Changes Underlying the Development of Episodic Memory During Middle Childhood

PubMed Central

Ghetti, Simona; Bunge, Silvia A.

2012-01-01

Episodic memory is central to the human experience. In typically developing children, episodic memory improves rapidly during middle childhood. While the developmental cognitive neuroscience of episodic memory remains largely uncharted, recent research has begun to provide important insights. It has long been assumed that hippocampus-dependent binding mechanisms are in place by early childhood, and that improvements in episodic memory observed during middle childhood result from the protracted development of the prefrontal cortex. We revisit the notion that binding mechanisms are age-invariant, and propose that changes in the hippocampus and its projections to cortical regions also contribute to the development of episodic memory. We further review the role of developmental changes in lateral prefrontal and parietal cortices in this development. Finally, we discuss changes in white matter tracts connecting brain regions that are critical for episodic memory. Overall, we argue that changes in episodic memory emerge from the concerted effort of a network of relevant brain structures. PMID:22770728

Early Life Manipulations Alter Learning and Memory in Rats

PubMed Central

Kosten, Therese A; Kim, Jeansok J; Lee, Hongjoo J.

2012-01-01

Much research shows early life manipulations have enduring behavioral, neural, and hormonal effects. However, findings of learning and memory performance vary widely across studies. We reviewed studies in which pre-weaning rat pups were exposed to stressors and tested on learning and memory tasks in adulthood. Tasks were classified as aversive conditioning, inhibitory learning, or spatial/relational memory. Variables of duration, type, and timing of neonatal manipulation and sex and strain of animals were examined to determine if any predict enhanced or impaired performance. Brief separations enhanced and prolonged separations impaired performance on spatial/relational tasks. Performance was impaired in aversive conditioning and enhanced in inhibitory learning tasks regardless of manipulation duration. Opposing effects on performance for spatial/relational memory also depended upon timing of manipulation. Enhanced performance was likely if the manipulation occurred during postnatal week 3 but performance was impaired if it was confined to the first two postnatal weeks. Thus, the relationship between early life experiences and adulthood learning and memory performance is multifaceted and decidedly task-dependent. PMID:22819985

Development in the organization of episodic memories in middle childhood and adolescence.

PubMed

Chen, Yan; McAnally, Helena Margaret; Reese, Elaine

2013-01-01

The basic elements of autobiographical or episodic memory are established in early childhood, although the exact age at which memories gain episodic status is still under contention. The self-memory system proposed that adults use "lifetime periods" to group episodic memories together into chapters of the life story - an evolving and internalized account of significant life events that are self-defining. Two studies examined at what point in development children or adolescents begin to take advantage of lifetime-period chapters to organize their episodic memories. The results of Study 1 with 8- to 12-year-olds revealed that the ability to provide life story chapters began to emerge as early as 8 years of age. In Study 2 with adolescents aged 12-21, this ability continued to develop into late adolescence among New Zealand European (NZE) and New Zealand Chinese (NZC) adolescents; however, cultural differences also existed in the specificity of memories. NZC adolescents narrated fewer life story chapters containing specific memories than NZE adolescents. These findings support and extend current theories of episodic memory by specifying that pre-adolescents are starting to organize their episodic memories into lifetime periods, but this achievement is not fully realized until later in adolescence.

Memory retrieval by activating engram cells in mouse models of early Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Roy, Dheeraj S; Arons, Autumn; Mitchell, Teryn I; Pignatelli, Michele; Ryan, Tomás J; Tonegawa, Susumu

2016-03-24

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive memory decline and subsequent loss of broader cognitive functions. Memory decline in the early stages of AD is mostly limited to episodic memory, for which the hippocampus has a crucial role. However, it has been uncertain whether the observed amnesia in the early stages of AD is due to disrupted encoding and consolidation of episodic information, or an impairment in the retrieval of stored memory information. Here we show that in transgenic mouse models of early AD, direct optogenetic activation of hippocampal memory engram cells results in memory retrieval despite the fact that these mice are amnesic in long-term memory tests when natural recall cues are used, revealing a retrieval, rather than a storage impairment. Before amyloid plaque deposition, the amnesia in these mice is age-dependent, which correlates with a progressive reduction in spine density of hippocampal dentate gyrus engram cells. We show that optogenetic induction of long-term potentiation at perforant path synapses of dentate gyrus engram cells restores both spine density and long-term memory. We also demonstrate that an ablation of dentate gyrus engram cells containing restored spine density prevents the rescue of long-term memory. Thus, selective rescue of spine density in engram cells may lead to an effective strategy for treating memory loss in the early stages of AD.

Representational Constraints on the Development of Memory and Metamemory: A Developmental-Representational Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ceci, Stephen J.; Fitneva, Stanka A.; Williams, Wendy M.

2010-01-01

Traditional accounts of memory development suggest that maturation of prefrontal cortex (PFC) enables efficient metamemory, which enhances memory. An alternative theory is described, in which changes in early memory and metamemory are mediated by representational changes, independent of PFC maturation. In a pilot study and Experiment 1, younger…

Early declarative memory predicts productive language: A longitudinal study of deferred imitation and communication at 9 and 16months.

PubMed

Sundqvist, Annette; Nordqvist, Emelie; Koch, Felix-Sebastian; Heimann, Mikael

2016-11-01

Deferred imitation (DI) may be regarded as an early declarative-like memory ability shaping the infant's ability to learn about novelties and regularities of the surrounding world. In the current longitudinal study, infants were assessed at 9 and 16months. DI was assessed using five novel objects. Each infant's communicative development was measured by parental questionnaires. The results indicate stability in DI performance and early communicative development between 9 and 16months. The early achievers at 9months were still advanced at 16months. Results also identified a predictive relationship between the infant's gestural development at 9months and the infant's productive and receptive language at 16months. Moreover, the results show that declarative memory, measured with DI, and gestural communication at 9months independently predict productive language at 16months. These findings suggest a connection between the ability to form non-linguistic and linguistic mental representations. These results indicate that the child's DI ability when predominantly preverbal might be regarded as an early domain-general declarative memory ability underlying early productive language development. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Development of Attention Systems and Working Memory in Infancy

PubMed Central

Reynolds, Greg D.; Romano, Alexandra C.

2016-01-01

In this article, we review research and theory on the development of attention and working memory in infancy using a developmental cognitive neuroscience framework. We begin with a review of studies examining the influence of attention on neural and behavioral correlates of an earlier developing and closely related form of memory (i.e., recognition memory). Findings from studies measuring attention utilizing looking measures, heart rate, and event-related potentials (ERPs) indicate significant developmental change in sustained and selective attention across the infancy period. For example, infants show gains in the magnitude of the attention related response and spend a greater proportion of time engaged in attention with increasing age (Richards and Turner, 2001). Throughout infancy, attention has a significant impact on infant performance on a variety of tasks tapping into recognition memory; however, this approach to examining the influence of infant attention on memory performance has yet to be utilized in research on working memory. In the second half of the article, we review research on working memory in infancy focusing on studies that provide insight into the developmental timing of significant gains in working memory as well as research and theory related to neural systems potentially involved in working memory in early development. We also examine issues related to measuring and distinguishing between working memory and recognition memory in infancy. To conclude, we discuss relations between the development of attention systems and working memory. PMID:26973473

The Development of Attention Systems and Working Memory in Infancy.

PubMed

Reynolds, Greg D; Romano, Alexandra C

2016-01-01

In this article, we review research and theory on the development of attention and working memory in infancy using a developmental cognitive neuroscience framework. We begin with a review of studies examining the influence of attention on neural and behavioral correlates of an earlier developing and closely related form of memory (i.e., recognition memory). Findings from studies measuring attention utilizing looking measures, heart rate, and event-related potentials (ERPs) indicate significant developmental change in sustained and selective attention across the infancy period. For example, infants show gains in the magnitude of the attention related response and spend a greater proportion of time engaged in attention with increasing age (Richards and Turner, 2001). Throughout infancy, attention has a significant impact on infant performance on a variety of tasks tapping into recognition memory; however, this approach to examining the influence of infant attention on memory performance has yet to be utilized in research on working memory. In the second half of the article, we review research on working memory in infancy focusing on studies that provide insight into the developmental timing of significant gains in working memory as well as research and theory related to neural systems potentially involved in working memory in early development. We also examine issues related to measuring and distinguishing between working memory and recognition memory in infancy. To conclude, we discuss relations between the development of attention systems and working memory.

Sleep problems across development: a pathway to adolescent risk taking through working memory.

PubMed

Thomas, April Gile; Monahan, Kathryn C; Lukowski, Angela F; Cauffman, Elizabeth

2015-02-01

Problematic sleep can be detrimental to the development of important cognitive functions, such as working memory, and may have the potential for negative behavioral consequences, such as risk-taking. In this way, sleep problems may be particularly harmful for youth-whose cognitive abilities are still developing and who are more susceptible to risky behavior. Using data from a large, national, longitudinal study, continuity and change in sleep problems were examined from 2 to 15 years of age and associated with deficits in working memory at age 15 and risk taking behaviors at age 18. Participants (N = 1,364 children; 48.3% female) were assessed for sleep problems (parent-report), working memory (behavioral task), and risk taking behavior (youth self-report). The sample was predominantly White (80.4%); additional races represented in the sample included Black/African American (12.9%), Asian/Pacific Islander (1.6%), American Indian/Eskimo/Aleut (.4%), and Other (4.7%). The findings suggest that sleep problems are likely to cascade across development, with sleep problems demonstrating continuity from infancy to early childhood, early childhood to middle childhood, and middle childhood to adolescence. Although sleep problems in infancy, early childhood, and middle childhood were not directly related to adolescent working memory, sleep problems during adolescence were associated with poorer adolescent working memory. In turn, these deficits in working memory were related to greater risk taking in late adolescence. In summary, the present results suggest that sleep problems in earlier periods are indicative of risk for sleep problems later in development, but that sleep problems in adolescence contribute uniquely to deficits in working memory that, in turn, lead to risky behavior during late adolescence.

Episodic Memory and Future Thinking During Early Childhood: Linking the Past and Future

PubMed Central

Cuevas, Kimberly; Rajan, Vinaya; Morasch, Katherine C.; Bell, Martha Ann

2015-01-01

Despite extensive examination of episodic memory and future thinking development, little is known about the concurrent emergence of these capacities during early childhood. In Experiment 1, 3-year-olds participated in an episodic memory hiding task [“what, when, where” (WWW) components] with an episodic future thinking component. In Experiment 2, a group of 4-year-olds (including children from Experiment 1) participated in the same task (different objects and locations), providing the first longitudinal investigation of episodic memory and future thinking. Although children exhibited age-related improvements in recall, recognition, and binding of the WWW episodic memory components, there were no age-related changes in episodic future thinking. At both ages, WWW episodic memory performance was higher than future thinking performance, and episodic future thinking and WWW memory components were unrelated. These findings suggest that the WWW components of episodic memory are potentially less fragile than the future components when assessed in a cognitively demanding task. PMID:25864990

Episodic memory and future thinking during early childhood: Linking the past and future.

PubMed

Cuevas, Kimberly; Rajan, Vinaya; Morasch, Katherine C; Bell, Martha Ann

2015-07-01

Despite extensive examination of episodic memory and future thinking development, little is known about the concurrent emergence of these capacities during early childhood. In Experiment 1, 3-year-olds participated in an episodic memory hiding task ("what, when, where" [WWW] components) with an episodic future thinking component. In Experiment 2, a group of 4-year-olds (including children from Experiment 1) participated in the same task (different objects and locations), providing the first longitudinal investigation of episodic memory and future thinking. Although children exhibited age-related improvements in recall, recognition, and binding of the WWW episodic memory components, there were no age-related changes in episodic future thinking. At both ages, WWW episodic memory performance was higher than future thinking performance, and episodic future thinking and WWW memory components were unrelated. These findings suggest that the WWW components of episodic memory are potentially less fragile than the future components when assessed in a cognitively demanding task. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Convergent Validity of the Early Memory Index in Two Primary Care Samples.

PubMed

Porcerelli, John H; Cogan, Rosemary; Melchior, Katherine A; Jasinski, Matthew J; Richardson, Laura; Fowler, Shannon; Morris, Pierre; Murdoch, William

2016-01-01

Karliner, Westrich, Shedler, and Mayman (1996) developed the Early Memory Index (EMI) to assess mental health, narrative coherence, and traumatic experiences in reports of early memories. We assessed the convergent validity of EMI scales with data from 103 women from an urban primary care clinic (Study 1) and data from 48 women and 24 men from a suburban primary care clinic (Study 2). Patients provided early memory narratives and completed self-report measures of psychopathology, trauma, and health care utilization. In both studies, lower scores on the Mental Health scale and higher scores on the Traumatic Experiences scale were related to higher scores on measures of psychopathology and childhood trauma. Less consistent associations were found between the Mental Health and Traumatic Experiences scores and measures of health care utilization. The Narrative Coherence scale showed inconsistent relationships across measures in both samples. In analyses assessing the overall fit between hypothesized and actual correlations between EMI scores and measures of psychopathology, severity of trauma symptoms, and health care utilization, the Mental Health scale of the EMI demonstrated stronger convergent validity than the EMI Traumatic Experiences scale. The results provide support for the convergent validity of the Mental Health scale of the EMI.

Sex differences in episodic memory in early midlife: impact of reproductive aging.

PubMed

Rentz, Dorene M; Weiss, Blair K; Jacobs, Emily G; Cherkerzian, Sara; Klibanski, Anne; Remington, Anne; Aizley, Harlyn; Goldstein, Jill M

2017-04-01

Few have characterized cognitive changes with age as a function of menopausal stage relative to men, or sex differences in components of memory in early midlife. The study aim was to investigate variation in memory function in early midlife as a function of sex, sex steroid hormones, and reproductive status. A total of 212 men and women aged 45 to 55 were selected for this cross-sectional study from a prenatal cohort of pregnancies whose mothers were originally recruited in 1959 to 1966. They underwent clinical and cognitive testing and hormonal assessments of menopause status. Multivariate general linear models for multiple memory outcomes were used to test hypotheses controlling for potential confounders. Episodic memory, executive function, semantic processing, and estimated verbal intelligence were assessed. Associative memory and episodic verbal memory were assessed using Face-Name Associative Memory Exam (FNAME) and Selective Reminding Test (SRT), given increased sensitivity to detecting early cognitive decline. Impacts of sex and reproductive stage on performance were tested. Women outperformed men on all memory measures including FNAME (β = -0.30, P < 0.0001) and SRT (β = -0.29, P < 0.0001). Furthermore, premenopausal and perimenopausal women outperformed postmenopausal women on FNAME (initial learning, β= 0.32, P = 0.01) and SRT (recall, β= 2.39, P = 0.02). Across all women, higher estradiol was associated with better SRT performance (recall, β = 1.96, P = 0.01) and marginally associated with FNAME (initial learning, β = 0.19, P = 0.06). This study demonstrated that, in early midlife, women outperformed age-matched men across all memory measures, but sex differences were attenuated for postmenopausal women. Initial learning and memory retrieval were particularly vulnerable, whereas memory consolidation and storage were preserved. Findings underscore the significance of the decline in ovarian estradiol production in

Early handling effect on female rat spatial and non-spatial learning and memory.

PubMed

Plescia, Fulvio; Marino, Rosa A M; Navarra, Michele; Gambino, Giuditta; Brancato, Anna; Sardo, Pierangelo; Cannizzaro, Carla

2014-03-01

This study aims at providing an insight into early handling procedures on learning and memory performance in adult female rats. Early handling procedures were started on post-natal day 2 until 21, and consisted in 15 min, daily separations of the dams from their litters. Assessment of declarative memory was carried out in the novel-object recognition task; spatial learning, reference- and working memory were evaluated in the Morris water maze (MWM). Our results indicate that early handling induced an enhancement in: (1) declarative memory, in the object recognition task, both at 1h and 24h intervals; (2) reference memory in the probe test and working memory and behavioral flexibility in the "single-trial and four-trial place learning paradigm" of the MWM. Short-term separation by increasing maternal care causes a dampening in HPA axis response in the pups. A modulated activation of the stress response may help to protect brain structures, involved in cognitive function. In conclusion, this study shows the long-term effects of a brief maternal separation in enhancing object recognition-, spatial reference- and working memory in female rats, remarking the impact of early environmental experiences and the consequent maternal care on the behavioral adaptive mechanisms in adulthood. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Early-life sugar consumption has long-term negative effects on memory function in male rats.

PubMed

Noble, Emily E; Hsu, Ted M; Liang, Joanna; Kanoski, Scott E

2017-09-25

Added dietary sugars contribute substantially to the diet of children and adolescents in the USA, and recent evidence suggests that consuming sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) during early life has deleterious effects on hippocampal-dependent memory function. Here, we test whether the effects of early-life sugar consumption on hippocampal function persist into adulthood when access to sugar is restricted to the juvenile/adolescent phase of development. Male rats were given ad libitum access to an 11% weight-by-volume sugar solution (made with high fructose corn syrup-55) throughout the adolescent phase of development (post-natal day (PN) 26-56). The control group received a second bottle of water instead, and both groups received ad libitum standard laboratory chow and water access throughout the study. At PN 56 sugar solutions were removed and at PN 175 rats were subjected to behavioral testing for hippocampal-dependent episodic contextual memory in the novel object in context (NOIC) task, for anxiety-like behavior in the Zero maze, and were given an intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test. Early-life exposure to SSBs conferred long-lasting impairments in hippocampal-dependent memory function later in life- yet had no effect on body weight, anxiety-like behavior, or glucose tolerance. A second experiment demonstrated that NOIC performance was impaired at PN 175 even when SSB access was limited to 2 hours daily from PN 26-56. Our data suggest that even modest SSB consumption throughout early life may have long-term negative consequences on memory function during adulthood.

Memory retrieval by activating engram cells in mouse models of early Alzheimer’s disease

PubMed Central

Roy, Dheeraj S.; Arons, Autumn; Mitchell, Teryn I.; Pignatelli, Michele; Ryan, Tomás J.; Tonegawa, Susumu

2016-01-01

Summary Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive memory decline and subsequent loss of broader cognitive functions1. Memory decline in early stages of Alzheimer’s is mostly limited to episodic memory, for which the hippocampus (HPC) plays a crucial role2. However, it has been uncertain whether the observed amnesia in early stages of Alzheimer’s is due to disrupted encoding and consolidation of episodic information, or an impairment in the retrieval of stored memory information. Here we show that in transgenic mouse models of early Alzheimer’s, direct optogenetic activation of hippocampal memory engram cells results in memory retrieval despite the fact that these mice are amnesic in long-term memory tests when natural recall cues are utilized, revealing a retrieval, rather than a storage impairment. Prior to amyloid plaque deposition, the amnesia in these mice is age-dependent3–5, which correlates with a progressive reduction of spine density of hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) engram cells. We show that optogenetic induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) at perforant path (PP) synapses of DG engram cells restores both spine density and long-term memory. We also demonstrate that an ablation of DG engram cells containing restored spine density prevents the rescue of long-term memory. Thus, selective rescue of spine density in engram cells may lead to an effective strategy for treating memory loss in early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. PMID:26982728

Anticipatory eye movements and long-term memory in early infancy.

PubMed

Wong-Kee-You, Audrey M B; Adler, Scott A

2016-11-01

Advances in our understanding of long-term memory in early infancy have been made possible by studies that have used the Rovee-Collier's mobile conjugate reinforcement paradigm and its variants. One function that has been attributed to long-term memory is the formation of expectations (Rovee-Collier & Hayne, 1987); consequently, a long-term memory representation should be established during expectation formation. To examine this prediction and potentially open the door on a new paradigm for exploring infants' long-term memory, using the Visual Expectation Paradigm (Haith, Hazan, & Goodman, 1988), 3-month-old infants were trained to form an expectation for predictable color and spatial information of picture events and emit anticipatory eye movements to those events. One day later, infants' anticipatory eye movements decreased in number relative to the end of training when the predictable colors were changed but not when the spatial location of the predictable color events was changed. These findings confirm that information encoded during expectation formation are stored in long-term memory, as hypothesized by Rovee-Collier and colleagues. Further, this research suggests that eye movements are potentially viable measures of long-term memory in infancy, providing confirmatory evidence for early mnemonic processes. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Long-term effect of early-life stress from earthquake exposure on working memory in adulthood.

PubMed

Li, Na; Wang, Yumei; Zhao, Xiaochuan; Gao, Yuanyuan; Song, Mei; Yu, Lulu; Wang, Lan; Li, Ning; Chen, Qianqian; Li, Yunpeng; Cai, Jiajia; Wang, Xueyi

2015-01-01

The present study aimed to investigate the long-term effect of 1976 Tangshan earthquake exposure in early life on performance of working memory in adulthood. A total of 907 study subjects born and raised in Tangshan were enrolled in this study. They were divided into three groups according to the dates of birth: infant exposure (3-12 months, n=274), prenatal exposure (n=269), and no exposure (born at least 1 year after the earthquake, n=364). The prenatal group was further divided into first, second, and third trimester subgroups based on the timing of exposure during pregnancy. Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised and Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R) were used to measure the performance of working memory. Unconditional logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the influential factors for impaired working memory. The Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised scores did not show significant difference across the three groups. Compared with no exposure group, the BVMT-R scores were slightly lower in the prenatal exposure group and markedly decreased in the infant exposure group. When the BVMT-R scores were analyzed in three subgroups, the results showed that the subjects whose mothers were exposed to earthquake in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy had significantly lower BVMT-R scores compared with those in the first trimester. Education level and early-life earthquake exposure were identified as independent risk factors for reduced performance of visuospatial memory indicated by lower BVMT-R scores. Infant exposure to earthquake-related stress impairs visuospatial memory in adulthood. Fetuses in the middle and late stages of development are more vulnerable to stress-induced damage that consequently results in impaired visuospatial memory. Education and early-life trauma can also influence the performance of working memory in adulthood.

I. WORKING MEMORY CAPACITY IN CONTEXT: MODELING DYNAMIC PROCESSES OF BEHAVIOR, MEMORY, AND DEVELOPMENT.

PubMed

Simmering, Vanessa R

2016-09-01

Working memory is a vital cognitive skill that underlies a broad range of behaviors. Higher cognitive functions are reliably predicted by working memory measures from two domains: children's performance on complex span tasks, and infants' performance in looking paradigms. Despite the similar predictive power across these research areas, theories of working memory development have not connected these different task types and developmental periods. The current project takes a first step toward bridging this gap by presenting a process-oriented theory, focusing on two tasks designed to assess visual working memory capacity in infants (the change-preference task) versus children and adults (the change detection task). Previous studies have shown inconsistent results, with capacity estimates increasing from one to four items during infancy, but only two to three items during early childhood. A probable source of this discrepancy is the different task structures used with each age group, but prior theories were not sufficiently specific to explain how performance relates across tasks. The current theory focuses on cognitive dynamics, that is, how memory representations are formed, maintained, and used within specific task contexts over development. This theory was formalized in a computational model to generate three predictions: 1) capacity estimates in the change-preference task should continue to increase beyond infancy; 2) capacity estimates should be higher in the change-preference versus change detection task when tested within individuals; and 3) performance should correlate across tasks because both rely on the same underlying memory system. I also tested a fourth prediction, that development across tasks could be explained through increasing real-time stability, realized computationally as strengthening connectivity within the model. Results confirmed these predictions, supporting the cognitive dynamics account of performance and developmental changes in real

Autobiographical memory development from an attachment perspective: the special role of negative events.

PubMed

Chae, Yoojin; Goodman, Gail S; Edelstein, Robin S

2011-01-01

The authors propose a novel model of autobiographical memory development that features the fundamental role of attachment orientations and negative life events. In the model, it is proposed that early autobiographical memory derives in part from the need to express and remember negative experiences, a need that has adaptive value, and that attachment orientations create individual differences in children's recollections of negative experiences. Specifically, the role of attachment in the processing of negative information is discussed in regard to the mnemonic stages of encoding, storage, and retrieval. This model sheds light on several areas of contradictory data in the memory development literature, such as concerning earliest memories and children's and adults' memory/suggestibility for stressful events.

Shifting Attention within Memory Representations Involves Early Visual Areas

PubMed Central

Munneke, Jaap; Belopolsky, Artem V.; Theeuwes, Jan

2012-01-01

Prior studies have shown that spatial attention modulates early visual cortex retinotopically, resulting in enhanced processing of external perceptual representations. However, it is not clear whether the same visual areas are modulated when attention is focused on, and shifted within a working memory representation. In the current fMRI study participants were asked to memorize an array containing four stimuli. After a delay, participants were presented with a verbal cue instructing them to actively maintain the location of one of the stimuli in working memory. Additionally, on a number of trials a second verbal cue instructed participants to switch attention to the location of another stimulus within the memorized representation. Results of the study showed that changes in the BOLD pattern closely followed the locus of attention within the working memory representation. A decrease in BOLD-activity (V1–V3) was observed at ROIs coding a memory location when participants switched away from this location, whereas an increase was observed when participants switched towards this location. Continuous increased activity was obtained at the memorized location when participants did not switch. This study shows that shifting attention within memory representations activates the earliest parts of visual cortex (including V1) in a retinotopic fashion. We conclude that even in the absence of visual stimulation, early visual areas support shifting of attention within memorized representations, similar to when attention is shifted in the outside world. The relationship between visual working memory and visual mental imagery is discussed in light of the current findings. PMID:22558165

Effects of Mineralocorticoid Receptor Overexpression on Anxiety and Memory after Early Life Stress in Female Mice

PubMed Central

Kanatsou, Sofia; Ter Horst, Judith P.; Harris, Anjanette P.; Seckl, Jonathan R.; Krugers, Harmen J.; Joëls, Marian

2016-01-01

Early-life stress (ELS) is a risk factor for the development of psychopathology, particularly in women. Human studies have shown that certain haplotypes of NR3C2, encoding the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), that result in gain of function, may protect against the consequences of stress exposure, including childhood trauma. Here, we tested the hypothesis that forebrain-specific overexpression of MR in female mice would ameliorate the effects of ELS on anxiety and memory in adulthood. We found that ELS increased anxiety, did not alter spatial discrimination and reduced contextual fear memory in adult female mice. Transgenic overexpression of MR did not alter anxiety but affected spatial memory performance and enhanced contextual fear memory formation. The effects of ELS on anxiety and contextual fear were not affected by transgenic overexpression of MR. Thus, MR overexpression in the forebrain does not represent a major resilience factor to early life adversity in female mice. PMID:26858618

Spatial learning and memory is preserved in rats after early development in a microgravity environment.

PubMed

Temple, Meredith D; Kosik, Kenneth S; Steward, Oswald

2002-09-01

This study evaluated the cognitive mapping abilities of rats that spent part of their early development in a microgravity environment. Litters of male and female Sprague-Dawley rat pups were launched into space aboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration space shuttle Columbia on postnatal day 8 or 14 and remained in space for 16 days. These animals were designated as FLT groups. Two age-matched control groups remained on Earth: those in standard vivarium housing (VIV) and those in housing identical to that aboard the shuttle (AGC). On return to Earth, animals were tested in three different tasks that measure spatial learning ability, the Morris water maze (MWM), and a modified version of the radial arm maze (RAM). Animals were also tested in an open field apparatus to measure general activity and exploratory activity. Performance and search strategies were evaluated in each of these tasks using an automated tracking system. Despite the dramatic differences in early experience, there were remarkably few differences between the FLT groups and their Earth-bound controls in these tasks. FLT animals learned the MWM and RAM as quickly as did controls. Evaluation of search patterns suggested subtle differences in patterns of exploration and in the strategies used to solve the tasks during the first few days of testing, but these differences normalized rapidly. Together, these data suggest that development in an environment without gravity has minimal long-term impact on spatial learning and memory abilities. Any differences due to development in microgravity are quickly reversed after return to earth normal gravity.

Spatial learning and memory is preserved in rats after early development in a microgravity environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Temple, Meredith D.; Kosik, Kenneth S.; Steward, Oswald

2002-01-01

This study evaluated the cognitive mapping abilities of rats that spent part of their early development in a microgravity environment. Litters of male and female Sprague-Dawley rat pups were launched into space aboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration space shuttle Columbia on postnatal day 8 or 14 and remained in space for 16 days. These animals were designated as FLT groups. Two age-matched control groups remained on Earth: those in standard vivarium housing (VIV) and those in housing identical to that aboard the shuttle (AGC). On return to Earth, animals were tested in three different tasks that measure spatial learning ability, the Morris water maze (MWM), and a modified version of the radial arm maze (RAM). Animals were also tested in an open field apparatus to measure general activity and exploratory activity. Performance and search strategies were evaluated in each of these tasks using an automated tracking system. Despite the dramatic differences in early experience, there were remarkably few differences between the FLT groups and their Earth-bound controls in these tasks. FLT animals learned the MWM and RAM as quickly as did controls. Evaluation of search patterns suggested subtle differences in patterns of exploration and in the strategies used to solve the tasks during the first few days of testing, but these differences normalized rapidly. Together, these data suggest that development in an environment without gravity has minimal long-term impact on spatial learning and memory abilities. Any differences due to development in microgravity are quickly reversed after return to earth normal gravity.

Rescripting Early Memories Linked to Negative Images in Social Phobia: A Pilot Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wild, Jennifer; Hackmann, Ann; Clark, David M.

2008-01-01

Negative self-images are a maintaining factor in social phobia. A retrospective study (Hackmann, A., Clark, D.M., McManus, F. (2000). Recurrent images and early memories in social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38, 601-610) suggested that the images may be linked to early memories of unpleasant social experiences. This preliminary study…

Working Memory in Early-School-Age Children with Asperger's Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cui, Jifang; Gao, Dingguo; Chen, Yinghe; Zou, Xiaobing; Wang, Ya

2010-01-01

Using a battery of working memory span tasks and n-back tasks, this study aimed to explore working memory functions in early-school-age children with Asperger's syndrome (AS). Twelve children with AS and 29 healthy children matched on age and IQ were recruited. Results showed: (a) children with AS performed better in digit and word recall tasks,…

Breaking cycles of risk: The mitigating role of maternal working memory in associations among socioeconomic status, early caregiving, and children's working memory.

PubMed

Suor, Jennifer H; Sturge-Apple, Melissa L; Skibo, Michael A

2017-10-01

Previous research has documented socioeconomic-related disparities in children's working memory; however, the putative proximal caregiving mechanisms that underlie these effects are less known. The present study sought to examine whether the effects of early family socioeconomic status on children's working memory were mediated through experiences of caregiving, specifically maternal harsh discipline and responsiveness. Utilizing a psychobiological framework of parenting, the present study also tested whether maternal working memory moderated the initial paths between the family socioeconomic context and maternal harsh discipline and responsiveness in the mediation model. The sample included 185 socioeconomically diverse mother-child dyads assessed when children were 3.5 and 5 years old. Results demonstrated that maternal harsh discipline was a unique mediator of the relation between early experiences of family socioeconomic adversity and lower working memory outcomes in children. Individual differences in maternal working memory emerged as a potent individual difference factor that specifically moderated the mediating influence of harsh discipline within low socioeconomic contexts. The findings have implications for early risk processes underlying deficits in child working memory outcomes and potential targets for parent-child interventions.

Early life stress explains reduced positive memory biases in remitted depression.

PubMed

Gethin, J A; Lythe, K E; Workman, C I; Mayes, A; Moll, J; Zahn, R

2017-09-01

There is contradictory evidence regarding negative memory biases in major depressive disorder (MDD) and whether these persist into remission, which would suggest their role as vulnerability traits rather than correlates of mood state. Early life stress (ELS), common in patients with psychiatric disorders, has independently been associated with memory biases, and confounds MDD versus control group comparisons. Furthermore, in most studies negative biases could have resulted from executive impairments rather than memory difficulties per se. To investigate whether memory biases are relevant to MDD vulnerability and how they are influenced by ELS, we developed an associative recognition memory task for temporo-spatial contexts of social actions with low executive demands, which were matched across conditions (self-blame, other-blame, self-praise, other-praise). We included fifty-three medication-free remitted MDD (25 with ELS, 28 without) and 24 healthy control (HC) participants without ELS. Only MDD patients with ELS showed a reduced bias (accuracy/speed ratio) towards memory for positive vs. negative materials when compared with MDD without ELS and with HC participants; attenuated positive biases correlated with number of past major depressive episodes, but not current symptoms. There were no biases towards self-blaming or self-praising memories. This demonstrates that reduced positive biases in associative memory were specific to MDD patients with ELS rather than a general feature of MDD, and were associated with lifetime recurrence risk which may reflect a scarring effect. If replicated, our results would call for stratifying MDD patients by history of ELS when assessing and treating emotional memories. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.. All rights reserved.

Early Childhood Memory and Attention as Predictors of Academic Growth Trajectories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stipek, Deborah; Valentino, Rachel A.

2015-01-01

Longitudinal data from the children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) were used to assess how well measures of short-term and working memory and attention in early childhood predicted longitudinal growth trajectories in mathematics and reading comprehension. Analyses also examined whether changes in memory and attention were more…

Linking Developmental Working Memory and Early Academic Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Decker, Janice E.

2011-01-01

Brain-based initiatives and school readiness mandates in education have prompted researchers to examine the biological mechanisms associated with learning in the hope that understanding empirical evidence can maximize learning potential. Current research has examined working memory skills in relationship to early learning. The function of working…

Selective early-acquired fear memories undergo temporary suppression during adolescence

PubMed Central

Pattwell, Siobhan S.; Bath, Kevin G.; Casey, B. J.; Ninan, Ipe; Lee, Francis S.

2011-01-01

Highly conserved neural circuitry between rodents and humans has allowed for in-depth characterization of behavioral and molecular processes associated with emotional learning and memory. Despite increased prevalence of affective disorders in adolescent humans, few studies have characterized how associative-emotional learning changes during the transition through adolescence or identified mechanisms underlying such changes. By examining fear conditioning in mice, as they transitioned into and out of adolescence, we found that a suppression of contextual fear occurs during adolescence. Although contextual fear memories were not expressed during early adolescence, they could be retrieved and expressed as the mice transitioned out of adolescence. This temporary suppression of contextual fear was associated with blunted synaptic activity in the basal amygdala and decreased PI3K and MAPK signaling in the hippocampus. These findings reveal a unique form of brain plasticity in fear learning during early adolescence and may prove informative for understanding endogenous mechanisms to suppress unwanted fear memories. PMID:21220344

Annual Research Review: The neurobehavioral development of multiple memory systems: implications for childhood and adolescent psychiatric disorders

PubMed Central

Goodman, Jarid; Marsh, Rachel; Peterson, Bradley S.; Packard, Mark G.

2014-01-01

Extensive evidence indicates that mammalian memory is organized into multiple brains systems, including a “cognitive” memory system that depends upon the hippocampus and a stimulus-response “habit” memory system that depends upon the dorsolateral striatum. Dorsal striatal-dependent habit memory may in part influence the development and expression of some human psychopathologies, particularly those characterized by strong habit-like behavioral features. The present review considers this hypothesis as it pertains to psychopathologies that typically emerge during childhood and adolescence. These disorders include Tourette syndrome, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, and autism spectrum disorders. Human and nonhuman animal research shows that the typical development of memory systems comprises the early maturation of striatal-dependent habit memory and the relatively late maturation of hippocampal-dependent cognitive memory. We speculate that the differing rates of development of these memory systems may in part contribute to the early emergence of habit-like symptoms in childhood and adolescence. In addition, abnormalities in hippocampal and striatal brain regions have been observed consistently in youth with these disorders, suggesting that the aberrant development of memory systems may also contribute to the emergence of habit-like symptoms as core pathological features of these illnesses. Considering these disorders within the context of multiple memory systems may help elucidate the pathogenesis of habit-like symptoms in childhood and adolescence, and lead to novel treatments that lessen the habit-like behavioral features of these disorders. PMID:24286520

Early Adolescent Sexual Debut: The Mediating Role of Working Memory Ability, Sensation Seeking, and Impulsivity

PubMed Central

Khurana, Atika; Romer, Daniel; Betancourt, Laura M.; Brodsky, Nancy L.; Giannetta, Joan M.; Hurt, Hallam

2013-01-01

Although deficits in working memory ability have been implicated in suboptimal decision making and risk taking among adolescents, its influence on early sexual initiation has so far not been examined. Analyzing 2 waves of panel data from a community sample of adolescents (N = 347; Mean age[baseline] = 13.4 years), assessed 1 year apart, the present study tested the hypothesis that weak working memory ability predicts early sexual initiation and explored whether this relationship is mediated by sensation seeking and 2 forms of impulsivity, namely acting-without-thinking and temporal discounting. The 2 forms of impulsivity were expected to be positively associated with early sexual initiation, whereas sensation seeking was hypothesized to be unrelated or to have a protective influence, due to its positive association with working memory. Results obtained from structural equation modeling procedures supported these predictions and in addition showed that the effects of 3 prominent risk factors (Black racial identity, low socioeconomic background, and early pubertal maturation) on early sexual initiation were entirely mediated by working memory and impulsivity. The findings are discussed in regard to their implications for preventing early sexual onset among adolescents. PMID:22369334

Selective dentate gyrus disruption causes memory impairment at the early stage of experimental multiple sclerosis.

PubMed

Planche, Vincent; Panatier, Aude; Hiba, Bassem; Ducourneau, Eva-Gunnel; Raffard, Gerard; Dubourdieu, Nadège; Maitre, Marlène; Lesté-Lasserre, Thierry; Brochet, Bruno; Dousset, Vincent; Desmedt, Aline; Oliet, Stéphane H; Tourdias, Thomas

2017-02-01

Memory impairment is an early and disabling manifestation of multiple sclerosis whose anatomical and biological substrates are still poorly understood. We thus investigated whether memory impairment encountered at the early stage of the disease could be explained by a differential vulnerability of particular hippocampal subfields. By using experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a mouse model of multiple sclerosis, we identified that early memory impairment was associated with selective alteration of the dentate gyrus as pinpointed in vivo with diffusion-tensor-imaging (DTI). Neuromorphometric analyses and electrophysiological recordings confirmed dendritic degeneration, alteration in glutamatergic synaptic transmission and impaired long-term synaptic potentiation selectively in the dentate gyrus, but not in CA1, together with a more severe pattern of microglial activation in this subfield. Systemic injections of the microglial inhibitor minocycline prevented DTI, morphological, electrophysiological and behavioral impairments in EAE-mice. Furthermore, daily infusions of minocycline specifically within the dentate gyrus were sufficient to prevent memory impairment in EAE-mice while infusions of minocycline within CA1 were inefficient. We conclude that early memory impairment in EAE is due to a selective disruption of the dentate gyrus associated with microglia activation. These results open new pathophysiological, imaging, and therapeutic perspectives for memory impairment in multiple sclerosis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Early Memories of Individuals on the Autism Spectrum Assessed Using Online Self-Reports

PubMed Central

Zamoscik, Vera; Mier, Daniela; Schmidt, Stephanie N. L.; Kirsch, Peter

2016-01-01

“When I was one and a half years old, I was on a ferry lying on red seats” – while several autobiographical accounts by people with autism reveal vivid memories of early childhood, the vast amount of experimental investigations found deficits in personal autobiographic memory in autism. To assess this contradiction empirically, we implemented an online questionnaire on early childhood events to compare people on the autism spectrum (AS) and non-autistic people with respect to their earliest autobiographical episodic memories and the earliest semantic know event as told by another person. Results indicate that people on the AS do not differ from non-autistic people in the age of their earliest know events but remember events from an earlier age in childhood and with more sensory details, contradicting the assumption of an overall deficit in personal episodic memory in autism. Furthermore, our results emphasize the supporting influence of language for memory formation and give evidence for an important role of sensory features in memories of people on the AS. PMID:27199786

Verbal and visual memory in patients with early Parkinson's disease: effect of levodopa.

PubMed

Singh, Sumit; Behari, Madhuri

2006-03-01

The effect of initiation of levodopa therapy on the memory functions in patients with Parkinson's disease remains poorly understood. To evaluate the effect of initiation of levodopa therapy on memory, in patients with early Parkinson's disease. Prospective case control study. Seventeen patients with early Parkinson's disease were evaluated for verbal memory using Rey's auditory verbal learning test, and visual memory using the Benton's visual retention test and Form sequence learning test. UPDRS scores, Hoehn and Yahr's Staging and Schwab and England scores of Activities of daily living. Hamilton's depression rating scale and MMSE were also evaluated. Six controls were also evaluated according to similar study protocol. Levodopa was then prescribed to the cases. Same tests were repeated on all the subjects after 12 weeks. The mean age of the patients was 59.8 (+ 12.9 yrs); mean disease duration of 3.26 (+ 2.06 yrs). The mean UPDRS scores of patients were 36.52 (+ 15.84). Controls were of a similar age and sex distribution. A statistically significant improvement in the scores on the UPDRS, Hamilton's depression scale, Schwab and England scale, and a statistically significant deterioration in the scores of visual memory was observed in patients with PD after starting levodopa, as compared to their baseline scores. There was no correlation between degree of deterioration and the dose of levodopa. Initiation of levodopa therapy in patients with early and stable Parkinson's disease is associated with deterioration in visual memory functions, with relative preservation of the verbal memory.

Working memory and fine motor skills predict early numeracy performance of children with cerebral palsy.

PubMed

Van Rooijen, Maaike; Verhoeven, Ludo; Steenbergen, Bert

2016-01-01

Early numeracy is an important precursor for arithmetic performance, academic proficiency, and work success. Besides their apparent motor difficulties, children with cerebral palsy (CP) often show additional cognitive disturbances. In this study, we examine whether working memory, non-verbal intelligence, linguistic skills, counting and fine motor skills are positively related to the early numeracy performance of 6-year-old children with CP. A total of 56 children (M = 6.0, SD = 0.61, 37 boys) from Dutch special education schools participated in this cross-sectional study. Of the total group, 81% of the children have the spastic type of CP (33% unilateral and 66% bilateral), 9% have been diagnosed as having diskinetic CP, 8% have been diagnosed as having spastic and diskinetic CP and 2% have been diagnosed as having a combination of diskinetic and atactic CP. The children completed standardized tests assessing early numeracy performance, working memory, non-verbal intelligence, sentence understanding and fine motor skills. In addition, an experimental task was administered to examine their basic counting performance. Structural equation modeling showed that working memory and fine motor skills were significantly related to the early numeracy performance of the children (β = .79 and p < .001, β = .41 and p < .001, respectively). Furthermore, counting was a mediating variable between working memory and early numeracy (β = .57, p < .001). Together, these findings highlight the importance of working memory for early numeracy performance in children with CP and they warrant further research into the efficacy of intervention programs aimed at working memory training.

Cross-modal activation of auditory regions during visuo-spatial working memory in early deafness.

PubMed

Ding, Hao; Qin, Wen; Liang, Meng; Ming, Dong; Wan, Baikun; Li, Qiang; Yu, Chunshui

2015-09-01

Early deafness can reshape deprived auditory regions to enable the processing of signals from the remaining intact sensory modalities. Cross-modal activation has been observed in auditory regions during non-auditory tasks in early deaf subjects. In hearing subjects, visual working memory can evoke activation of the visual cortex, which further contributes to behavioural performance. In early deaf subjects, however, whether and how auditory regions participate in visual working memory remains unclear. We hypothesized that auditory regions may be involved in visual working memory processing and activation of auditory regions may contribute to the superior behavioural performance of early deaf subjects. In this study, 41 early deaf subjects (22 females and 19 males, age range: 20-26 years, age of onset of deafness < 2 years) and 40 age- and gender-matched hearing controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during a visuo-spatial delayed recognition task that consisted of encoding, maintenance and recognition stages. The early deaf subjects exhibited faster reaction times on the spatial working memory task than did the hearing controls. Compared with hearing controls, deaf subjects exhibited increased activation in the superior temporal gyrus bilaterally during the recognition stage. This increased activation amplitude predicted faster and more accurate working memory performance in deaf subjects. Deaf subjects also had increased activation in the superior temporal gyrus bilaterally during the maintenance stage and in the right superior temporal gyrus during the encoding stage. These increased activation amplitude also predicted faster reaction times on the spatial working memory task in deaf subjects. These findings suggest that cross-modal plasticity occurs in auditory association areas in early deaf subjects. These areas are involved in visuo-spatial working memory. Furthermore, amplitudes of cross-modal activation during the maintenance stage were

Review of the Literature Regarding Early Memories and Their Emerging Use in Projective Spiritual Assessment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bustrum, Joy M.

This doctoral research seeks to demonstrate the clinical utility of early memories by reviewing the current literature and providing a rationale for extending this research into the spiritual arena by highlighting the lack of available projective spiritual measures. Specific areas covered include an overview of early memory theory, technique and…

Cognitive activities delay onset of memory decline in persons who develop dementia

PubMed Central

Hall, C B.; Lipton, R B.; Sliwinski, M; Katz, M J.; Derby, C A.; Verghese, J

2009-01-01

Background: Persons destined to develop dementia experience an accelerated rate of decline in cognitive ability, particularly in memory. Early life education and participation in cognitively stimulating leisure activities later in life are 2 factors thought to reflect cognitive reserve, which may delay the onset of the memory decline in the preclinical stages of dementia. Methods: We followed 488 initially cognitively intact community residing individuals with epidemiologic, clinical, and cognitive assessments every 12 to 18 months in the Bronx Aging Study. We assessed the influence of self-reported participation in cognitively stimulating leisure activities on the onset of accelerated memory decline as measured by the Buschke Selective Reminding Test in 101 individuals who developed incident dementia using a change point model. Results: Each additional self-reported day of cognitive activity at baseline delayed the onset of accelerated memory decline by 0.18 years. Higher baseline levels of cognitive activity were associated with more rapid memory decline after that onset. Inclusion of education did not significantly add to the fit of the model beyond the effect of cognitive activities. Conclusions: Our findings show that late life cognitive activities influence cognitive reserve independently of education. The effect of early life education on cognitive reserve may be mediated by cognitive activity later in life. Alternatively, early life education may be a determinant of cognitive reserve, and individuals with more education may choose to participate in cognitive activities without influencing reserve. Future studies should examine the efficacy of increasing participation in cognitive activities to prevent or delay dementia. GLOSSARY AD = Alzheimer disease; BL = baseline; CAS = Cognitive Activity Scale; CI = confidence interval; DSM = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; dx = diagnosis; NIA = National Institute on Aging; SRT = Selective

Enhancing early consolidation of human episodic memory by theta EEG neurofeedback.

PubMed

Rozengurt, Roman; Shtoots, Limor; Sheriff, Aviv; Sadka, Ofir; Levy, Daniel A

2017-11-01

Consolidation of newly formed memories is readily disrupted, but can it be enhanced? Given the prominent role of hippocampal theta oscillations in memory formation and retrieval, we hypothesized that upregulating theta power during early stages of consolidation might benefit memory stability and persistence. We used EEG neurofeedback to enable participants to selectively increase theta power in their EEG spectra following episodic memory encoding, while other participants engaged in low beta-focused neurofeedback or passively viewed a neutral nature movie. Free recall assessments immediately following the interventions, 24h later and 7d later all indicated benefit to memory of theta neurofeedback, relative to low beta neurofeedback or passive movie-viewing control conditions. The degree of benefit to memory was correlated with the extent of theta power modulation, but not with other spectral changes. Theta enhancement may provide optimal conditions for stabilization of new hippocampus-dependent memories. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Developmental Differences in Relations between Episodic Memory and Hippocampal Subregion Volume during Early Childhood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riggins, Tracy; Blankenship, Sarah L.; Mulligan, Elizabeth; Rice, Katherine; Redcay, Elizabeth

2015-01-01

Episodic memory shows striking improvement during early childhood. However, neural contributions to these behavioral changes are not well understood. This study examined associations between episodic memory and volume of subregions (head, body, and tail) of the hippocampus--a structure known to support episodic memory in school-aged children and…

Early memory formation disrupted by atypical PKC inhibitor ZIP in the medial prefrontal cortex but not hippocampus

PubMed Central

Evuarherhe, Obaro; Barker, Gareth R. I.; Savalli, Giorgia; Warburton, Elizabeth C.; Brown, Malcolm W.

2014-01-01

Atypical isoforms of protein kinase C (aPKCs; particularly protein kinase M zeta: PKMζ) have been hypothesised to be necessary and sufficient for the maintenance of long-term potentiation (LTP) and long term memory by maintaining postsynaptic AMPA receptors via the GluR2 subunit. A myristoylated PKMζ pseudosubstrate peptide (ZIP) blocks PKMζ activity. We examined the actions of ZIP in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and hippocampus in associative recognition memory in rats during early memory formation and memory maintenance. ZIP infusion in either hippocampus or mPFC impaired memory maintenance. However, early memory formation was impaired by ZIP in mPFC but not hippocampus; and blocking GluR2-dependent removal of AMPA receptors did not affect this impairment caused by ZIP in the mPFC. The findings indicate: (i) a difference in the actions of ZIP in hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex, and (ii) a GluR2-independent target of ZIP (possibly PKCλ) in the mPFC during early memory formation. PMID:24729442

Electrophysiological Evidence of Altered Memory Processing in Children Experiencing Early Deprivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guler, O. Evren; Hostinar, Camelia E.; Frenn, Kristin A.; Nelson, Charles A.; Gunnar, Megan R.; Thomas, Kathleen M.

2012-01-01

Associations between early deprivation and memory functioning were examined in 9- to 11-year-old children. Children who had experienced prolonged institutional care prior to adoption were compared to children who were adopted early from foster care and children reared in birth families. Measures included the Paired Associates Learning task from…

The Clinical Utility of Informants' Appraisals on Prospective and Retrospective Memory in Patients with Early Alzheimer's Disease

PubMed Central

Hsu, Yen-Hsuan; Huang, Ching-Feng; Tu, Min-Chien; Hua, Mau-Sun

2014-01-01

Increasing studies suggest the importance of including prospective memory measures in clinical evaluation of dementia due to its sensitivity and functional relevance. The Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRQM) is originally a self-rated memory inventory that offers a direct comparison between prospective and episodic memory. However, the informant's report has been recognized as a more valid source of cognitive complaints. We thus aimed to examine the validity of the informant-rated form of the PRMQ in assessing memory function of the patients and in detecting individuals with early dementia. The informants of 140 neurological outpatients with memory complaints completed the Taiwan version of the PRMQ. Tests of prospective memory, short-term memory, and general cognitive ability were also administered to non-demented participants and patients with early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Results showed significant relationships between the PRMQ ratings and objective cognitive measures, and showed that higher ratings on the PRMQ were associated with increasing odds of greater dementia severity. Receiver operative characteristic (ROC) curves showed an adequate ability of the PRMQ to identify patients with dementia (93% sensitivity and 84% specificity). Hierarchical regression revealed that the PRMQ has additional explanatory power for dementia status after controlling for age, education and objective memory test results, and that the prospective memory subscale owns predictive value for dementia beyond the retrospective memory subscale. The present study demonstrated the external validity and diagnostic value of informants' evaluation of their respective patients' prospective and retrospective memory functioning, and highlighted the important role of prospective memory in early dementia detection. The proxy-version of the PRMQ is a useful tool that captures prospective and episodic memory problems in patients with early AD, in combination with

Making memories: the development of long-term visual knowledge in children with visual agnosia.

PubMed

Metitieri, Tiziana; Barba, Carmen; Pellacani, Simona; Viggiano, Maria Pia; Guerrini, Renzo

2013-01-01

There are few reports about the effects of perinatal acquired brain lesions on the development of visual perception. These studies demonstrate nonseverely impaired visual-spatial abilities and preserved visual memory. Longitudinal data analyzing the effects of compromised perceptions on long-term visual knowledge in agnosics are limited to lesions having occurred in adulthood. The study of children with focal lesions of the visual pathways provides a unique opportunity to assess the development of visual memory when perceptual input is degraded. We assessed visual recognition and visual memory in three children with lesions to the visual cortex having occurred in early infancy. We then explored the time course of visual memory impairment in two of them at 2  years and 3.7  years from the initial assessment. All children exhibited apperceptive visual agnosia and visual memory impairment. We observed a longitudinal improvement of visual memory modulated by the structural properties of objects. Our findings indicate that processing of degraded perceptions from birth results in impoverished memories. The dynamic interaction between perception and memory during development might modulate the long-term construction of visual representations, resulting in less severe impairment.

Making Memories: The Development of Long-Term Visual Knowledge in Children with Visual Agnosia

PubMed Central

Barba, Carmen; Pellacani, Simona; Viggiano, Maria Pia; Guerrini, Renzo

2013-01-01

There are few reports about the effects of perinatal acquired brain lesions on the development of visual perception. These studies demonstrate nonseverely impaired visual-spatial abilities and preserved visual memory. Longitudinal data analyzing the effects of compromised perceptions on long-term visual knowledge in agnosics are limited to lesions having occurred in adulthood. The study of children with focal lesions of the visual pathways provides a unique opportunity to assess the development of visual memory when perceptual input is degraded. We assessed visual recognition and visual memory in three children with lesions to the visual cortex having occurred in early infancy. We then explored the time course of visual memory impairment in two of them at 2 years and 3.7 years from the initial assessment. All children exhibited apperceptive visual agnosia and visual memory impairment. We observed a longitudinal improvement of visual memory modulated by the structural properties of objects. Our findings indicate that processing of degraded perceptions from birth results in impoverished memories. The dynamic interaction between perception and memory during development might modulate the long-term construction of visual representations, resulting in less severe impairment. PMID:24319599

The plasticity of early memory reports: social pressure, hypnotizability, compliance, and interrogative suggestibility.

PubMed

Malinoski, P T; Lynn, S J

1999-10-01

Early autobiographical memory reports by adults were very sensitive to social influence in a leading interview. The mean age of initial earliest memory report was 3.7 years. When participants were instructed to close their eyes, visualize, and focus on their 2nd birthday, 59% reported a birthday memory. After repeated probes for earlier memories, 78% of subjects reported memories at or prior to 24 months of age, and 33% reported memories within the first 12 months of age. The mean age of the final earliest memory reported was 1.6 years. Participants rated their memory reports as accurate and did not recant them when given an opportunity. The age of earliest memory reports in the suggestive interview correlated negatively with measures of compliance, hypnotizability, and interrogative suggestibility.

Imprinting: When Early Life Memories Make Food Smell Bad.

PubMed

Rayes, Diego; Alkema, Mark J

2016-05-09

A recent study has found that pathogen exposure early in the life of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans leads to a long-lasting aversion that requires distinct sets of neurons for the formation and retrieval of the imprinted memory. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Early memories come in small packages: episodic memory in young children and adults.

PubMed

Tustin, Karen; Hayne, Harlene

2016-11-01

In two experiments, 3-year-old children were tested using an operant train procedure based on one originally developed by Carolyn Rovee-Collier. Children's behavioral and verbal recall of the event was assessed after a 24 hr (Experiment 1) and a 1-year delay (Experiment 2). After the 1-year delay, their mothers' verbal recall of the same event was also assessed. After both delays, children exhibited excellent nonverbal memory. Children also exhibited verbal, episodic memory of the same event, but their verbal reports were lean relative to those of their mothers, suggesting that the memories may be more vulnerable to forgetting over the long term. These data have important implications for memory development and childhood amnesia. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Identifying Early Links between Temperament, Short-Term and Working Memory in Preschoolers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Visu-Petra, Laura; Cheie, Lavinia; Câmpan, Maria; Scutelnicu, Ioana; Benga, Oana

2018-01-01

The present study aimed to investigate early interrelationships between temperament, short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM), while also relating them to incipient anxious traits in a sample of 4-7-year-olds. Preschoolers were evaluated using verbal and visuospatial STM and WM tasks, while parental reports were used to assess children's…

Familiarity-based memory as an early cognitive marker of preclinical and prodromal AD

PubMed Central

Wolk, David A.; Mancuso, Lauren; Kliot, Daria; Arnold, Steven E.; Dickerson, Bradford C.

2013-01-01

There is great interest in the development of cognitive markers that differentiate “normal” age-associated cognitive change from that of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in its prodromal (i.e., mild cognitive impairment; MCI) or even preclinical stages. Dual process models posit that recognition memory is supported by the dissociable processes of recollection and familiarity. Familiarity-based memory has generally been considered to be spared during normal aging, but it remains controversial whether this type of memory is impaired in early AD. Here, we describe findings of estimates of recollection and familiarity in young adults (YA), cognitively normal older adults (CN), and patients with amnestic-MCI (a-MCI). These measures in the CN and a-MCI patients were then related to a structural imaging biomarker of AD that has previously been demonstrated to be sensitive to preclinical and prodromal AD, the Cortical Signature of AD (ADsig). Consistent with much work in the literature, recollection, but not familiarity, was impaired in CN versus YA. Replicating our prior findings, a-MCI patients displayed impairment in both familiarity and recollection. Finally, the familiarity measure was correlated with the ADsig biomarker across the CN and a-MCI group, as well as within the CN adults alone. No other standard psychometric measure was as highly associated with the ADsig, suggesting that familiarity may be a sensitive biomarker of AD-specific brain changes in preclinical and prodromal AD and that it may offer a qualitatively distinct measure of early AD memory impairment relative to normal age-associated change. PMID:23474075

Acute stress negatively affects object recognition early memory consolidation and memory retrieval unrelated to state-dependency.

PubMed

Nelissen, Ellis; Prickaerts, Jos; Blokland, Arjan

2018-06-01

It is well known that stress affects memory performance. However, there still appears to be inconstancy in literature about how acute stress affects the different stages of memory: acquisition, consolidation and retrieval. In this study, we exposed rats to acute stress and measured the effect on memory performance in the object recognition task as a measure for episodic memory. Stress was induced 30 min prior to the learning phase to affect acquisition, directly after the learning phase to affect consolidation, or 30 min before the retrieval phase to affect retrieval. Additionally, we induced stress both 30 min prior to the learning phase and 30 min prior to the retrieval phase to test whether the effects were related to state-dependency. As expected, we found that acute stress did not affect acquisition but had a negative impact on retrieval. To our knowledge, we are the first to show that early consolidation was negatively affected by acute stress. We also show that stress does not have a state-dependent effect on memory. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Early neurotrophic pharmacotherapy rescues developmental delay and Alzheimer’s-like memory deficits in the Ts65Dn mouse model of Down syndrome

PubMed Central

Kazim, Syed Faraz; Blanchard, Julie; Bianchi, Riccardo; Iqbal, Khalid

2017-01-01

Down syndrome (DS), caused by trisomy 21, is the most common genetic cause of intellectual disability and is associated with a greatly increased risk of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The Ts65Dn mouse model of DS exhibits several key features of the disease including developmental delay and AD-like cognitive impairment. Accumulating evidence suggests that impairments in early brain development caused by trisomy 21 contribute significantly to memory deficits in adult life in DS. Prenatal genetic testing to diagnose DS in utero, provides the novel opportunity to initiate early pharmacological treatment to target this critical period of brain development. Here, we report that prenatal to early postnatal treatment with a ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) small-molecule peptide mimetic, Peptide 021 (P021), rescued developmental delay in pups and AD-like hippocampus-dependent memory impairments in adult life in Ts65Dn mice. Furthermore, this treatment prevented pre-synaptic protein deficit, decreased glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK3β) activity, and increased levels of synaptic plasticity markers including brain derived neurotrophic factor (BNDF) and phosphorylated CREB, both in young (3-week-old) and adult (~ 7-month-old) Ts65Dn mice. These findings provide novel evidence that providing neurotrophic support during early brain development can prevent developmental delay and AD-like memory impairments in a DS mouse model. PMID:28368015

Evaluation of the attentional capacities and working memory of early and late blind persons.

PubMed

Pigeon, Caroline; Marin-Lamellet, Claude

2015-02-01

Although attentional processes and working memory seem to be significantly involved in the daily activities (particularly during navigating) of persons who are blind and who use these abilities to compensate for their lack of vision, few studies have investigated these mechanisms in this population. The aim of this study is to evaluate the selective, sustained and divided attention, attentional inhibition and switching and working memory of blind persons. Early blind, late blind and sighted participants completed neuropsychological tests that were designed or adapted to be achievable in the absence of vision. The results revealed that the early blind participants outperformed the sighted ones in selective, sustained and divided attention and working memory tests, and the late blind participants outperformed the sighted participants in selective, sustained and divided attention. However, no differences were found between the blind groups and the sighted group in the attentional inhibition and switching tests. Furthermore, no differences were found between the early and late blind participants in this set of tests. These results suggest that early and late blind persons can compensate for the lack of vision by an enhancement of the attentional and working memory capacities. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Temporary conductive hearing loss in early life impairs spatial memory of rats in adulthood.

PubMed

Zhao, Han; Wang, Li; Chen, Liang; Zhang, Jinsheng; Sun, Wei; Salvi, Richard J; Huang, Yi-Na; Wang, Ming; Chen, Lin

2018-05-31

It is known that an interruption of acoustic input in early life will result in abnormal development of the auditory system. Here, we further show that this negative impact actually spans beyond the auditory system to the hippocampus, a system critical for spatial memory. We induced a temporary conductive hearing loss (TCHL) in P14 rats by perforating the eardrum and allowing it to heal. The Morris water maze and Y-maze tests were deployed to evaluate spatial memory of the rats. Electrophysiological recordings and anatomical analysis were made to evaluate functional and structural changes in the hippocampus following TCHL. The rats with the TCHL had nearly normal hearing at P42, but had a decreased performance with the Morris water maze and Y-maze tests compared with the control group. A functional deficit in the hippocampus of the rats with the TCHL was found as revealed by the depressed long-term potentiation and the reduced NMDA receptor-mediated postsynaptic current. A structural deficit in the hippocampus of those animals was also found as revealed the abnormal expression of the NMDA receptors, the decreased number of dendritic spines, the reduced postsynaptic density and the reduced level of neurogenesis. Our study demonstrates that even temporary auditory sensory deprivation in early life of rats results in abnormal development of the hippocampus and consequently impairs spatial memory in adulthood. © 2018 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The role of early visual cortex in visual short-term memory and visual attention.

PubMed

Offen, Shani; Schluppeck, Denis; Heeger, David J

2009-06-01

We measured cortical activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging to probe the involvement of early visual cortex in visual short-term memory and visual attention. In four experimental tasks, human subjects viewed two visual stimuli separated by a variable delay period. The tasks placed differential demands on short-term memory and attention, but the stimuli were visually identical until after the delay period. Early visual cortex exhibited sustained responses throughout the delay when subjects performed attention-demanding tasks, but delay-period activity was not distinguishable from zero when subjects performed a task that required short-term memory. This dissociation reveals different computational mechanisms underlying the two processes.

The Early Memories of Warmth and Safeness Scale for adolescents: Cross-Sample Validation of the Complete and Brief Versions.

PubMed

Vagos, Paula; Ribeiro da Silva, Diana; Brazão, Nélio; Rijo, Daniel; Gilbert, Paul

2017-05-01

This work presents psychometric analyses on the Early Memories of Warmth and Safeness Scale, which intends to evaluate the subjective perception of ones' early rearing experiences. Factor structure, measurement invariance, latent mean comparisons and validity in relation to external variables (i.e., forms of self-criticism/self-assurance, experiential avoidance and depressive, anxious and stress symptoms) were investigated. A sample of 1464 adolescents (52.3% male adolescents, mean age = 16.16, standard deviation = 1.51) was used, including 1064 participants recruited from schools, 192 participants recruited from foster care facilities and 208 boys recruited from juvenile justice facilities. A shortened version of the scale was also developed and subjected to the same psychometric analyses. A one-factor measurement model was a good fit for the data taken from both the complete and brief versions of the instrument. Such measures showed to be internally consistent with alpha values higher than 0.89. Evidence for their construct validity in relation to external variables was also found, with correlation values ranging from 0.19 to 0.45 for the complete version and from 0.18 to 0.44 for the brief version of the instrument. The brief version was the only one proving to be gender and sample invariant. Boys and girls scored similarly in their account of early memories, whereas community boys presented significantly higher scores when compared with referred and detained boys. Thus, the brief version of the instrument may be an appropriate alternative for use with diverse adolescent samples and may serve to advance knowledge on how early experiences impact on psychopathological outcomes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The Early Memories of Warmth and Safeness Scale (EMWSS), assessing early memories of warmth and safeness, was studied across community, referred for behavioural problems and detained Portuguese adolescent samples. A brief version of this

Enriched dairy fat matrix diet prevents early life lipopolysaccharide-induced spatial memory impairment at adulthood.

PubMed

Dinel, A L; Rey, C; Baudry, C; Fressange-Mazda, C; Le Ruyet, P; Nadjar, A; Pallet, P; Joffre, C; Layé, S

2016-10-01

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are essential fatty acids, which are critical for brain development and later life cognitive functions. The main brain PUFAs are docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) for the n-3 family and arachidonic acid (ARA) for the n-6 family, which are provided to the post-natal brain by breast milk or infant formula. Recently, the use of dairy lipids (DL) in replacement of vegetable lipids (VL) was revealed to potently promote the accretion of DHA in the developing brain. Brain DHA, in addition to be a key component of brain development, display potent anti-inflammatory activities, which protect the brain from adverse inflammatory events. In this work, we evaluated the protective effect of partial replacement of VL by DL, supplemented or not with DHA and ARA, on post-natal inflammation and its consequence on memory. Mice were fed with diets poor in vegetal n-3 PUFA (Def VL), balanced in vegetal n-3/n-6 PUFA (Bal VL), balanced in dairy lipids (Bal DL) or enriched in DHA and ARA (Supp VL; Supp DL) from the first day of gestation until adulthood. At post-natal day 14 (PND14), pups received a single administration of the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and brain cytokine expression, microglia phenotype and neurogenesis were measured. In a second set of experiments, memory and neurogenesis were measured at adulthood. Overall, our data showed that lipid quality of the diet modulates early life LPS effect on microglia phenotype, brain cytokine expression and neurogenesis at PND14 and memory at adulthood. In particular, Bal DL diet protects from the adverse effect of early life LPS exposure on PND14 neurogenesis and adult spatial memory. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Predictors of Early versus Later Spelling Development in Danish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nielsen, Anne-Mette Veber; Juul, Holger

2016-01-01

The present study examined phoneme awareness, phonological short term memory, letter knowledge, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and visual-verbal paired associate learning (PAL) as longitudinal predictors of spelling skills in an early phase (Grade 2) and a later phase (Grade 5) of development in a sample of 140 children learning to spell in the…

Low interleukin-2 concentration favors generation of early memory T cells over effector phenotypes during chimeric antigen receptor T-cell expansion.

PubMed

Kaartinen, Tanja; Luostarinen, Annu; Maliniemi, Pilvi; Keto, Joni; Arvas, Mikko; Belt, Heini; Koponen, Jonna; Loskog, Angelica; Mustjoki, Satu; Porkka, Kimmo; Ylä-Herttuala, Seppo; Korhonen, Matti

2017-06-01

Adoptive T-cell therapy offers new options for cancer treatment. Clinical results suggest that T-cell persistence, depending on T-cell memory, improves efficacy. The use of interleukin (IL)-2 for in vitro T-cell expansion is not straightforward because it drives effector T-cell differentiation but does not promote the formation of T-cell memory. We have developed a cost-effective expansion protocol for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells with an early memory phenotype. Lymphocytes were transduced with third-generation lentiviral vectors and expanded using CD3/CD28 microbeads. The effects of altering the IL-2 supplementation (0-300 IU/mL) and length of expansion (10-20 days) on the phenotype of the T-cell products were analyzed. High IL-2 levels led to a decrease in overall generation of early memory T cells by both decreasing central memory T cells and augmenting effectors. T memory stem cells (T SCM , CD95 + CD45RO - CD45RA + CD27 + ) were present variably during T-cell expansion. However, their presence was not IL-2 dependent but was linked to expansion kinetics. CD19-CAR T cells generated in these conditions displayed in vitro antileukemic activity. In summary, production of CAR T cells without any cytokine supplementation yielded the highest proportion of early memory T cells, provided a 10-fold cell expansion and the cells were functionally potent. The number of early memory T cells in a T-cell preparation can be increased by simply reducing the amount of IL-2 and limiting the length of T-cell expansion, providing cells with potentially higher in vivo performance. These findings are significant for robust and cost-effective T-cell manufacturing. Copyright © 2017 International Society for Cellular Therapy. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The development of neural correlates for memory formation

PubMed Central

Ofen, Noa

2012-01-01

A growing body of literature considers the development of episodic memory systems in the brain; the majority are neuroimaging studies conducted during memory encoding in order to explore developmental trajectories in memory formation. This review considers evidence from behavioral studies of memory development, neural correlates of memory formation in adults, and structural brain development, all of which form the foundation of a developmental cognitive neuroscience approach to memory development. I then aim to integrate the current evidence from developmental functional neuroimaging studies of memory formation with respect to three hypotheses. First, memory development reflects the development in the use of memory strategies, linked to prefrontal cortex. Second, developmental effects within the medial temporal lobes are more complex, and correspond to current notions about the nature in which the MTL support the formation of memory. Third, neurocognitive changes in content representation influence memory. Open issues and current directions are discussed. PMID:22414608

[Working memory for music in patients with mild cognitive impairment and early stage Alzheimer's disease].

PubMed

Kerer, Manuela; Marksteiner, Josef; Hinterhuber, Hartmann; Mazzola, Guerino; Kemmler, Georg; Bliem, Harald R; Weiss, Elisabeth M

2013-01-01

A variety of studies demonstrated that some forms of memory for music are spared in dementia, but only few studies have investigated patients with early stages of dementia. In this pilot-study we tested working memory for music in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early stage Alzheimer's disease (AD) with a newly created test. The test probed working memory using 7 gradually elongated tone-lines and 6 chords which were each followed by 3 similar items and 1 identical item. The participants of the study, namely 10 patients with MCI, 10 patients with early stage AD and 23 healthy subjects were instructed to select the identical tone-line or chord. Subjects with MCI and early AD showed significantly reduced performance than controls in most of the presented tasks. In recognizing chords MCI- participants surprisingly showed an unimpaired performance. The gradual increase of the impairment during the preclinical phase of AD seems to spare this special ability in MCI.

Topographic contribution of early visual cortex to short-term memory consolidation: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study.

PubMed

van de Ven, Vincent; Jacobs, Christianne; Sack, Alexander T

2012-01-04

The neural correlates for retention of visual information in visual short-term memory are considered separate from those of sensory encoding. However, recent findings suggest that sensory areas may play a role also in short-term memory. We investigated the functional relevance, spatial specificity, and temporal characteristics of human early visual cortex in the consolidation of capacity-limited topographic visual memory using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Topographically specific TMS pulses were delivered over lateralized occipital cortex at 100, 200, or 400 ms into the retention phase of a modified change detection task with low or high memory loads. For the high but not the low memory load, we found decreased memory performance for memory trials in the visual field contralateral, but not ipsilateral to the side of TMS, when pulses were delivered at 200 ms into the retention interval. A behavioral version of the TMS experiment, in which a distractor stimulus (memory mask) replaced the TMS pulses, further corroborated these findings. Our findings suggest that retinotopic visual cortex contributes to the short-term consolidation of topographic visual memory during early stages of the retention of visual information. Further, TMS-induced interference decreased the strength (amplitude) of the memory representation, which most strongly affected the high memory load trials.

Improvement of memory recall by quercetin in rodent contextual fear conditioning and human early-stage Alzheimer's disease patients.

PubMed

Nakagawa, Toshiyuki; Itoh, Masanori; Ohta, Kazunori; Hayashi, Yuichi; Hayakawa, Miki; Yamada, Yasushi; Akanabe, Hiroshi; Chikaishi, Tokio; Nakagawa, Kiyomi; Itoh, Yoshinori; Muro, Takato; Yanagida, Daisuke; Nakabayashi, Ryo; Mori, Tetsuya; Saito, Kazuki; Ohzawa, Kaori; Suzuki, Chihiro; Li, Shimo; Ueda, Masashi; Wang, Miao-Xing; Nishida, Emika; Islam, Saiful; Tana; Kobori, Masuko; Inuzuka, Takashi

2016-06-15

Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) experience a wide array of cognitive deficits, which typically include the impairment of explicit memory. In previous studies, the authors reported that a flavonoid, quercetin, reduces the expression of ATF4 and delays memory deterioration in an early-stage AD mouse model. In the present study, the effects of long-term quercetin intake on memory recall were assessed using contextual fear conditioning in aged wild-type mice. In addition, the present study examined whether memory recall was affected by the intake of quercetin-rich onion (a new cultivar of hybrid onion 'Quergold') powder in early-stage AD patients. In-vivo analysis indicated that memory recall was enhanced in aged mice fed a quercetin-containing diet. Memory recall in early-stage AD patients, determined using the Revised Hasegawa Dementia Scale, was significantly improved by the intake of quercetin-rich onion (Quergold) powder for 4 weeks compared with the intake of control onion ('Mashiro' white onion) powder. These results indicate that quercetin might influence memory recall.

Explaining the Development of False Memories.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reyna, Valerie F.; Holliday, Robyn; Marche, Tammy

2002-01-01

Reviews explanatory dimensions of children's false memory relevant to forensic practice: measurement, development, social factors, individual differences, varieties of memories and memory judgments, and varieties of procedures inducing false memories. Asserts that recent studies fail to use techniques that separate acquiescence from memory…

Influence of early rising on performance in tasks requiring attention and memory.

PubMed

Kumaran, V Shankar; Raghavendra, Bhat Ramachandra; Manjunath, Nandi Krishnamurthy

2012-01-01

Rising early in the morning has been a prescribed discipline of ancient Indian tradition. While there are no scientific studies comparing early rising volitionally versus circumstantially, selected studies on the latter (rising forcefully) have shown negative impact on an individual's peroformance. Hence the present study was undertaken to assess the influence of early rising (during Brahma-muhurtha) on tasks requiring attention and the ability to recall. Fifty four normal healthy male volunteers, with ages ranging from 16-22 years from a residential school were selected. They were randomly allocated to two groups (Brahma-muhurtha and control). They were assessed on day 1, day 10 and day 20 of the intervention, using a digit letter substitution task and verbal and spatial memory task. The Brahma-muhurtha group were asked to rise before 4:30 am in the morning based on the traditional Indian astrological calculations, while the control group were allowed to wake up just before 7 am which was their regular timing for waking. Brahma-muhurtha group after 20 days showed a significant improvement in the net scores for digit letter substitution task as well as scores for verbal and spatial memory tasks. The control group also showed an improvement in the memory task but not in the task requiring attentional processes. The present study suggests that rising early in the morning as described in ancient Indian tradition influences the process of attention and can improve the ability to recall.

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

PubMed Central

Lukowski, Angela F.; Milojevich, Helen M.

2016-01-01

The ability to recall the past allows us to report on details of previous experiences, from the everyday to the significant. Because recall memory is commonly assessed using verbal report paradigms in adults, studying the development of this ability in preverbal infants and children proved challenging. Over the past 30 years, researchers have developed a non-verbal means of assessing recall memory known as the elicited or deferred imitation paradigm. In one variant of the procedure, participants are presented with novel three-dimensional stimuli for a brief baseline period before a researcher demonstrates a series of actions that culminate in an end- or goal-state. The participant is allowed to imitate the demonstrated actions immediately, after a delay, or both. Recall performance is then compared to baseline or to performance on novel control sequences presented at the same session; memory can be assessed for the individual target actions and the order in which they were completed. This procedure is an accepted analogue to the verbal report techniques used with adults, and it has served to establish a solid foundation of the nature of recall memory in infancy and early childhood. In addition, the elicited or deferred imitation procedure has been modified and adapted to answer questions relevant to other aspects of cognitive functioning. The broad utility and application of imitation paradigms is discussed, along with limitations of the approach and directions for future research. PMID:27167994

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm.

PubMed

Lukowski, Angela F; Milojevich, Helen M

2016-04-28

The ability to recall the past allows us to report on details of previous experiences, from the everyday to the significant. Because recall memory is commonly assessed using verbal report paradigms in adults, studying the development of this ability in preverbal infants and children proved challenging. Over the past 30 years, researchers have developed a non-verbal means of assessing recall memory known as the elicited or deferred imitation paradigm. In one variant of the procedure, participants are presented with novel three-dimensional stimuli for a brief baseline period before a researcher demonstrates a series of actions that culminate in an end- or goal-state. The participant is allowed to imitate the demonstrated actions immediately, after a delay, or both. Recall performance is then compared to baseline or to performance on novel control sequences presented at the same session; memory can be assessed for the individual target actions and the order in which they were completed. This procedure is an accepted analogue to the verbal report techniques used with adults, and it has served to establish a solid foundation of the nature of recall memory in infancy and early childhood. In addition, the elicited or deferred imitation procedure has been modified and adapted to answer questions relevant to other aspects of cognitive functioning. The broad utility and application of imitation paradigms is discussed, along with limitations of the approach and directions for future research.

"The people I grew up with": the role of sociodemographic factors in early memories in an Italian sample.

PubMed

Artioli, Federica; Cicogna, Pera Carla; Occhionero, Miranda; Reese, Elaine

2012-01-01

This within-culture study aimed to investigate the age and density of earliest memories in a sample of Italian young adults. The framework of this study is sociocultural, with an emphasis on family reminiscing as contributing to early memories. In this regard Italy is of interest due to the fact that it is a Western but familial oriented culture, where multi-generational family ties are still strong in comparison with other European counterparts, providing for the opportunity to investigate the offset of childhood amnesia as a function of growing up in an extended family structure. Consistent with Mullen (1994), 90 undergraduate students were interviewed about their earliest memory and about sociodemographic factors in their early childhood years: household composition, gender, birth order, presence of family moves, and significant early childhood experiences. Participants who grew up in an extended family situation reported earlier and denser memories in comparison with those from nuclear families. Results are discussed in light of other cross-cultural work on childhood amnesia and with respect to sociocultural theories of the importance of family reminiscing for one's early memories.

The Socialization of Children’s Memory: Linking Maternal Conversational Style to the Development of Children’s Autobiographical and Deliberate Memory Skills

PubMed Central

Langley, Hillary A.; Coffman, Jennifer L.; Ornstein, Peter A.

2017-01-01

Data from a large-scale, longitudinal research study with an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample were utilized to explore linkages between maternal elaborative conversational style and the development of children’s autobiographical and deliberate memory. Assessments were made when the children were 3, 5, and 6 years of age, and the results reveal concurrent and longitudinal linkages between maternal conversational style in a mother-child reminiscing task and children’s autobiographical memory performance. Maternal conversational style while reminiscing was also significantly related to children’s strategic behaviors and recall in two deliberate memory tasks, both concurrently and longitudinally. Results from this examination replicate and extend what is known about the linkages between maternal conversational style, children’s abilities to talk about previous experiences, and children’s deliberate memory skills as they transition from the preschool to early elementary school years. PMID:29270083

The impact of early visual cortex transcranial magnetic stimulation on visual working memory precision and guess rate.

PubMed

Rademaker, Rosanne L; van de Ven, Vincent G; Tong, Frank; Sack, Alexander T

2017-01-01

Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that activity patterns in early visual areas predict stimulus properties actively maintained in visual working memory. Yet, the mechanisms by which such information is represented remain largely unknown. In this study, observers remembered the orientations of 4 briefly presented gratings, one in each quadrant of the visual field. A 10Hz Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) triplet was applied directly at stimulus offset, or midway through a 2-second delay, targeting early visual cortex corresponding retinotopically to a sample item in the lower hemifield. Memory for one of the four gratings was probed at random, and participants reported this orientation via method of adjustment. Recall errors were smaller when the visual field location targeted by TMS overlapped with that of the cued memory item, compared to errors for stimuli probed diagonally to TMS. This implied topographic storage of orientation information, and a memory-enhancing effect at the targeted location. Furthermore, early pulses impaired performance at all four locations, compared to late pulses. Next, response errors were fit empirically using a mixture model to characterize memory precision and guess rates. Memory was more precise for items proximal to the pulse location, irrespective of pulse timing. Guesses were more probable with early TMS pulses, regardless of stimulus location. Thus, while TMS administered at the offset of the stimulus array might disrupt early-phase consolidation in a non-topographic manner, TMS also boosts the precise representation of an item at its targeted retinotopic location, possibly by increasing attentional resources or by injecting a beneficial amount of noise.

The impact of early visual cortex transcranial magnetic stimulation on visual working memory precision and guess rate

PubMed Central

van de Ven, Vincent G.; Tong, Frank; Sack, Alexander T.

2017-01-01

Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that activity patterns in early visual areas predict stimulus properties actively maintained in visual working memory. Yet, the mechanisms by which such information is represented remain largely unknown. In this study, observers remembered the orientations of 4 briefly presented gratings, one in each quadrant of the visual field. A 10Hz Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) triplet was applied directly at stimulus offset, or midway through a 2-second delay, targeting early visual cortex corresponding retinotopically to a sample item in the lower hemifield. Memory for one of the four gratings was probed at random, and participants reported this orientation via method of adjustment. Recall errors were smaller when the visual field location targeted by TMS overlapped with that of the cued memory item, compared to errors for stimuli probed diagonally to TMS. This implied topographic storage of orientation information, and a memory-enhancing effect at the targeted location. Furthermore, early pulses impaired performance at all four locations, compared to late pulses. Next, response errors were fit empirically using a mixture model to characterize memory precision and guess rates. Memory was more precise for items proximal to the pulse location, irrespective of pulse timing. Guesses were more probable with early TMS pulses, regardless of stimulus location. Thus, while TMS administered at the offset of the stimulus array might disrupt early-phase consolidation in a non-topographic manner, TMS also boosts the precise representation of an item at its targeted retinotopic location, possibly by increasing attentional resources or by injecting a beneficial amount of noise. PMID:28384347

Methylphenidate during early consolidation affects long-term associative memory retrieval depending on baseline catecholamines.

PubMed

Wagner, Isabella C; van Buuren, Mariët; Bovy, Leonore; Morris, Richard G; Fernández, Guillén

2017-02-01

Synaptic memory consolidation is thought to rely on catecholaminergic signaling. Eventually, it is followed by systems consolidation, which embeds memories in a neocortical network. Although this sequence was demonstrated in rodents, it is unclear how catecholamines affect memory consolidation in humans. Here, we tested the effects of catecholaminergic modulation on synaptic and subsequent systems consolidation. We expected enhanced memory performance and increased neocortical engagement during delayed retrieval. Additionally, we tested if this effect was modulated by individual differences in a cognitive proxy measure of baseline catecholamine synthesis capacity. Fifty-three healthy males underwent a between-subjects, double-blind, placebo-controlled procedure across 2 days. On day 1, subjects studied and retrieved object-location associations and received 20 mg of methylphenidate or placebo. Drug intake was timed so that methylphenidate was expected to affect early consolidation but not encoding or retrieval. Memory was tested again while subjects were scanned three days later. Methylphenidate did not facilitate memory performance, and there was no significant group difference in activation during delayed retrieval. However, memory representations differed between groups depending on baseline catecholamines. The placebo group showed increased activation in occipito-temporal regions but decreased connectivity with the hippocampus, associated with lower baseline catecholamine synthesis capacity. The methylphenidate group showed stronger activation in the postcentral gyrus, associated with higher baseline catecholamine synthesis capacity. Altogether, methylphenidate during early consolidation did not foster long-term memory performance, but it affected retrieval-related neural processes depending on individual levels of baseline catecholamines.

Optical memory development. Volume 1: prototype memory system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cosentino, L. S.; Mezrich, R. S.; Nagle, E. M.; Stewart, W. C.; Wendt, F. S.

1972-01-01

The design, development, and implementation of a prototype, partially populated, million bit read-write holographic memory system using state-of-the-art components are described. The system employs an argon ion laser, acoustooptic beam deflectors, a holographic beam splitter (hololens), a nematic liquid crystal page composer, a photoconductor-thermoplastic erasable storage medium, a silicon P-I-N photodiode array, with lenses and electronics of both conventional and custom design. Operation of the prototype memory system was successfully demonstrated. Careful attention is given to the analysis from which the design criteria were developed. Specifications for the major components are listed, along with the details of their construction and performance. The primary conclusion resulting from this program is that the basic principles of read-write holographic memory system are well understood and are reducible to practice.

Early Growth Response Gene 1 ("EGR-1") Is Required for New and Reactivated Fear Memories in the Lateral Amygdala

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maddox, Stephanie A.; Monsey, Melissa S.; Schafe, Glenn E.

2011-01-01

The immediate-early gene early growth response gene-1 (EGR-1, zif-268) has been extensively studied in synaptic plasticity and memory formation in a variety of memory systems. However, a convincing role for EGR-1 in amygdala-dependent memory consolidation processes has yet to emerge. In the present study, we have examined the role of EGR-1 in the…

Origins of Adolescents' Autobiographical Memories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reese, Elaine; Jack, Fiona; White, Naomi

2010-01-01

Adolescents (N = 46; M = 12.46 years) who had previously participated in a longitudinal study of autobiographical memory development narrated their early childhood memories, interpreted life events, and completed a family history questionnaire and language assessment. Three distinct components of adolescent memory emerged: (1) age of earliest…

Early motor development and cognitive abilities among Mexican preschoolers.

PubMed

Osorio-Valencia, Erika; Torres-Sánchez, Luisa; López-Carrillo, Lizbeth; Rothenberg, Stephen J; Schnaas, Lourdes

2017-07-18

Psychomotricity plays a very important role in children's development, especially for learning involving reading-writing and mathematical calculations. Evaluate motor development in children 3 years old and its relationship with their cognitive abilities at the age of 5 years. Based on a cohort study, we analyzed the information about motor performance evaluated at 3 years old by Peabody Motor Scale and cognitive abilities at 5 years old. The association was estimated using linear regression models adjusted by mother's intelligence quotient, sex, Bayley mental development index at 18 months, and quality of the environment at home (HOME scale). 148 children whose motor performance was determined at age 3 and was evaluated later at age 5 to determine their cognitive abilities. Cognitive abilities (verbal, quantitative, and memory) measured by McCarthy Scales. Significant positive associations were observed between stationary balance at age 3 with verbal abilities (β = 0.67, p = .04) and memory (β = 0.81, p = .02) at 5 years. Grasping and visual-motor integration were significant and positively associated with quantitative abilities (β = 0.74, p = .005; β = 0.61, p = .01) and memory (β = 2.11, p = .001; β = 1.74, p = .004). The results suggest that early motor performance contributes to the establishment of cognitive abilities at 5 years. Evaluation and early motor stimulation before the child is faced with formal learning likely helps to create neuronal networks that facilitate the acquisition of academic knowledge.

Applying cognitive training to target executive functions during early development.

PubMed

Wass, Sam V

2015-01-01

Developmental psychopathology is increasingly recognizing the importance of distinguishing causal processes (i.e., the mechanisms that cause a disease) from developmental outcomes (i.e., the symptoms of the disorder as it is eventually diagnosed). Targeting causal processes early in disordered development may be more effective than waiting until outcomes are established and then trying to reverse the pathogenic process. In this review, I evaluate evidence suggesting that neural and behavioral plasticity may be greatest at very early stages of development. I also describe correlational evidence suggesting that, across a number of conditions, early emerging individual differences in attentional control and working memory may play a role in mediating later-developing differences in academic and other forms of learning. I review the currently small number of studies that applied direct and indirect cognitive training targeted at young individuals and discuss methodological challenges associated with targeting this age group. I also discuss a number of ways in which early, targeted cognitive training may be used to help us understand the developmental mechanisms subserving typical and atypical cognitive development.

Applying cognitive training to target executive functions during early development

PubMed Central

Wass, Sam V.

2015-01-01

Developmental psychopathology is increasingly recognizing the importance of distinguishing causal processes (i.e., the mechanisms that cause a disease) from developmental outcomes (i.e., the symptoms of the disorder as it is eventually diagnosed). Targeting causal processes early in disordered development may be more effective than waiting until outcomes are established and then trying to reverse the pathogenic process. In this review, I evaluate evidence suggesting that neural and behavioral plasticity may be greatest at very early stages of development. I also describe correlational evidence suggesting that, across a number of conditions, early emerging individual differences in attentional control and working memory may play a role in mediating later-developing differences in academic and other forms of learning. I review the currently small number of studies that applied direct and indirect cognitive training targeted at young individuals and discuss methodological challenges associated with targeting this age group. I also discuss a number of ways in which early, targeted cognitive training may be used to help us understand the developmental mechanisms subserving typical and atypical cognitive development. PMID:24511910

The Role of Memory in Early Literacy Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stone, Sandra J.

Emerging literacy is a developmental process which is closely tied to the child's developing cognitive processes. The interaction of memory and emerging literacy can be discussed in the context of Marie Clay's Reading Recovery model. Memory types, encoding and retrieval, strategy use, and executive control/expectancies are components of cognitive…

Developmental amnesia: Fractionation of developing memory systems.

PubMed

Temple, Christine M; Richardson, Paul

2006-07-01

Study of the developmental amnesias utilizing a cognitive neuropsychological methodology has highlighted the dissociations that may occur between the development of components of memory. M.M., a new case of developmental amnesia, was identified after screening from the normal population on cognitive and memory measures. Retrospective investigation found that he was of low birthweight. M.M. had impaired semantic memory for knowledge of facts and words. There was impaired episodic memory for words and stories but intact episodic memory for visual designs and features. This forms a double dissociation with Dr S. (Temple, 1992), who had intact verbal but impaired visual episodic memory. M.M. also had impaired autobiographical episodic memory. Nevertheless, learning over repeated trials occurred, consistent with previous theorizing that learning is not simply the effect of recurrent episodic memory. Nor is it the same as establishing semantic memory, since for M.M. semantic memory is also impaired. Within reading, there was an impaired lexico-semantic system, elevated levels of homophone confusion, but intact phonological reading, consistent with surface dyslexia and raising issues about the interrelationship of the semantic system and literacy development. The results are compatible with discrete semi-independent components within memory development, whereby deficits are associated with residual normality, but there may also be an explicit relationship between the semantic memory system and both vocabulary and reading acquisition.

Episodic memories.

PubMed

Conway, Martin A

2009-09-01

An account of episodic memories is developed that focuses on the types of knowledge they represent, their properties, and the functions they might serve. It is proposed that episodic memories consist of episodic elements, summary records of experience often in the form of visual images, associated to a conceptual frame that provides a conceptual context. Episodic memories are embedded in a more complex conceptual system in which they can become the basis of autobiographical memories. However, the function of episodic memories is to keep a record of progress with short-term goals and access to most episodic memories is lost soon after their formation. Finally, it is suggested that developmentally episodic memories form the basis of the conceptual system and it is from sets of episodic memories that early non-verbal conceptual knowledge is abstracted.

Moving toward a Grand Theory of Development: In Memory of Esther Thelen

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spencer, John P.; Clearfield, Melissa; Corbetta, Daniela; Ulrich, Beverly; Buchanan, Patricia; Schoner, Gregor

2006-01-01

This paper is in memory of Esther Thelen, who passed away while President of the Society for Research in Child Development. A survey of Esther Thelen's career reveals a trajectory from early work on simple movements like stepping, to the study of goal-directed reaching, to work on the embodiment of cognition, and, ultimately, to a grand theory of…

A Short-Term Longitudinal Study of Memorial Development during Early Grade School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kunzinger, Edward L., III

1985-01-01

Overt rehearsal and free recall performance was analyzed longitudinally in two experimental testing sessions at 7 and later at 9 years of age. Measures of short- and long-term memory recall, and two measures of input processing were obtained. Significant increases between age levels were exhibited by all variables except short-term memory.…

Impact of Sex and Menopausal Status on Episodic Memory Circuitry in Early Midlife.

PubMed

Jacobs, Emily G; Weiss, Blair K; Makris, Nikos; Whitfield-Gabrieli, Sue; Buka, Stephen L; Klibanski, Anne; Goldstein, Jill M

2016-09-28

Cognitive neuroscience of aging studies traditionally target participants age 65 and older. However, epidemiological surveys show that many women report increased forgetfulness earlier in the aging process, as they transition to menopause. In this population-based fMRI study, we stepped back by over a decade to characterize the changes in memory circuitry that occur in early midlife, as a function of sex and women's reproductive stage. Participants (N = 200; age range, 45-55) performed a verbal encoding task during fMRI scanning. Reproductive histories and serologic evaluations were used to determine menopausal status. Results revealed a pronounced impact of reproductive stage on task-evoked hippocampal responses, despite minimal difference in chronological age. Next, we examined the impact of sex and reproductive stage on functional connectivity across task-related brain regions. Postmenopausal women showed enhanced bilateral hippocampal connectivity relative to premenopausal and perimenopausal women. Across women, lower 17β-estradiol concentrations were related to more pronounced alterations in hippocampal connectivity and poorer performance on a subsequent memory retrieval task, strongly implicating sex steroids in the regulation of this circuitry. Finally, subgroup analyses revealed that high-performing postmenopausal women (relative to low and middle performers) exhibited a pattern of brain activity akin to premenopausal women. Together, these findings underscore the importance of considering reproductive stage, not simply chronological age, to identify neuronal and cognitive changes that unfold in the middle decades of life. In keeping with preclinical studies, these human findings suggest that the decline in ovarian estradiol production during menopause plays a significant role in shaping memory circuitry. Maintaining intact memory function with age is one of the greatest public health challenges of our time, and women have an increased risk for memory

Predicting Retrograde Autobiographical Memory Changes Following Electroconvulsive Therapy: Relationships between Individual, Treatment, and Early Clinical Factors.

PubMed

Martin, Donel M; Gálvez, Verònica; Loo, Colleen K

2015-06-19

Loss of personal memories experienced prior to receiving electroconvulsive therapy is common and distressing and in some patients can persist for many months following treatment. Improved understanding of the relationships between individual patient factors, electroconvulsive therapy treatment factors, and clinical indicators measured early in the electroconvulsive therapy course may help clinicians minimize these side effects through better management of the electroconvulsive therapy treatment approach. In this study we examined the associations between the above factors for predicting retrograde autobiographical memory changes following electroconvulsive therapy. Seventy-four depressed participants with major depressive disorder were administered electroconvulsive therapy 3 times per week using either a right unilateral or bitemporal electrode placement and brief or ultrabrief pulse width. Verbal fluency and retrograde autobiographical memory (assessed using the Columbia Autobiographical Memory Interview - Short Form) were tested at baseline and after the last electroconvulsive therapy treatment. Time to reorientation was measured immediately following the third and sixth electroconvulsive therapy treatments. Results confirmed the utility of measuring time to reorientation early during the electroconvulsive therapy treatment course as a predictor of greater retrograde amnesia and the importance of assessing baseline cognitive status for identifying patients at greater risk for developing later side effects. With increased number of electroconvulsive therapy treatments, older age was associated with increased time to reorientation. Consistency of verbal fluency performance was moderately correlated with change in Columbia Autobiographical Memory Interview - Short Form scores following right unilateral electroconvulsive therapy. Electroconvulsive therapy treatment techniques associated with lesser cognitive side effects should be particularly considered for

Predicting Retrograde Autobiographical Memory Changes Following Electroconvulsive Therapy: Relationships between Individual, Treatment, and Early Clinical Factors

PubMed Central

Gálvez, Verònica; Loo, Colleen K.

2015-01-01

Background: Loss of personal memories experienced prior to receiving electroconvulsive therapy is common and distressing and in some patients can persist for many months following treatment. Improved understanding of the relationships between individual patient factors, electroconvulsive therapy treatment factors, and clinical indicators measured early in the electroconvulsive therapy course may help clinicians minimize these side effects through better management of the electroconvulsive therapy treatment approach. In this study we examined the associations between the above factors for predicting retrograde autobiographical memory changes following electroconvulsive therapy. Methods: Seventy-four depressed participants with major depressive disorder were administered electroconvulsive therapy 3 times per week using either a right unilateral or bitemporal electrode placement and brief or ultrabrief pulse width. Verbal fluency and retrograde autobiographical memory (assessed using the Columbia Autobiographical Memory Interview – Short Form) were tested at baseline and after the last electroconvulsive therapy treatment. Time to reorientation was measured immediately following the third and sixth electroconvulsive therapy treatments. Results: Results confirmed the utility of measuring time to reorientation early during the electroconvulsive therapy treatment course as a predictor of greater retrograde amnesia and the importance of assessing baseline cognitive status for identifying patients at greater risk for developing later side effects. With increased number of electroconvulsive therapy treatments, older age was associated with increased time to reorientation. Consistency of verbal fluency performance was moderately correlated with change in Columbia Autobiographical Memory Interview – Short Form scores following right unilateral electroconvulsive therapy. Conclusions: Electroconvulsive therapy treatment techniques associated with lesser cognitive side

Investigating Memory Development in Children and Infantile Amnesia in Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kazemi Tari, Somayeh

2008-01-01

Although many researchers have worked on memory development, still little is known about what develops in memory development. When one reviews the literature about memory, she encounters many types of memories such as short term vs. long term memory, working memory, explicit vs. implicit memory, trans-saccadic memory, autobiographical memory,…

ERP evidence of preserved early memory function in term infants with neonatal encephalopathy following therapeutic hypothermia.

PubMed

Pfister, Katie M; Zhang, Lei; Miller, Neely C; Hultgren, Solveig; Boys, Chris J; Georgieff, Michael K

2016-12-01

Neonatal encephalopathy (NE) carries high risk for neurodevelopmental impairments. Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) reduces this risk, particularly for moderate encephalopathy (ME). Nevertheless, these infants often have subtle functional deficits, including abnormal memory function. Detection of deficits at the earliest possible time-point would allow for intervention during a period of maximal brain plasticity. Recognition memory function in 22 infants with NE treated with TH was compared to 23 healthy controls using event-related potentials (ERPs) at 2 wk of age. ERPs were recorded to mother's voice alternating with a stranger's voice to assess attentional responses (P2), novelty detection (slow wave), and discrimination between familiar and novel (difference wave). Development was tested at 12 mo using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Third Edition (BSID-III). The NE group showed similar ERP components and BSID-III scores to controls. However, infants with NE showed discrimination at midline leads (P = 0.01), whereas controls showed discrimination in the left hemisphere (P = 0.05). Normal MRI (P = 0.05) and seizure-free electroencephalogram (EEG) (P = 0.04) correlated positively with outcomes. Infants with NE have preserved recognition memory function after TH. The spatially different recognition memory processing after early brain injury may represent compensatory changes in the brain circuitry and reflect a benefit of TH.

Early top-down control of visual processing predicts working memory performance

PubMed Central

Rutman, Aaron M.; Clapp, Wesley C.; Chadick, James Z.; Gazzaley, Adam

2009-01-01

Selective attention confers a behavioral benefit for both perceptual and working memory (WM) performance, often attributed to top-down modulation of sensory neural processing. However, the direct relationship between early activity modulation in sensory cortices during selective encoding and subsequent WM performance has not been established. To explore the influence of selective attention on WM recognition, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to study the temporal dynamics of top-down modulation in a selective, delayed-recognition paradigm. Participants were presented with overlapped, “double-exposed” images of faces and natural scenes, and were instructed to either remember the face or the scene while simultaneously ignoring the other stimulus. Here, we present evidence that the degree to which participants modulate the early P100 (97–129 ms) event-related potential (ERP) during selective stimulus encoding significantly correlates with their subsequent WM recognition. These results contribute to our evolving understanding of the mechanistic overlap between attention and memory. PMID:19413473

Neurobiologic Correlates of Attention and Memory Deficits Following Critical Illness in Early Life.

PubMed

Schiller, Raisa M; IJsselstijn, Hanneke; Madderom, Marlous J; Rietman, André B; Smits, Marion; van Heijst, Arno F J; Tibboel, Dick; White, Tonya; Muetzel, Ryan L

2017-10-01

Survivors of critical illness in early life are at risk of long-term-memory and attention impairments. However, their neurobiologic substrates remain largely unknown. A prospective follow-up study. Erasmus MC-Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Thirty-eight school-age (8-12 yr) survivors of neonatal extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and/or congenital diaphragmatic hernia with an intelligence quotient greater than or equal to 80 and a below average score (z score ≤ -1.5) on one or more memory tests. None. Intelligence, attention, memory, executive functioning, and visuospatial processing were assessed and compared with reference data. White matter microstructure and hippocampal volume were assessed using diffusion tensor imaging and structural MRI, respectively. Global fractional anisotropy was positively associated with selective attention (β = 0.53; p = 0.030) and sustained attention (β = 0.48; p = 0.018). Mean diffusivity in the left parahippocampal region of the cingulum was negatively associated with visuospatial memory, both immediate (β = -0.48; p = 0.030) and delayed recall (β = -0.47; p = 0.030). Mean diffusivity in the parahippocampal region of the cingulum was negatively associated with verbal memory delayed recall (left: β = -0.52, p = 0.021; right: β = -0.52, p = 0.021). Hippocampal volume was positively associated with verbal memory delayed recall (left: β = 0.44, p = 0.037; right: β = 0.67, p = 0.012). Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation treatment or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation type did not influence the structure-function relationships. Our findings indicate specific neurobiologic correlates of attention and memory deficits in school-age survivors of neonatal extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and congenital diaphragmatic hernia. A better understanding of the neurobiology following critical illness, both in early and in adult life, may lead to earlier identification of patients at risk for impaired

The effect of cerebral palsy on arithmetic accuracy is mediated by working memory, intelligence, early numeracy, and instruction time.

PubMed

Jenks, Kathleen M; de Moor, Jan; van Lieshout, Ernest C D M; Maathuis, Karel G B; Keus, Inge; Gorter, Jan Willem

2007-01-01

The development of addition and subtraction accuracy was assessed in first graders with cerebral palsy (CP) in both mainstream (16) and special education (41) and a control group of first graders in mainstream education (16). The control group out-performed the CP groups in addition and subtraction accuracy and this difference could not be fully explained by differences in intelligence. Both CP groups showed evidence of working memory deficits. The three groups exhibited different developmental patterns in the area of early numeracy skills. Children with CP in special education were found to receive less arithmetic instruction and instruction time was positively related to arithmetic accuracy. Structural equation modeling revealed that the effect of CP on arithmetic accuracy is mediated by intelligence, working memory, early numeracy, and instruction time.

Development of a measure for the assessment of peer-related positive emotional memories.

PubMed

Ferreira, Cláudia; Cunha, Marina; Marta-Simões, Joana; Duarte, Cristiana; Matos, Marcela; Pinto-Gouveia, José

2018-03-01

Previous research has demonstrated a link between early experiences of warmth, safeness, and soothing, and positive feelings, health, and well-being outcomes. Although the impact of positive parent-related early relationships and its posterior recall is well documented, research on the recall of warmth and safeness experiences within early peer relationships remains scarce. In fact, it is considered that the protective role of early positive peer relationships deserves intensive research; however, a specific measure that assesses this construct is still to be created. This study describes the development and validation of a new measure designed to assess the recall of early experiences of warmth, safeness, and affection in relation to peers (EMWSS-peers). Distinct samples, comprising individuals of both genders aged between 18 and 68 years old, were used to test the EMWSS-peers factorial structure through principal axis factoring (PAF) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and to examine its psychometric properties. Principal axis factoring's results indicated that the 12-item scale presents a one-factor structure explaining a total of 71.50% of the variance. The CFA confirmed the plausibility of this structure. The EMWSS-peers also presented excellent internal consistency and construct, concurrent, and divergent validities. The EMWSS-peers seems to be a new avenue for the study of memories of early experiences with friends and colleagues and may entail a relevant contribution to clinical and research fields, particularly for upcoming investigations on the relationship of peer-related affiliative memories with well-being and mental health. The EMWSS-peers is a specific measure to assess the recall of warmth and safeness in early peer relationships. The EMWSS-peers is a brief, robust, and reliable self-report instrument. The EMWSS-peers presented excellent internal consistency and construct, concurrent, and divergent validities. The EMWSS-peers may open a new

Very Early Brain Damage Leads to Remodeling of the Working Memory System in Adulthood: A Combined fMRI/Tractography Study

PubMed Central

Karolis, Vyacheslav; Caldinelli, Chiara; Brittain, Philip J.; Kroll, Jasmin; Rodríguez-Toscano, Elisa; Tesse, Marcello; Colquhoun, Matthew; Howes, Oliver; Dell'Acqua, Flavio; Thiebaut de Schotten, Michel; Murray, Robin M.; Williams, Steven C.R.; Nosarti, Chiara

2015-01-01

The human brain can adapt to overcome injury even years after an initial insult. One hypothesis states that early brain injury survivors, by taking advantage of critical periods of high plasticity during childhood, should recover more successfully than those who suffer injury later in life. This hypothesis has been challenged by recent studies showing worse cognitive outcome in individuals with early brain injury, compared with individuals with later brain injury, with working memory particularly affected. We invited individuals who suffered perinatal brain injury (PBI) for an fMRI/diffusion MRI tractography study of working memory and hypothesized that, 30 years after the initial injury, working memory deficits in the PBI group would remain, despite compensatory activation in areas outside the typical working memory network. Furthermore we hypothesized that the amount of functional reorganization would be related to the level of injury to the dorsal cingulum tract, which connects medial frontal and parietal working memory structures. We found that adults who suffered PBI did not significantly differ from controls in working memory performance. They exhibited less activation in classic frontoparietal working memory areas and a relative overactivation of bilateral perisylvian cortex compared with controls. Structurally, the dorsal cingulum volume and hindrance-modulated orientational anisotropy was significantly reduced in the PBI group. Furthermore there was uniquely in the PBI group a significant negative correlation between the volume of this tract and activation in the bilateral perisylvian cortex and a positive correlation between this activation and task performance. This provides the first evidence of compensatory plasticity of the working memory network following PBI. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Here we used the example of perinatal brain injury (PBI) associated with very preterm birth to study the brain's ability to adapt to injury sustained early in life. In

De novo alloreactive memory CD8+ T cells develop following allogeneic challenge when CNI immunosuppression is delayed.

PubMed

Hart-Matyas, M; Gareau, A J; Hirsch, G M; Lee, T D G

2015-01-01

Allospecific memory T cells are a recognized threat to the maintenance of solid-organ transplants. Limited information exists regarding the development of alloreactive memory T cells when post-transplant immunosuppression is present. The clinical practice of delaying calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) initiation post-transplant may permit the development of a de novo allospecific memory population. We investigated the development of de novo allospecific memory CD8+ T cells following the introduction of CNI immunosuppression in a murine model using allogeneic cell priming. Recipient mice alloprimed with splenocytes from fully mismatched donors received cyclosporine (CyA), initiated at 0, 2, 6, or 10days post-prime. Splenocytes from recipients were analyzed by flow cytometry or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for evidence of memory cell formation. Memory and effector CD8+ T cell development was prevented when CyA was initiated at 0day or 2days post-prime (p<0.001), but not 6days post-prime. Following a boost challenge, these memory CD8+ T cells were capable of producing a similarly sized population of secondary effectors as recipients not treated with CyA (p>0.05). Delaying CyA up to 6days or later post-prime permits the development of functional de novo allospecific memory CD8+ T cells. The development of this potentially detrimental T cell population in patients could be prevented by starting CNI immunosuppression early post-transplant. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Infant feeding effects on early neurocognitive development in Asian children.

PubMed

Cai, Shirong; Pang, Wei Wei; Low, Yen Ling; Sim, Lit Wee; Sam, Suet Chian; Bruntraeger, Michaela Bianka; Wong, Eric Qinlong; Fok, Doris; Broekman, Birit F P; Singh, Leher; Richmond, Jenny; Agarwal, Pratibha; Qiu, Anqi; Saw, Seang Mei; Yap, Fabian; Godfrey, Keith M; Gluckman, Peter D; Chong, Yap-Seng; Meaney, Michael J; Kramer, Michael S; Rifkin-Graboi, Anne

2015-02-01

Breastfeeding has been shown to enhance global measures of intelligence in children. However, few studies have examined associations between breastfeeding and specific cognitive task performance in the first 2 y of life, particularly in an Asian population. We assessed associations between early infant feeding and detailed measures of cognitive development in the first 2 y of life in healthy Asian children born at term. In a prospective cohort study, neurocognitive testing was performed in 408 healthy children (aged 6, 18, and 24 mo) from uncomplicated pregnancies (i.e., birth weight >2500 and <4000 g, gestational age ≥37 wk, and 5-min Apgar score ≥9). Tests included memory (deferred imitation, relational binding, habituation) and attention tasks (visual expectation, auditory oddball) as well as the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (BSID-III). Children were stratified into 3 groups (low, intermediate, and high) on the basis of breastfeeding duration and exclusivity. After potential confounding variables were controlled for, significant associations and dose-response relations were observed for 4 of the 15 tests. Higher breastfeeding exposure was associated with better memory at 6 mo, demonstrated by greater preferential looking toward correctly matched items during early portions of a relational memory task (i.e., relational binding task: P-trend = 0.015 and 0.050 for the first two 1000-ms time bins, respectively). No effects of breastfeeding were observed at 18 mo. At 24 mo, breastfed children were more likely to display sequential memory during a deferred imitation memory task (P-trend = 0.048), and toddlers with more exposure to breastfeeding scored higher in receptive language [+0.93 (0.23, 1.63) and +1.08 (0.10, 2.07) for intermediate- and high-breastfeeding groups, respectively, compared with the low-breastfeeding group], as well as expressive language [+0.58 (-0.06, 1.23) and +1.22 (0.32, 2.12) for intermediate- and high

FOXO1 opposition of CD8+ T cell effector programming confers early memory properties and phenotypic diversity.

PubMed

Delpoux, Arnaud; Lai, Chen-Yen; Hedrick, Stephen M; Doedens, Andrew L

2017-10-17

The factors and steps controlling postinfection CD8 + T cell terminal effector versus memory differentiation are incompletely understood. Whereas we found that naive TCF7 (alias "Tcf-1") expression is FOXO1 independent, early postinfection we report bimodal, FOXO1-dependent expression of the memory-essential transcription factor TCF7 in pathogen-specific CD8 + T cells. We determined the early postinfection TCF7 high population is marked by low TIM3 expression and bears memory signature hallmarks before the appearance of established memory precursor marker CD127 (IL-7R). These cells exhibit diminished TBET, GZMB, mTOR signaling, and cell cycle progression. Day 5 postinfection, TCF7 high cells express higher memory-associated BCL2 and EOMES, as well as increased accumulation potential and capacity to differentiate into memory phenotype cells. TCF7 retroviral transduction opposes GZMB expression and the formation of KLRG1 pos phenotype cells, demonstrating an active role for TCF7 in extinguishing the effector program and forestalling terminal differentiation. Past the peak of the cellular immune response, we report a gradient of FOXO1 and TCF7 expression, which functions to oppose TBET and orchestrate a continuum of effector-to-memory phenotypes.

The development of control processes supporting source memory discrimination as revealed by event-related potentials.

PubMed

de Chastelaine, Marianne; Friedman, David; Cycowicz, Yael M

2007-08-01

Improvement in source memory performance throughout childhood is thought to be mediated by the development of executive control. As postretrieval control processes may be better time-locked to the recognition response rather than the retrieval cue, the development of processes underlying source memory was investigated with both stimulus- and response-locked event-related potentials (ERPs). These were recorded in children, adolescents, and adults during a recognition memory exclusion task. Green- and red-outlined pictures were studied, but were tested in black outline. The test requirement was to endorse old items shown in one study color ("targets") and to reject new items along with old items shown in the alternative study color ("nontargets"). Source memory improved with age. All age groups retrieved target and nontarget memories as reflected by reliable parietal episodic memory (EM) effects, a stimulus-locked ERP correlate of recollection. Response-locked ERPs to targets and nontargets diverged in all groups prior to the response, although this occurred at an increasingly earlier time point with age. We suggest these findings reflect the implementation of attentional control mechanisms to enhance target memories and facilitate response selection with the greatest and least success, respectively, in adults and children. In adults only, response-locked ERPs revealed an early-onsetting parietal negativity for nontargets, but not for targets. This was suggested to reflect adults' ability to consistently inhibit prepotent target responses for nontargets. The findings support the notion that the development of source memory relies on the maturation of control processes that serve to enhance accurate selection of task-relevant memories.

Temperament, Executive Control, and ADHD across Early Development

PubMed Central

Rabinovitz, Beth B.; O’Neill, Sarah; Rajendran, Khushmand; Halperin, Jeffrey M.

2015-01-01

Research examining factors linking early temperament and later ADHD is limited by cross-sectional approaches and having the same informant rate both temperament and psychopathology. We used multi-informant/multi-method longitudinal data to test the hypothesis that negative emotionality during preschool is positively associated with ADHD symptom severity in middle childhood, but developing executive control mediates this relation. Children (N=161) with and without ADHD were evaluated three times: Parent and teacher temperament ratings and NEPSY Visual Attention at ages 3–4 years; WISC-IV Working Memory Index and NEPSY Response Set at age 6 years; and ADHD symptoms using the Kiddie-SADS at age 7 years. Parent and teacher ratings of preschoolers’ temperament were combined to form an Anger/Frustration composite. Similarly, an Executive Functioning composite was derived from age 6 measures. Bootstrapping was used to determine whether age 6 Executive Functioning mediated the relation between early Anger/Frustration and later ADHD symptom severity, while controlling for early executive functioning. Preschoolers’ Anger/Frustration was significantly associated with later ADHD symptoms, with this relation partially mediated by age 6 Executive Functioning. Developing executive control mediates the relation between early Anger/Frustration and later ADHD symptom severity, suggesting that Anger/Frustration influences ADHD symptom severity through its impact on developing executive control. Early interventions targeting the harmful influences of negative emotionality or enhancing executive functioning may diminish later ADHD severity. PMID:26854505

Rhythm synchronization performance and auditory working memory in early- and late-trained musicians.

PubMed

Bailey, Jennifer A; Penhune, Virginia B

2010-07-01

Behavioural and neuroimaging studies provide evidence for a possible "sensitive" period in childhood development during which musical training results in long-lasting changes in brain structure and auditory and motor performance. Previous work from our laboratory has shown that adult musicians who begin training before the age of 7 (early-trained; ET) perform better on a visuomotor task than those who begin after the age of 7 (late-trained; LT), even when matched on total years of musical training and experience. Two questions were raised regarding the findings from this experiment. First, would this group performance difference be observed using a more familiar, musically relevant task such as auditory rhythms? Second, would cognitive abilities mediate this difference in task performance? To address these questions, ET and LT musicians, matched on years of musical training, hours of current practice and experience, were tested on an auditory rhythm synchronization task. The task consisted of six woodblock rhythms of varying levels of metrical complexity. In addition, participants were tested on cognitive subtests measuring vocabulary, working memory and pattern recognition. The two groups of musicians differed in their performance of the rhythm task, such that the ET musicians were better at reproducing the temporal structure of the rhythms. There were no group differences on the cognitive measures. Interestingly, across both groups, individual task performance correlated with auditory working memory abilities and years of formal training. These results support the idea of a sensitive period during the early years of childhood for developing sensorimotor synchronization abilities via musical training.

Memory and Language Impairment in Children and Adults: New Perspectives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillam, Ronald B.

This book contains articles from two issues of "Topics in Language Disorders" that focus on recent developments in the understanding of short-term memory, working memory, and long-term memory systems and their relationship to language comprehension, lexical development, early academic development, later academic development, and communication…

Effects of early morning nap sleep on associative memory for neutral and emotional stimuli.

PubMed

Sopp, Marie Roxanne; Michael, Tanja; Mecklinger, Axel

2018-06-18

Emotional events are preferentially retained in episodic memory. This effect is commonly attributed to enhanced consolidation and has been linked specifically to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep physiology. While several studies have demonstrated an enhancing effect of REM sleep on emotional item memory, it has not been thoroughly explored whether this effect extends to the retention of associative memory. Moreover, it is unclear how non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep contributes to these effects. The present study thus examined associative recognition of emotional and non-emotional material across an early morning nap (N= 23) and sustained wakefulness (N= 23). Nap group subjects demonstrated enhanced post-sleep associative memory performance, which was evident across both valence categories. Subsequent analyses revealed significant correlations between NREM spindle density and pre-sleep memory performance. Moreover, NREM spindle density was positively correlated with post-sleep neutral associative memory performance but not with post-sleep emotional associative memory. Accordingly, only neutral associative memory, but not emotional associative memory, was significantly correlated with spindle density after an additional night of sleep (+24 h). These results illustrate a temporally persistent relationship between spindle density and memory for neutral associations, whereas post-sleep emotional associative memory appears to be disengaged from NREM-sleep-dependent processes. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Altered Memory Circulating T Follicular Helper-B Cell Interaction in Early Acute HIV Infection

PubMed Central

Muir, Roshell; Metcalf, Talibah; Tardif, Virginie; Takata, Hiroshi; Phanuphak, Nittaya; Kroon, Eugene; Colby, Donn J.; Trichavaroj, Rapee; Valcour, Victor; Robb, Merlin L.; Michael, Nelson L.; Ananworanich, Jintanat; Trautmann, Lydie; Haddad, Elias K.

2016-01-01

The RV254 cohort of HIV-infected very early acute (4thG stage 1 and 2) (stage 1/2) and late acute (4thG stage 3) (stage 3) individuals was used to study T helper- B cell responses in acute HIV infection and the impact of early antiretroviral treatment (ART) on T and B cell function. To investigate this, the function of circulating T follicular helper cells (cTfh) from this cohort was examined, and cTfh and memory B cell populations were phenotyped. Impaired cTfh cell function was observed in individuals treated in stage 3 when compared to stage 1/2. The cTfh/B cell cocultures showed lower B cell survival and IgG secretion at stage 3 compared to stage 1/2. This coincided with lower IL-10 and increased RANTES and TNF-α suggesting a role for inflammation in altering cTfh and B cell responses. Elevated plasma viral load in stage 3 was found to correlate with decreased cTfh-mediated B cell IgG production indicating a role for increased viremia in cTfh impairment and dysfunctional humoral response. Phenotypic perturbations were also evident in the mature B cell compartment, most notably a decrease in resting memory B cells in stage 3 compared to stage 1/2, coinciding with higher viremia. Our coculture assay also suggested that intrinsic memory B cell defects could contribute to the impaired response despite at a lower level. Overall, cTfh-mediated B cell responses are significantly altered in stage 3 compared to stage 1/2, coinciding with increased inflammation and a reduction in memory B cells. These data suggest that early ART for acutely HIV infected individuals could prevent immune dysregulation while preserving cTfh function and B cell memory. PMID:27463374

Memory Club: A Group Intervention for People with Early-Stage Dementia and Their Care Partners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zarit, Steven H.; Femia, Elia E.; Watson, Jennifer; Rice-Oeschger, Laura; Kakos, Bernadette

2004-01-01

Purpose: Diagnosis of dementia in its early stages presents a window of opportunity for examining the immediate and long-term consequences of the illness at a point when the individual with memory loss can still participate in decision making. Design and Methods: Memory Club is a l0-session group program designed to provide information about…

The Development of Visual Working Memory Capacity during Early Childhood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simmering, Vanessa R.

2012-01-01

The change detection task has been used in dozens of studies with adults to measure visual working memory capacity. Two studies have recently tested children in this task, suggesting a gradual increase in capacity from 5 years to adulthood. These results contrast with findings from an infant looking paradigm suggesting that capacity reaches…

Memory B lymphocytes determine repertoire oligoclonality early after haematopoietic stem cell transplantation

PubMed Central

OMAZIC, B; LUNDKVIST, I; MATTSSON, J; PERMERT, J; NÄSMAN-BJÖRK, I

2003-01-01

The objective of this study was to investigate if oligoclonality of the Ig repertoire post-haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is restricted to memory B lymphocytes or if it is a general property among B lymphocytes. As a measure of B lymphocyte repertoire diversity, we have analysed size distribution of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplified Ig H complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3) in naive and memory B lymphocytes isolated from patients before HSCT and at 3, 6 and 12 months after HSCT as well as from healthy controls. We demonstrate a limited variation of the IgH CDR3 repertoire in the memory B lymphocyte population compared to the naive B cell population. This difference was significant at 3 and 6 months post-HSCT. Compared to healthy controls there is a significant restriction of the memory B lymphocyte repertoire at 3 months after HSCT, but not of the naive B lymphocyte repertoire. Twelve months after HSCT, the IgH CDR3 repertoire in both memory and naive B lymphocytes are as diverse as in healthy controls. Thus, our findings suggest a role for memory B cells in the restriction of the oligoclonal B cell repertoire observed early after HSCT, which may be of importance when considering reimmunization of transplanted patients. PMID:12974769

Divided attention can enhance early-phase memory encoding: the attentional boost effect and study trial duration.

PubMed

Mulligan, Neil W; Spataro, Pietro

2015-07-01

Divided attention during encoding typically produces marked reductions in later memory. The attentional boost effect (ABE) is a surprising variation on this phenomenon. In this paradigm, each study stimulus (e.g., a word) is presented along with a target or a distractor (e.g., different colored circles) in a detection task. Later memory is better for stimuli co-occurring with targets. The present experiments indicate that the ABE arises during an early phase of memory encoding that involves initial stimulus perception and comprehension rather than at a later phase entailing controlled, elaborative rehearsal. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the ABE was robust at a short study duration (700 ms) and did not increase with increasing study trial durations (1,500 ms and 4,000 ms). Furthermore, the target condition is boosted to the level of memory performance in a full-attention condition for the short duration but not the long duration. Both results followed from the early-phase account. This account also predicts that for very short study times (limiting the influence of late-phase controlled encoding and thus minimizing the usual negative effect of divided attention), the target condition will produce better memory than will the full-attention condition. Experiment 2 used a study time of 400 ms and found that words presented with targets lead to greater recognition accuracy than do either words presented with distractors or words in the full-attention condition. Consistent with the early-phase account, a divided attention condition actually produced superior memory than did the full-attention condition, a very unusual but theoretically predicted result. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Validation of the Argentine version of the Memory Binding Test (MBT) for Early Detection of Mild Cognitive Impairment

PubMed Central

Roman, Fabian; Iturry, Mónica; Rojas, Galeno; Barceló, Ernesto; Buschke, Herman; Allegri, Ricardo F.

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT Background: "Forgetfulness" is frequent in normal aging and characteristic of the early stages of dementia syndromes. The episodic memory test is central for detecting amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The Memory Binding Test (MBT) is a simple, easy and brief memory test to detect the early stage of episodic memory impairment. Objective: To validate the Argentine version of the MBT in a Latin American population and to estimate the diagnostic accuracy as a tool for early detection of MCI. Methods: 88 subjects (46 healthy controls and 42 patients with amnestic MCI) matched for age and educational level were evaluated by an extensive neuropsychological battery and the memory binding test. Results: A significantly better performance was detected in the control group; all MBT scales were predictive of MCI diagnosis (p<.01). The MBT showed high sensitivity (69%) and high specificity (88%), with a PPV of 93% and a NPV of 55% for associative paired recall. A statistically significant difference (c2=14,164, p<.001) was obtained when comparing the area under the curve (AUC) of the MBT (0.88) and the MMSE (0.70). Conclusion: The Argentine version of the MBT correlated significantly with the MMSE and the memory battery and is a useful tool in the detection of MCI. The operating characteristics of the MBT are well suited, surpassing other tests commonly used for detecting MCI. PMID:29213458

Association between Early Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Symptoms and Current Verbal and Visuo-Spatial Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gau, Susan Shur-Fen; Chiang, Huey-Ling

2013-01-01

Deficits in short-term memory are common in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but their current ADHD symptoms cannot well predict their short-term performance. Taking a developmental perspective, we wanted to clarify the association between ADHD symptoms at early childhood and short-term memory in late childhood and…

Working Memory Underpins Cognitive Development, Learning, and Education

PubMed Central

Cowan, Nelson

2014-01-01

Working memory is the retention of a small amount of information in a readily accessible form. It facilitates planning, comprehension, reasoning, and problem-solving. I examine the historical roots and conceptual development of the concept and the theoretical and practical implications of current debates about working memory mechanisms. Then I explore the nature of cognitive developmental improvements in working memory, the role of working memory in learning, and some potential implications of working memory and its development for the education of children and adults. The use of working memory is quite ubiquitous in human thought, but the best way to improve education using what we know about working memory is still controversial. I hope to provide some directions for research and educational practice. PMID:25346585

Evaluation of passive avoidance learning and spatial memory in rats exposed to low levels of lead during specific periods of early brain development.

PubMed

Rao Barkur, Rajashekar; Bairy, Laxminarayana K

2015-01-01

Widespread use of heavy metal lead (Pb) for various commercial purposes has resulted in the environmental contamination caused by this metal. The studies have shown a definite relationship between low level lead exposure during early brain development and deficit in children's cognitive functions. This study investigated the passive avoidance learning and spatial learning in male rat pups exposed to lead through their mothers during specific periods of early brain development. Experimental male rats were divided into 5 groups: i) the normal control group (NC) (N = 12) consisted of rat offspring born to mothers who were given normal drinking water throughout gestation and lactation, ii) the pre-gestation lead exposed group (PG) (N = 12) consisted of rat offspring, mothers of these rats had been exposed to 0.2% lead acetate in the drinking water for 1 month before conception, iii) the gestation lead exposed group (G) (N = 12) contained rat offspring born to mothers who had been exposed to 0.2% lead acetate in the drinking water throughout gestation, iv) the lactation lead exposed group (L) (N = 12) had rat offspring, mothers of these rats exposed to 0.2% lead acetate in the drinking water throughout lactation and v) the gestation and lactation lead exposed group (GL) (N = 12) contained rat offspring, mothers of these rats were exposed to 0.2% lead acetate throughout gestation and lactation. The study found deficit in passive avoidance learning in the G, L and GL groups of rats. Impairment in spatial learning was found in the PG, G, L and GL groups of rats. Interestingly, the study found that gestation period only and lactation period only lead exposure was sufficient to cause deficit in learning and memory in rats. The extent of memory impairment in the L group of rats was comparable with the GL group of rats. So it can be said that postnatal period of brain development is more sensitive to neurotoxicity compared to prenatal exposure. This work is available in Open

Early and late components of EEG delay activity correlate differently with scene working memory performance

PubMed Central

Ng, Kenneth; Reichert, Chelsea P.

2017-01-01

Sustained and elevated activity during the working memory delay period has long been considered the primary neural correlate for maintaining information over short time intervals. This idea has recently been reinterpreted in light of findings generated from multiple neural recording modalities and levels of analysis. To further investigate the sustained or transient nature of activity, the temporal-spectral evolution (TSE) of delay period activity was examined in humans with high density EEG during performance of a Sternberg working memory paradigm with a relatively long six second delay and with novel scenes as stimuli. Multiple analyses were conducted using different trial window durations and different baseline periods for TSE computation. Sensor level analyses revealed transient rather than sustained activity during delay periods. Specifically, the consistent finding among the analyses was that high amplitude activity encompassing the theta range was found early in the first three seconds of the delay period. These increases in activity early in the delay period correlated positively with subsequent ability to distinguish new from old probe scenes. Source level signal estimation implicated a right parietal region of transient early delay activity that correlated positively with working memory ability. This pattern of results adds to recent evidence that transient rather than sustained delay period activity supports visual working memory performance. The findings are discussed in relation to synchronous and desynchronous intra- and inter-regional neural transmission, and choosing an optimal baseline for expressing temporal-spectral delay activity change. PMID:29016657

Pharmacologic inhibition of phospholipase C in the brain attenuates early memory formation in the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.)

PubMed Central

Iino, Shiori; Kubo, Takeo

2018-01-01

ABSTRACT Although the molecular mechanisms involved in learning and memory in insects have been studied intensively, the intracellular signaling mechanisms involved in early memory formation are not fully understood. We previously demonstrated that phospholipase C epsilon (PLCe), whose product is involved in calcium signaling, is almost selectively expressed in the mushroom bodies, a brain structure important for learning and memory in the honeybee. Here, we pharmacologically examined the role of phospholipase C (PLC) in learning and memory in the honeybee. First, we identified four genes for PLC subtypes in the honeybee genome database. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction revealed that, among these four genes, three, including PLCe, were expressed higher in the brain than in sensory organs in worker honeybees, suggesting their main roles in the brain. Edelfosine and neomycin, pan-PLC inhibitors, significantly decreased PLC activities in homogenates of the brain tissues. These drugs injected into the head of foragers significantly attenuated memory acquisition in comparison with the control groups, whereas memory retention was not affected. These findings suggest that PLC in the brain is involved in early memory formation in the honeybee. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a role for PLC in learning and memory in an insect. PMID:29330349

Time course for memory dysfunction in early-life and late-life major depression: a longitudinal study from the Juntendo University Mood Disorder Project.

PubMed

Maeshima, Hitoshi; Baba, Hajime; Nakano, Yoshiyuki; Satomura, Emi; Namekawa, Yuki; Takebayashi, Naoko; Nomoto, Hiroshi; Suzuki, Toshihito; Mimura, Masaru; Arai, Heii

2013-10-01

Previous studies have demonstrated that patients with depression also have memory dysfunctions during depressive episodes. These dysfunctions partially remain immediately after remission from a depressive state; however, it is unclear whether these residual memory dysfunctions may disappear through long-term remission from depression. The present study compared patients during early-life (age<60) and late-life (age ≥ 60) depression while in their remitted stage with healthy controls to elucidate the impact of a long-term course on memory. Logical memory from the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised was administered to 67 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) (47 patients with early-life depression and residual 20 patients with late-life depression) and 50 healthy controls. MDD patients received memory assessments at the time of their initial remission and at a follow-up three years after remission. At the time of initial remission, scores for logical memory were significantly lower in both patient groups compared to matched controls. At follow-up, memory dysfunction for early-life MDD patients disappeared, whereas scores in the late-life MDD group remained significantly lower than those of matched controls. All patients in the present study were on antidepressant medications. Our findings suggested that the progress of memory performance in late-life MDD patients may be different from early-life MDD patients. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Subchronic Glucocorticoid Receptor Inhibition Rescues Early Episodic Memory and Synaptic Plasticity Deficits in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease

PubMed Central

Lanté, Fabien; Chafai, Magda; Raymond, Elisabeth Fabienne; Salgueiro Pereira, Ana Rita; Mouska, Xavier; Kootar, Scherazad; Barik, Jacques; Bethus, Ingrid; Marie, Hélène

2015-01-01

The early phase of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by hippocampus-dependent memory deficits and impaired synaptic plasticity. Increasing evidence suggests that stress and dysregulation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, marked by the elevated circulating glucocorticoids, are risk factors for AD onset. How these changes contribute to early hippocampal dysfunction remains unclear. Using an elaborated version of the object recognition task, we carefully monitored alterations in key components of episodic memory, the first type of memory altered in AD patients, in early symptomatic Tg2576 AD mice. We also combined biochemical and ex vivo electrophysiological analyses to reveal novel cellular and molecular dysregulations underpinning the onset of the pathology. We show that HPA axis, circadian rhythm, and feedback mechanisms, as well as episodic memory, are compromised in this early symptomatic phase, reminiscent of human AD pathology. The cognitive decline could be rescued by subchronic in vivo treatment with RU486, a glucocorticoid receptor antagonist. These observed phenotypes were paralleled by a specific enhancement of N-Methyl-D-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR)-dependent LTD in CA1 pyramidal neurons, whereas LTP and metabotropic glutamate receptor-dependent LTD remain unchanged. NMDAR transmission was also enhanced. Finally, we show that, as for the behavioral deficit, RU486 treatment rescues this abnormal synaptic phenotype. These preclinical results define glucocorticoid signaling as a contributing factor to both episodic memory loss and early synaptic failure in this AD mouse model, and suggest that glucocorticoid receptor targeting strategies could be beneficial to delay AD onset. PMID:25622751

Working memory and language: skill-specific or domain-general relations to mathematics?

PubMed

Purpura, David J; Ganley, Colleen M

2014-06-01

Children's early mathematics skills develop in a cumulative fashion; foundational skills form a basis for the acquisition of later skills. However, non-mathematical factors such as working memory and language skills have also been linked to mathematical development at a broad level. Unfortunately, little research has been conducted to evaluate the specific relations of these two non-mathematical factors to individual aspects of early mathematics. Thus, the focus of this study was to determine whether working memory and language were related to only individual aspects of early mathematics or related to many components of early mathematics skills. A total of 199 4- to 6-year-old preschool and kindergarten children were assessed on a battery of early mathematics tasks as well as measures of working memory and language. Results indicated that working memory has a specific relation to only a few-but critically important-early mathematics skills and language has a broad relation to nearly all early mathematics skills. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Adolescent development, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function, and programming of adult learning and memory.

PubMed

McCormick, Cheryl M; Mathews, Iva Z

2010-06-30

Chronic exposure to stress is known to affect learning and memory in adults through the release of glucocorticoid hormones by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. In adults, glucocorticoids alter synaptic structure and function in brain regions that express high levels of glucocorticoid receptors and that mediate goal-directed behaviour and learning and memory. In contrast to relatively transient effects of stress on cognitive function in adulthood, exposure to high levels of glucocorticoids in early life can produce enduring changes through substantial remodeling of the developing nervous system. Adolescence is another time of significant brain development and maturation of the HPA axis, thereby providing another opportunity for glucocorticoids to exert programming effects on neurocircuitry involved in learning and memory. These topics are reviewed, as is the emerging research evidence in rodent models highlighting that adolescence may be a period of increased vulnerability compared to adulthood in which exposure to high levels of glucocorticoids results in enduring changes in adult cognitive function. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Your Earliest Memory May Be Earlier than You Think: Prospective Studies of Children's Dating of Earliest Childhood Memories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Qi; Peterson, Carole

2014-01-01

Theories of childhood amnesia and autobiographical memory development have been based on the assumption that the age estimates of earliest childhood memories are generally accurate, with an average age of 3.5 years among adults. It is also commonly believed that early memories will by default become inaccessible later on and this eventually…

The role of cue detection for prospective memory development across the lifespan.

PubMed

Hering, Alexandra; Wild-Wall, Nele; Gajewski, Patrick D; Falkenstein, Michael; Kliegel, Matthias; Zinke, Katharina

2016-12-01

Behavioral findings suggest an inverted U-shaped pattern of prospective memory development across the lifespan. A key mechanism underlying this development is the ability to detect cues. We examined the influence of cue detection on prospective memory, combining behavioral and electrophysiological measures, in three age groups: adolescents (12-14 years), young (19-28 years), and old adults (66-77 years). Cue detection was manipulated by varying the distinctiveness (i.e., how easy it was to detect the cue based on color) of the prospective memory cue in a semantic judgment ongoing task. Behavioral results supported the pattern of an inverted U-shape with a pronounced prospective memory decrease in old adults. Adolescents and young adults showed a prospective memory specific modulation (larger amplitudes for the cues compared to other trials) already for the N1 component. No such specific modulation was evident in old adults for the early N1 component but only at the later P3b component. Adolescents showed differential modulations of the amplitude also for irrelevant information at the P3b, suggesting less efficient processing. In terms of conceptual implications, present findings underline the importance of cue detection for prospective remembering and reveal different developmental trajectories for cue detection. Our findings suggest that cue detection is not a unitary process but consists of multiple stages corresponding to several ERP components that differentially contribute to prospective memory performance across the lifespan. In adolescents resource allocation for detecting cues seemed successful initially but less efficient at later stages; whereas we found the opposite pattern for old adults. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A requirement for the immediate early gene zif268 in reconsolidation of recognition memory after retrieval.

PubMed

Bozon, Bruno; Davis, Sabrina; Laroche, Serge

2003-11-13

Recent research has revived interest in the possibility that previously consolidated memories need to reconsolidate when recalled to return to accessible long-term memory. Evidence suggests that both consolidation and reconsolidation of certain types of memory require protein synthesis, but whether similar molecular mechanisms are involved remains unclear. Here, we explore whether zif268, an activity-dependent inducible immediate early gene (IEG) required for consolidation of new memories, is also recruited for reconsolidation of recognition memory following reactivation. We show that when a consolidated memory for objects is recalled, zif268 mutant mice are impaired in further long-term but not short-term recognition memory. The impairment is specific to reactivation with the previously memorized objects in the relevant context, occurs in delayed recall, and does not recover over several days. These findings indicate that IEG-mediated transcriptional regulation in neurons is one common molecular mechanism for the storage of newly formed and reactivated recognition memories.

Enhanced oscillatory activity in the hippocampal-prefrontal network is related to short-term memory function after early-life seizures

PubMed Central

Kleen, Jonathan K.; Wu, Edie X.; Holmes, Gregory L.; Scott, Rod C.; Lenck-Santini, Pierre-Pascal

2011-01-01

Neurological insults during development are associated with later impairments in learning and memory. Although remedial training can help restore cognitive function, the neural mechanisms of this recovery in memory systems are largely unknown. To examine this issue we measured electrophysiological oscillatory activity in the hippocampus (both CA3 and CA1) and prefrontal cortex of adult rats that had experienced repeated seizures in the first weeks of life, while they were remedially trained on a delayed-nonmatch-to-sample memory task. Seizure-exposed rats showed initial difficulties learning the task but performed similar to control rats after extra training. Whole-session analyses illustrated enhanced theta power in all three structures while seizure rats learned response tasks prior to the memory task. Whilst performing the memory task, dynamic oscillation patterns revealed that prefrontal cortex theta power was increased among seizure-exposed rats. This enhancement appeared after the first memory training steps using short delays and plateaued at the most difficult steps which included both short and long delays. Further, seizure rats showed enhanced CA1-prefrontal theta coherence in correct trials compared to incorrect trials when long delays were imposed, suggesting increased hippocampal-prefrontal synchrony for the task in this group when memory demand was high. Seizure-exposed rats also showed heightened gamma power and coherence among all three structures during the trials. Our results demonstrate the first evidence of hippocampal-prefrontal enhancements following seizures in early development. Dynamic compensatory changes in this network and interconnected circuits may underpin cognitive rehabilitation following other neurological insults to higher cognitive systems. PMID:22031886

The Specificity of Autobiographical Memories in Early Adolescence: The Role of Mother-Child Communication and Attachment-Related Beliefs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bosmans, Guy; Dujardin, Adinda; Raes, Filip; Braet, Caroline

2013-01-01

Although autobiographical memory specificity is an important developmental feature fostering adaptation throughout life, little is known about factors related to interindividual differences in autobiographical memory specificity. The current study investigated associations with early adolescents' communication with mother about their experiences…

MRI uncovers disrupted hippocampal microstructure that underlies memory impairments after early-life adversity.

PubMed

Molet, Jenny; Maras, Pamela M; Kinney-Lang, Eli; Harris, Neil G; Rashid, Faisal; Ivy, Autumn S; Solodkin, Ana; Obenaus, Andre; Baram, Tallie Z

2016-12-01

Memory and related cognitive functions are progressively impaired in a subgroup of individuals experiencing childhood adversity and stress. However, it is not possible to identify vulnerable individuals early, a crucial step for intervention. In this study, high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and intra-hippocampal diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) were employed to examine for structural signatures of cognitive adolescent vulnerabilities in a rodent model of early-life adversity. These methods were complemented by neuroanatomical and functional assessments of hippocampal network integrity during adolescence, adulthood and middle-age. The high-resolution MRI identified selective loss of dorsal hippocampal volume, and intra-hippocampal DTI uncovered disruption of dendritic structure, consistent with disrupted local connectivity, already during late adolescence in adversity-experiencing rats. Memory deteriorated over time, and stunting of hippocampal dendritic trees was apparent on neuroanatomical analyses. Thus, disrupted hippocampal neuronal structure and connectivity, associated with cognitive impairments, are detectable via non-invasive imaging modalities in rats experiencing early-life adversity. These high-resolution imaging approaches may constitute promising tools for prediction and assessment of at-risk individuals in the clinic. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Flexible memory retrieval in bilingual 6-month-old infants.

PubMed

Brito, Natalie; Barr, Rachel

2014-07-01

Memory flexibility is a hallmark of the human memory system. As indexed by generalization between perceptually dissimilar objects, memory flexibility develops gradually during infancy. A recent study has found a bilingual advantage in memory generalization at 18 months of age [Brito and Barr [2012] Developmental Science, 15, 812-816], and the present study examines when this advantage may first emerge. In the current study, bilingual 6-month-olds were more likely than monolinguals to generalize to a puppet that differed in two features (shape and color) than monolingual 6-month-olds. When challenged with a less complex change, two puppets that differed only in one feature--color, monolingual 6-month-olds were also able to generalize. These findings demonstrate early emerging differences in memory generalization in bilingual infants, and have important implications for our understanding of how early environmental variations shape the trajectory of memory development. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Early but not late blindness leads to enhanced arithmetic and working memory abilities.

PubMed

Dormal, Valérie; Crollen, Virginie; Baumans, Christine; Lepore, Franco; Collignon, Olivier

2016-10-01

Behavioural and neurophysiological evidence suggest that vision plays an important role in the emergence and development of arithmetic abilities. However, how visual deprivation impacts on the development of arithmetic processing remains poorly understood. We compared the performances of early (EB), late blind (LB) and sighted control (SC) individuals during various arithmetic tasks involving addition, subtraction and multiplication of various complexities. We also assessed working memory (WM) performances to determine if they relate to a blind person's arithmetic capacities. Results showed that EB participants performed better than LB and SC in arithmetic tasks, especially in conditions in which verbal routines and WM abilities are needed. Moreover, EB participants also showed higher WM abilities. Together, our findings demonstrate that the absence of developmental vision does not prevent the development of refined arithmetic skills and can even trigger the refinement of these abilities in specific tasks. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of a monolithic ferrite memory array

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heckler, C. H., Jr.; Bhiwandker, N. C.

1972-01-01

The results of the development and testing of ferrite monolithic memory arrays are presented. This development required the synthesis of ferrite materials having special magnetic and physical characteristics and the development of special processes; (1) for making flexible sheets (laminae) of the ferrite composition, (2) for embedding conductors in ferrite, and (3) bonding ferrite laminae together to form a monolithic structure. Major problems encountered in each of these areas and their solutions are discussed. Twenty-two full-size arrays were fabricated and fired during the development of these processes. The majority of these arrays were tested for their memory characteristics as well as for their physical characteristics and the results are presented. The arrays produced during this program meet the essential goals and demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating monolithic ferrite memory arrays by the processes developed.

The Cognitive and Neural Expression of Semantic Memory Impairment in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Early Alzheimer's Disease

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joubert, Sven; Brambati, Simona M.; Ansado, Jennyfer; Barbeau, Emmanuel J.; Felician, Olivier; Didic, Mira; Lacombe, Jacinthe; Goldstein, Rachel; Chayer, Celine; Kergoat, Marie-Jeanne

2010-01-01

Semantic deficits in Alzheimer's disease have been widely documented, but little is known about the integrity of semantic memory in the prodromal stage of the illness. The aims of the present study were to: (i) investigate naming abilities and semantic memory in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), early Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared to…

The Development of Young Children's Memory Strategies: First Findings from the Wurzburg Longitudinal Memory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schneider, Wolfgang; Kron, Veronika; Hunnerkopf, Michael; Krajewski, Kristin

2004-01-01

This article reports the first findings of the Wurzburg Longitudinal Memory Study, which focuses on children's verbal memory development, particularly the acquisition of memory strategies. At the beginning of the study, 100 kindergarten children (mean age 6-and-1/2 years) were tested on various memory measures, including sort--recall, text recall,…

The impact of early-onset cannabis use on functional brain correlates of working memory.

PubMed

Becker, Benjamin; Wagner, Daniel; Gouzoulis-Mayfrank, Euphrosyne; Spuentrup, Elmar; Daumann, Jörg

2010-08-16

Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug. Prevalence rates are particularly high among adolescents. Neuropsychological studies have identified cannabis-associated memory deficits, particularly linked to an early onset of use. However, it remains unclear, whether the age of onset accounts for altered cortical activation patterns usually observed in cannabis users. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine cortical activation during verbal working memory challenge in (1) early-onset (onset before the age of sixteen; n=26) and (2) late-onset cannabis users (age at onset at least sixteen; n=17). Early-onset users showed increased activation in the left superior parietal lobe. Correlational analyses confirmed the association between an earlier start of use and increased activity. Contrariwise neither cumulative dose, frequency nor time since last use was significantly associated with cortical activity. Our findings suggest that an early start of cannabis use is associated with increased cortical activation in adult cannabis users, possibly reflecting suboptimal cortical efficiency during cognitive challenge. The maturing brain might be more vulnerable to the harmful effects of cannabis use. However, due to a lack of a non-using control group we cannot exclude alternative interpretations. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Accounting for Change in Declarative Memory: A Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richmond, Jenny; Nelson, Charles A.

2007-01-01

The medial temporal lobe memory system matures relatively early and supports rudimentary declarative memory in young infants. There is considerable development, however, in the memory processes that underlie declarative memory performance during infancy. Here we consider age-related changes in encoding, retention, and retrieval in the context of…

Associative Learning during Early Adulthood Enhances Later Memory Retention in Honeybees

PubMed Central

Arenas, Andrés; Fernández, Vanesa M.; Farina, Walter M.

2009-01-01

Background Cognitive experiences during the early stages of life play an important role in shaping the future behavior in mammals but also in insects, in which precocious learning can directly modify behaviors later in life depending on both the timing and the rearing environment. However, whether olfactory associative learning acquired early in the adult stage of insects affect memorizing of new learning events has not been studied yet. Methodology Groups of adult honeybee workers that experienced an odor paired with a sucrose solution 5 to 8 days or 9 to 12 days after emergence were previously exposed to (i) a rewarded experience through the offering of scented food, or (ii) a non-rewarded experience with a pure volatile compound in the rearing environment. Principal Findings Early rewarded experiences (either at 1–4 or 5–8 days of adult age) enhanced retention performance in 9–12-day-conditioned bees when they were tested at 17 days of age. The highest retention levels at this age, which could not be improved with prior rewarded experiences, were found for memories established at 5–8 days of adult age. Associative memories acquired at 9–12 days of age showed a weak effect on retention for some pure pre-exposed volatile compounds; whereas the sole exposure of an odor at any younger age did not promote long-term effects on learning performance. Conclusions The associative learning events that occurred a few days after adult emergence improved memorizing in middle-aged bees. In addition, both the timing and the nature of early sensory inputs interact to enhance retention of new learning events acquired later in life, an important matter in the social life of honeybees. PMID:19956575

Memory of myself: autobiographical memory and identity in Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Addis, Donna Rose; Tippett, Lynette J

2004-01-01

A number of theories posit a relationship between autobiographical memory and identity. To test this we assessed the status of autobiographical memory and identity in 20 individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 20 age-matched controls, and investigated whether degree of autobiographical memory impairment was associated with changes in identity. Two tests of autobiographical memory (Autobiographical Memory Interview, autobiographical fluency) and two measures of identity (Twenty Statements Test, identity items of the Tennessee Self Concept Scale) were administered. AD participants exhibited significant impairments on both memory tests, and changes in the strength, quality, and direction of identity relative to controls. Impairments of some components of autobiographical memory, particularly autobiographical memory for childhood and early adulthood, were related to changes in the strength and quality of identity. These findings support the critical role of early adulthood autobiographical memories (16-25 years) in identity, and suggest autobiographical memory loss affects identity.

Can reactivity to stress and family environment explain memory and executive function performance in early and middle childhood?

PubMed

Piccolo, Luciane da Rosa; Salles, Jerusa Fumagalli de; Falceto, Olga Garcia; Fernandes, Carmen Luiza; Grassi-Oliveira, Rodrigo

2016-01-01

According to the literature, children's overall reactivity to stress is associated with their socioeconomic status and family environment. In turn, it has been shown that reactivity to stress is associated with cognitive performance. However, few studies have systematically tested these three constructs together. To investigate the relationship between family environment, salivary cortisol measurements and children's memory and executive function performance. Salivary cortisol levels of 70 children aged 9 or 10 years were measured before and after performing tasks designed to assess memory and executive functions. Questionnaires on socioeconomic issues, family environment and maternal psychopathologies were administered to participants' families during the children's early childhood and again when they reached school age. Data were analyzed by calculating correlations between variables and conducting hierarchical regression. High cortisol levels were associated with poorer working memory and worse performance in tasks involving executive functions, and were also associated with high scores for maternal psychopathology (during early childhood and school age) and family dysfunction. Family environment variables and changes in cortisol levels explain around 20% of the variance in performance of cognitive tasks. Family functioning and maternal psychopathology in early and middle childhood and children's stress levels were associated with children's working memory and executive functioning.

Progress In Optical Memory Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsunoda, Yoshito

1987-01-01

More than 20 years have passed since the concept of optical memory was first proposed in 1966. Since then considerable progress has been made in this area together with the creation of completely new markets of optical memory in consumer and computer application areas. The first generation of optical memory was mainly developed with holographic recording technology in late 1960s and early 1970s. Considerable number of developments have been done in both analog and digital memory applications. Unfortunately, these technologies did not meet a chance to be a commercial product. The second generation of optical memory started at the beginning of 1970s with bit by bit recording technology. Read-only type optical memories such as video disks and compact audio disks have extensively investigated. Since laser diodes were first applied to optical video disk read out in 1976, there have been extensive developments of laser diode pick-ups for optical disk memory systems. The third generation of optical memory started in 1978 with bit by bit read/write technology using laser diodes. Developments of recording materials including both write-once and erasable have been actively pursued at several research institutes. These technologies are mainly focused on the optical memory systems for computer application. Such practical applications of optical memory technology has resulted in the creation of such new products as compact audio disks and computer file memories.

Association between early attention-deficit/hyperactivity symptoms and current verbal and visuo-spatial short-term memory.

PubMed

Gau, Susan Shur-Fen; Chiang, Huey-Ling

2013-01-01

Deficits in short-term memory are common in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but their current ADHD symptoms cannot well predict their short-term performance. Taking a developmental perspective, we wanted to clarify the association between ADHD symptoms at early childhood and short-term memory in late childhood and adolescence. The participants included 401 patients with a clinical diagnosis of DSM-IV ADHD, 213 siblings, and 176 unaffected controls aged 8-17 years (mean age, 12.02 ± 2.24). All participants and their mothers were interviewed using the Chinese Kiddie Epidemiologic version of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia to obtain information about ADHD symptoms and other psychiatric disorders retrospectively, at an earlier age first, then currently. The participants were assessed with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--3rd edition, including Digit Span, and the Spatial working memory task of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. Multi-level regression models were used for data analysis. Although crude analyses revealed that inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity symptoms significantly predicted deficits in short-term memory, only inattention symptoms had significant effects (all p<0.001) in a model that included all three ADHD symptoms. After further controlling for comorbidity, age of assessment, treatment with methylphenidate, and Full-scale IQ, the severity of childhood inattention symptoms was still significantly associated with worse verbal (p = 0.008) and spatial (p ranging from 0.017 to 0.002) short-term memory at the current assessment. Therefore, our findings suggest that earlier inattention symptoms are associated with impaired verbal and visuo-spatial short-term memory at a later development stage. Impaired short-term memory in adolescence can be detected earlier by screening for the severity of inattention in childhood. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights

Medial Temporal Lobe Memory in Childhood: Developmental Transitions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Townsend, Elise L.; Richmond, Jenny L.; Vogel-Farley, Vanessa K.; Thomas, Kathleen

2010-01-01

The medial temporal lobes (MTL) support declarative memory and mature structurally and functionally during the postnatal years in humans. Although recent work has addressed the development of declarative memory in early childhood, less is known about continued development beyond this period of time. The purpose of this investigation was to explore…

Altered self-identity and autobiographical memory in epilepsy.

PubMed

Allebone, James; Rayner, Genevieve; Siveges, Benjamin; Wilson, Sarah J

2015-12-01

Research suggests that individuals with chronic epilepsy display differences in their self-identity. The mechanisms by which self-identity is altered, however, are not well understood. Neural networks supporting autobiographical memory retrieval in the mesial temporal (MT) lobe are thought to be fundamental to self-identity processes. Thus, we examined differences in self-identity and autobiographical memory in patients with either MT or non-mesial temporal (NMT) foci with early or late age of habitual seizure onset. Participants included 102 adults: 51 healthy individuals and 51 patients with drug-resistant focal seizures (19 MT, 32 NMT). We used the Ego Identity Process Questionnaire to profile the identity development of participants, and examined how this related to memory function assessed using the Autobiographical Memory Test. Patients and controls had strikingly different self-identity profiles, with early onset MT patients showing the least identity development compared to controls and other patient groups. In contrast, late-onset NMT patients showed the highest level of identity development of the patient groups and closely resembled healthy controls (p < 0.05 for all comparisons). For all MT patients, poor autobiographical memory retrieval was correlated with altered self-identity (p < 0.001). No associations between autobiographical memory and self-identity were evident in the NMT group. Self-identity in epilepsy may be modulated by the extent to which seizure foci impinge on the autobiographical memory network and the timing of seizure onset. Early disruption to MT regions of the autobiographical memory network may constitute a neurocognitive mechanism by which self-identity is altered in chronic focal epilepsy. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2015 International League Against Epilepsy.

Early Selection versus Late Correction: Age-Related Differences in Controlling Working Memory Contents

PubMed Central

Schwarzkopp, Tina; Mayr, Ulrich; Jost, Kerstin

2016-01-01

We examined whether a reduced ability to ignore irrelevant information is responsible for the age-related decline of working-memory (WM) functions. By means of event-related brain potentials we will show that filtering is not out of service in older adults but shifted to a later processing stage. Participants performed a visual short-term memory task (change-detection task) in which targets were presented along with distractors. To allow early selection, a cue was presented in advance of each display, indicating where the targets were to appear. Despite this relatively easy selection criterion, older adults’ filtering was delayed as indicated by the amplitude pattern of the contralateral delay activity. Importantly, WM-equated younger adults did not show a delay indicating that the delay is specific to older adults and not a general phenomenon that comes with low WM capacity. Moreover, the analysis of early visual potentials revealed qualitatively different perceptual/attentional processing between the age groups. Young adults exhibited stronger distractor sensitivity that in turn facilitated filtering. Older adults, in contrast, seemed to initially store distractors and to suppress them after the fact. These early-selection versus late-correction modes suggest an age-related shift in the strategy to control the contents of WM. PMID:27253867

Impairment on a self-ordered working memory task in patients with early-acquired hippocampal atrophy.

PubMed

Geva, Sharon; Cooper, Janine M; Gadian, David G; Mishkin, Mortimer; Vargha-Khadem, Faraneh

2016-08-01

One of the features of both adult-onset and developmental forms of amnesia resulting from bilateral medial temporal lobe damage, or even from relatively selective damage to the hippocampus, is the sparing of working memory. Recently, however, a number of studies have reported deficits on working memory tasks in patients with damage to the hippocampus and in macaque monkeys with neonatal hippocampal lesions. These studies suggest that successful performance on working memory tasks with high memory load require the contribution of the hippocampus. Here we compared performance on a working memory task (the Self-ordered Pointing Task), between patients with early onset hippocampal damage and a group of healthy controls. Consistent with the findings in the monkeys with neonatal lesions, we found that the patients were impaired on the task, but only on blocks of trials with intermediate memory load. Importantly, only intermediate to high memory load blocks yielded significant correlations between task performance and hippocampal volume. Additionally, we found no evidence of proactive interference in either group, and no evidence of an effect of time since injury on performance. We discuss the role of the hippocampus and its interactions with the prefrontal cortex in serving working memory. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Consequence of preterm birth in early adolescence: the role of language on auditory short-term memory.

PubMed

Fraello, David; Maller-Kesselman, Jill; Vohr, Betty; Katz, Karol H; Kesler, Shelli; Schneider, Karen; Reiss, Allan; Ment, Laura; Spann, Marisa N

2011-06-01

This study tested the hypothesis that preterm early adolescents' short-term memory is compromised when presented with increasingly complex verbal information and that associated neuroanatomical volumes would differ between preterm and term groups. Forty-nine preterm and 20 term subjects were evaluated at age 12 years with neuropsychological measures and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). There were no differences between groups in simple short-term and working memory. Preterm subjects performed lower on learning and short-term memory tests that included increased verbal complexity. They had reduced right parietal, left temporal, and right temporal white matter volumes and greater bilateral frontal gray and right frontal white matter volumes. There was a positive association between complex working memory and the left hippocampus and frontal white matter in term subjects. While not correlated, memory scores and volumes of cortical regions known to subserve language and memory were reduced in preterm subjects. This study provides evidence of possible mechanisms for learning problems in former preterm infants.

Associations between prenatal and childhood PBDE exposure and early adolescent visual, verbal and working memory.

PubMed

Cowell, Whitney J; Margolis, Amy; Rauh, Virginia A; Sjödin, Andreas; Jones, Richard; Wang, Ya; Garcia, Wanda; Perera, Frederica; Wang, Shuang; Herbstman, Julie B

2018-05-19

Prenatal and childhood exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants has been inversely associated with cognitive performance, however, few studies have measured PBDE concentrations in samples collected during both prenatal and postnatal periods. We examined prenatal (cord) and childhood (ages 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9 years) plasma PBDE concentrations in relation to memory outcomes assessed between the ages of 9 and 14 years. The study sample includes a subset (n = 212) of the African American and Dominican children enrolled in the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health Mothers and Newborns birth cohort. We used multivariable linear regression to examine associations between continuous log 10 -transformed PBDE concentrations and performance on tests of visual, verbal and working memory in age-stratified models. We additionally used latent class growth analysis to estimate trajectories of exposure across early life, which we analyzed as a categorical variable in relation to memory outcomes. We examined interactions between PBDE exposure and sex using cross-product terms. Associations between prenatal exposure and working memory significantly varied by sex (p-interaction = 0.02), with inverse relations observed only among girls (i.e. β BDE-47  = -7.55, 95% CI: -13.84, -1.24). Children with sustained high concentrations of BDEs-47, 99 or 100 across childhood scored approximately 5-8 standard score points lower on tests of visual memory. Children with PBDE plasma concentrations that peaked during toddler years performed better on verbal domains, however, these associations were not statistically significant. Exposure to PBDEs during both prenatal and postnatal periods may disrupt memory domains in early adolescence. These findings contribute to a substantial body of evidence supporting the developmental neurotoxicity of PBDEs and underscore the need to reduce exposure among pregnant women and children. Copyright © 2018

The development of episodic memory: items, contexts, and relations.

PubMed

Yim, Hyungwook; Dennis, Simon J; Sloutsky, Vladimir M

2013-11-01

Episodic memory involves the formation of relational structures that bind information about the stimuli people experience to the contexts in which they experience them. The ability to form and retain such structures may be at the core of the development of episodic memory. In the first experiment reported here, 4- and 7-year-olds were presented with paired-associate learning tasks requiring memory structures of different complexity. A multinomial-processing tree model was applied to estimate the use of different structures in the two age groups. The use of two-way list-context-to-target structures and three-way structures was found to increase between the ages of 4 and 7. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the ability to form increasingly complex relational memory structures develops between the ages of 4 and 7 years and that this development extends well into adulthood. These results have important implications for theories of memory development.

Explicit (semantic) memory for music in patients with mild cognitive impairment and early-stage Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Kerer, Manuela; Marksteiner, Josef; Hinterhuber, Hartmann; Mazzola, Guerino; Kemmler, Georg; Bliem, Harald R; Weiss, Elisabeth M

2013-01-01

BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Explicit memory for music was investigated by using a new test with 24 existing and 3 newly composed pieces. Ten patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 10 patients with early stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD) were compared with 23 healthy subjects, in terms of verbal memory of music by the identification of familiar music excerpts and the discrimination of distortion and original timbre of musical excerpts. MCI and Alzheimer's patients showed significantly poorer performances in tasks requiring verbal memory of musical excerpts than the healthy participants. For discrimination of musical excerpts, MCI and AD patients surprisingly performed significantly better than the healthy comparison subjects. Our results support the notion of a specialized memory system for music.

Accuracy of episodic autobiographical memory in children with early thyroid hormone deficiency using a staged event.

PubMed

Willoughby, Karen A; McAndrews, Mary Pat; Rovet, Joanne F

2014-07-01

Autobiographical memory (AM) is a highly constructive cognitive process that often contains memory errors. No study has specifically examined AM accuracy in children with abnormal development of the hippocampus, a crucial brain region for AM retrieval. Thus, the present study investigated AM accuracy in 68 typically and atypically developing children using a staged autobiographical event, the Children's Autobiographical Interview, and structural magnetic resonance imaging. The atypically developing group consisted of 17 children (HYPO) exposed during gestation to insufficient maternal thyroid hormone (TH), a critical substrate for hippocampal development, and 25 children with congenital hypothyroidism (CH), who were compared to 26 controls. Groups differed significantly in the number of accurate episodic details recalled and proportion accuracy scores, with controls having more accurate recollections of the staged event than both TH-deficient groups. Total hippocampal volumes and anterior hippocampal volumes were positively correlated with proportion accuracy scores, but not total accurate episodic details, in HYPO and CH. In addition, greater severity of TH deficiency predicted lower proportion accuracy scores in both HYPO and CH. Overall, these results indicate that children with early TH deficiency have deficits in AM accuracy and that the anterior hippocampus may play a particularly important role in accurate AM retrieval. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Vocational Preferences of Early Adolescents: Their Development in Social Context.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vondracek, Fred W.; Silbereisen, Rainer K.; Reitzle, Matthias; Wiesner, Margit

1999-01-01

This study compared the timing of early vocational preferences in young adolescents from former East Germany and West Germany. Results suggested that as the memory of the Communist system fades and as younger adolescents have had less exposure to it, East-West differences tend to disappear. The formation of early vocational preferences was…

The development of prospective memory in young schoolchildren: the impact of ongoing task absorption, cue salience, and cue centrality.

PubMed

Kliegel, Matthias; Mahy, Caitlin E V; Voigt, Babett; Henry, Julie D; Rendell, Peter G; Aberle, Ingo

2013-12-01

This study presents evidence that 9- and 10-year-old children outperform 6- and 7-year-old children on a measure of event-based prospective memory and that retrieval-based factors systematically influence performance and age differences. All experiments revealed significant age effects in prospective memory even after controlling for ongoing task performance. In addition, the provision of a less absorbing ongoing task (Experiment 1), higher cue salience (Experiment 2), and cues appearing in the center of attention (Experiment 3) were each associated with better performance. Of particular developmental importance was an age by cue centrality (in or outside of the center of attention) interaction that emerged in Experiment 3. Thus, age effects were restricted to prospective memory cues appearing outside of the center of attention, suggesting that the development of prospective memory across early school years may be modulated by whether a cue requires overt monitoring beyond the immediate attentional context. Because whether a cue is in or outside of the center of attention might determine the amount of executive control needed in a prospective memory task, findings suggest that developing executive control resources may drive prospective memory development across primary school age. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Early malnutrition results in long-lasting impairments in pattern-separation for overlapping novel object and novel location memories and reduced hippocampal neurogenesis.

PubMed

Pérez-García, Georgina; Guzmán-Quevedo, Omar; Da Silva Aragão, Raquel; Bolaños-Jiménez, Francisco

2016-02-17

Numerous epidemiological studies indicate that malnutrition during in utero development and/or childhood induces long-lasting learning disabilities and enhanced susceptibility to develop psychiatric disorders. However, animal studies aimed to address this question have yielded inconsistent results due to the use of learning tasks involving negative or positive reinforces that interfere with the enduring changes in emotional reactivity and motivation produced by in utero and neonatal malnutrition. Consequently, the mechanisms underlying the learning deficits associated with malnutrition in early life remain unknown. Here we implemented a behavioural paradigm based on the combination of the novel object recognition and the novel object location tasks to define the impact of early protein-restriction on the behavioural, cellular and molecular basis of memory processing. Adult rats born to dams fed a low-protein diet during pregnancy and lactation, exhibited impaired encoding and consolidation of memory resulting from impaired pattern separation. This learning deficit was associated with reduced production of newly born hippocampal neurons and down regulation of BDNF gene expression. These data sustain the existence of a causal relationship between early malnutrition and impaired learning in adulthood and show that decreased adult neurogenesis is associated to the cognitive deficits induced by childhood exposure to poor nutrition.

Early malnutrition results in long-lasting impairments in pattern-separation for overlapping novel object and novel location memories and reduced hippocampal neurogenesis

PubMed Central

Pérez-García, Georgina; Guzmán-Quevedo, Omar; Da Silva Aragão, Raquel; Bolaños-Jiménez, Francisco

2016-01-01

Numerous epidemiological studies indicate that malnutrition during in utero development and/or childhood induces long-lasting learning disabilities and enhanced susceptibility to develop psychiatric disorders. However, animal studies aimed to address this question have yielded inconsistent results due to the use of learning tasks involving negative or positive reinforces that interfere with the enduring changes in emotional reactivity and motivation produced by in utero and neonatal malnutrition. Consequently, the mechanisms underlying the learning deficits associated with malnutrition in early life remain unknown. Here we implemented a behavioural paradigm based on the combination of the novel object recognition and the novel object location tasks to define the impact of early protein-restriction on the behavioural, cellular and molecular basis of memory processing. Adult rats born to dams fed a low-protein diet during pregnancy and lactation, exhibited impaired encoding and consolidation of memory resulting from impaired pattern separation. This learning deficit was associated with reduced production of newly born hippocampal neurons and down regulation of BDNF gene expression. These data sustain the existence of a causal relationship between early malnutrition and impaired learning in adulthood and show that decreased adult neurogenesis is associated to the cognitive deficits induced by childhood exposure to poor nutrition. PMID:26882991

Sucrose-induced analgesia during early life modulates adulthood learning and memory formation.

PubMed

Nuseir, Khawla Q; Alzoubi, Karem H; Alabwaini, Jehad; Khabour, Omar F; Kassab, Manal I

2015-06-01

This study is aimed at examining the long-term effects of chronic pain during early life (postnatal day 0 to 8weeks), and intervention using sucrose, on cognitive functions during adulthood in rats. Pain was induced in rat pups via needle pricks of the paws. Sucrose solution or paracetamol was administered for analgesia before the paw prick. Control groups include tactile stimulation to account for handling and touching the paws, and sucrose alone was used. All treatments were started on day one of birth and continued for 8weeks. At the end of the treatments, behavioral studies were conducted to test the spatial learning and memory using radial arm water maze (RAWM), as well as pain threshold via foot-withdrawal response to a hot plate apparatus. Additionally, the hippocampus was dissected, and blood was collected. Levels of neurotrophins (BDNF, IGF-1 and NT-3) and endorphins were assessed using ELISA. The results show that chronic noxious stimulation resulted in comparable foot-withdrawal latency between noxious and tactile groups. On the other hand, pretreatment with sucrose or paracetamol increased pain threshold significantly both in naive rats and noxiously stimulated rats (P<0.05). Chronic pain during early life impaired short-term memory, and sucrose treatment prevented such impairment (P<0.05). Sucrose significantly increased serum levels of endorphin and enkephalin. Chronic pain decreased levels of BDNF in the hippocampus and this decrease was prevented by sucrose and paracetamol treatments. Hippocampal levels of NT-3 and IGF-1 were not affected by any treatment. In conclusion, chronic pain induction during early life induced short memory impairment, and pretreatment with sucrose prevented this impairment via mechanisms that seem to involve BDNF. As evident in the results, sucrose, whether alone or in the presence of pre-noxious stimulation, increases pain threshold in such circumstances; most likely via a mechanism that involves an increase in endogenous

Early events governing memory CD8+ T-cell differentiation.

PubMed

Obar, Joshua J; Lefrançois, Leo

2010-08-01

Understanding the regulation of the CD8(+) T-cell response and how protective memory cells are generated has been intensely studied. It is now appreciated that a naive CD8(+) T cell requires at least three signals to mount an effective immune response: (i) TCR triggering, (ii) co-stimulation and (iii) inflammatory cytokines. Only recently have we begun to understand the molecular integration of those signals and how early events regulate the fate decisions of the responding CD8(+) T cells. This review will discuss the recent findings about both the extracellular and intracellular factors that regulate the destiny of responding CD8(+) T cells.

Short-term and long-term memory in early temporal lobe dysfunction.

PubMed

Hershey, T; Craft, S; Glauser, T A; Hale, S

1998-01-01

Following medial temporal damage, mature humans are impaired in retaining new information over long delays but not short delays. The question of whether a similar dissociation occurs in children was addressed by testing children (ages 7-16) with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and controls on short- and long-term memory tasks, including a spatial delayed response task (SDR). Early-onset TLE did not affect performance on short delays on SDR, but it did impair performance at the longest delay (60 s), similar to adults with unilateral medial temporal damage. In addition, early-onset TLE affected performance on pattern recall, spatial span, and verbal span with rehearsal interference. No differences were found on story recall or on a response inhibition task.

The development of visuo-spatial working memory.

PubMed

Pickering, S J

2001-01-01

Children's performance on tests of visuo-spatial working memory improves with age, although relatively little is known about why this happens. One explanation concerns the development of the ability to recode visually presented information into phonological form. This process appears to be used from around 8 years of age and is a major contributor to tasks in which stimuli can be verbally labelled. However, evidence suggests that phonological recoding cannot account for all of the age-related change in performance on visuo-spatial working memory tasks. In this review, four other mechanisms (knowledge, processing strategies, processing speed, and attentional capacity) are considered in terms of their contribution to children's visuo-spatial working memory development.

A selective egocentric topographical working memory deficit in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease: a preliminary study.

PubMed

Bianchini, F; Di Vita, A; Palermo, L; Piccardi, L; Blundo, C; Guariglia, C

2014-12-01

The aim of this study was to determine whether an egocentric topographical working memory (WM) deficit is present in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) with respect to other forms of visuospatial WM. Further, we would investigate whether this deficit could be present in patients having AD without topographical disorientation (TD) signs in everyday life assessed through an informal interview to caregivers. Seven patients with AD and 20 healthy participants performed the Walking Corsi Test and the Corsi Block-Tapping Test. The former test requires memorizing a sequence of places by following a path and the latter is a well-known visuospatial memory task. Patients with AD also performed a verbal WM test to exclude the presence of general WM impairments. Preliminary results suggest that egocentric topographical WM is selectively impaired, with respect to visuospatial and verbal WM, even without TD suggesting an important role of this memory in the early stages of AD. © The Author(s) 2014.

Commentary: The Ontogeny of Human Memory: Where Are We Going?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lavenex, Pamela Banta; Lavenex, Pierre

2015-01-01

In 1995, Nelson explored the relation between early memory development and corresponding changes in brain development, and conceptualized this knowledge in a coherent theoretical framework (Nelson, 1995). In their review, Jabe's and Nelson provide an update of Nelson's 1995 cognitive neuroscience model of human memory development. In this article,…

Successful Vaccination Induces Multifunctional Memory T-Cell Precursors Associated with Early Control of Hepatitis C Virus

PubMed Central

Park, Su-Hyung; Shin, Eui-Cheol; Capone, Stefania; Caggiari, Laura; De Re, Valli; Nicosia, Alfredo; Folgori, Antonella; Rehermann, Barbara

2012-01-01

Background & Aims T cells are an important component for development of a vaccine against hepatitis C virus (HCV), but little is known about the features of successful vaccine-induced T cells. Methods We compared the phenotype, function, and kinetics of vaccine-induced and infection-induced T cells in chimpanzees with HCV infection using multicolor flow cytometry and real-time PCR. Results In chimpanzees successfully vaccinated with recombinant adenovirus and DNA against HCV NS3-NS5, HCV-specific T cells appeared earlier, maintained better functionality, and persisted at higher frequencies, for a longer time after HCV-challenge, than those of mock-vaccinated chimpanzees. Vaccine-induced T cells displayed higher levels of CD127, a marker of memory precursors, and lower levels of programmed death (PD)-1 than infection-induced T cells. Vaccine-induced, but not infection-induced T cells, were multifunctional; their ability to secrete interferon-γ and tumor necrosis factor-α correlated with early expression of CD127 but not PD-1. Based on a comparison of vaccine-induced and infection-induced T cells from the same chimpanzee, the CD127+ memory precursor phenotype was induced by the vaccine itself, rather than by low viremia. In contrast, PD-1 induction correlated with viremia, and levels of intrahepatic PD-1, PD-L1, and 2,5-OAS-1 mRNAs correlated with peak titers of HCV. Conclusions Compared with infection, vaccination induced HCV-specific CD127+ T cells with high functionality that persisted at higher levels for a longer time. Control of viremia prevented upregulation of PD-1 on T cells, and induction of PD-1, PD-L1, and 2,5-OAS-1 in the liver. Early development of a memory T-cell phenotype and, via control of viremia, attenuation of the inhibitory PD1–PD-L1 pathway might be necessary components of successful vaccine-induced protection against HCV. PMID:22705008

Hippocampal Contribution to Context Encoding across Development Is Disrupted following Early-Life Adversity.

PubMed

Lambert, Hilary K; Sheridan, Margaret A; Sambrook, Kelly A; Rosen, Maya L; Askren, Mary K; McLaughlin, Katie A

2017-02-15

Context can drastically influence responses to environmental stimuli. For example, a gunshot should provoke a different response at a public park than a shooting range. Little is known about how contextual processing and neural correlates change across human development or about individual differences related to early environmental experiences. Children ( N = 60; 8-19 years, 24 exposed to interpersonal violence) completed a context encoding task during fMRI scanning using a delayed match-to-sample design with neutral, happy, and angry facial cues embedded in realistic background scenes. Outside the scanner, participants completed a memory test for context-face pairings. Context memory and neural correlates of context encoding did not vary with age. Larger hippocampal volume was associated with better context memory. Posterior hippocampus was recruited during context encoding, and greater activation in this region predicted better memory for contexts paired with angry faces. Children exposed to violence had poor memory of contexts paired with angry faces, reduced hippocampal volume, and atypical neural recruitment on encoding trials with angry faces, including reduced hippocampal activation and greater functional connectivity between hippocampus and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC). Greater hippocampus-vlPFC connectivity was associated with worse memory for contexts paired with angry faces. Posterior hippocampus appears to support context encoding, a process that does not exhibit age-related variation from middle childhood to late adolescence. Exposure to dangerous environments in childhood is associated with poor context encoding in the presence of threat, likely due to greater vlPFC-dependent attentional narrowing on threat cues at the expense of hippocampus-dependent processing of the broader context. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The ability to use context to guide reactions to environmental stimuli promotes flexible behavior. Remarkably little research has

The different oscillation patterns of alpha band in the early and later stages of working memory maintenance.

PubMed

Xie, Yuanjun; Feng, Zhengquan; Xu, Yuanyuan; Bian, Chen; Li, Min

2016-10-28

A putative functional role for alpha oscillations in working memory remains controversial. However, recent evidence suggests that such oscillation may reflect distinct phases of working memory processing. The present study investigated alpha band (8-13Hz) activity during the maintenance stage of working memory using a modified Sternberg working memory task. Our results reveal that alpha power was concentrated primarily in the occipital cortex and was decreased during the early stage of maintenance (0-600ms), and subsequently increased during the later stage of maintenance (1000-1600ms). We suggest that reduced alpha power may be involved in focused attention during the working memory maintenance, whereas increased alpha power may reflect suppression of visual stimuli to facilitate internal processing related to the task. This interpretation is generally consistent with recent reports suggesting that variations in alpha power are associated with the representation and processing of information in the discrete time intervals during the working memory maintenance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The development of object recognition memory in rhesus macaques with neonatal lesions of the perirhinal cortex.

PubMed

Zeamer, Alyson; Richardson, Rebecca L; Weiss, Alison R; Bachevalier, Jocelyne

2015-02-01

To investigate the role of the perirhinal cortex on the development of recognition measured by the visual paired-comparison (VPC) task, infant monkeys with neonatal perirhinal lesions and sham-operated controls were tested at 1.5, 6, 18, and 48 months of age on the VPC task with color stimuli and intermixed delays of 10 s, 30 s, 60 s, and 120 s. Monkeys with neonatal perirhinal lesions showed an increase in novelty preference between 1.5 and 6 months of age similar to controls, although at these two ages, performance remained significantly poorer than that of control animals. With age, performance in animals with neonatal perirhinal lesions deteriorated as compared to that of controls. In contrast to the lack of novelty preference in monkeys with perirhinal lesions acquired in adulthood, novelty preference in the neonatally operated animals remained above chance at all delays and all ages. The data suggest that, although incidental recognition memory processes can be supported by the perirhinal cortex in early infancy, other temporal cortical areas may support these processes in the absence of a functional perirhinal cortex early in development. The neural substrates mediating incidental recognition memory processes appear to be more widespread in early infancy than in adulthood. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

The Development of Time-Based Prospective Memory in Childhood: The Role of Working Memory Updating

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Voigt, Babett; Mahy, Caitlin E. V.; Ellis, Judi; Schnitzspahn, Katharina; Krause, Ivonne; Altgassen, Mareike; Kliegel, Matthias

2014-01-01

This large-scale study examined the development of time-based prospective memory (PM) across childhood and the roles that working memory updating and time monitoring play in driving age effects in PM performance. One hundred and ninety-seven children aged 5 to 14 years completed a time-based PM task where working memory updating load was…

The Development of Metamemory Monitoring during Retrieval: The Case of Memory Strength and Memory Absence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ghetti, Simona; Lyons, Kristen E.; Lazzarin, Federica; Cornoldi, Cesare

2008-01-01

This research examined the development of the ability to monitor memory strength and memory absence at retrieval. In two experiments, 7-year-olds, 10-year-olds, and adults enacted and imagined enacting a series of bizarre and common actions. Two weeks later, they completed a memory test in which they were asked to determine whether each action had…

Memory for conversation and the development of common ground.

PubMed

McKinley, Geoffrey L; Brown-Schmidt, Sarah; Benjamin, Aaron S

2017-11-01

Efficient conversation is guided by the mutual knowledge, or common ground, that interlocutors form as a conversation progresses. Characterized from the perspective of commonly used measures of memory, efficient conversation should be closely associated with item memory-what was said-and context memory-who said what to whom. However, few studies have explicitly probed memory to evaluate what type of information is maintained following a communicative exchange. The current study examined how item and context memory relate to the development of common ground over the course of a conversation, and how these forms of memory vary as a function of one's role in a conversation as speaker or listener. The process of developing common ground was positively related to both item and context memory. In addition, content that was spoken was remembered better than content that was heard. Our findings illustrate how memory assessments can complement language measures by revealing the impact that basic conversational processes have on memory for what has been discussed. By taking this approach, we show that not only does the process of forming common ground facilitate communication in the present, but it also promotes an enduring record of that event, facilitating conversation into the future.

Improvement of Working Memory in Preschoolers and Its Impact on Early Literacy Skills: A Study in Deprived Communities of Rural and Urban Areas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rojas-Barahona, Cristian A.; Förster, Carla E.; Moreno-Ríos, Sergio; McClelland, Megan M.

2015-01-01

Research Findings: The present study evaluated the impact of a working memory (WM) stimulation program on the development of WM and early literacy skills (ELS) in preschoolers from socioeconomically deprived rural and urban schools in Chile. The sample consisted of 268 children, 144 in the intervention group and 124 in the comparison group. The…

Changes in sleep theta rhythm are related to episodic memory impairment in early Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Hot, Pascal; Rauchs, Géraldine; Bertran, Françoise; Denise, Pierre; Desgranges, Béatrice; Clochon, Patrice; Eustache, Francis

2011-07-01

Impairments have been reported both in sleep structure and episodic memory in Alzheimer's disease [AD]. Our objective was to investigate the relationships between episodic memory deficits and electro-encephalography [EEG] abnormalities occurring during sleep in patients with early AD. Postlearning sleep was recorded in 14 patients with mild to moderate AD, and 14 healthy elderly controls after they performed an episodic memory task derived from the Grober and Buschke's procedure. For each sleep stage, the relative power and mean frequency in each band were analyzed. Relative to agematched controls, AD patients presented faster mean theta frequency in both REM sleep and slow wave sleep [SWS]. In AD patients, a correlative analysis revealed that faster theta frequency during SWS was associated with better delayed episodic recall. We assume that increased theta activity reflects changes in neuronal activity to maintain memory performance, indicating that compensatory mechanisms already described at the waking state could also be engaged during SWS. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Individual Differences in the Development of Early Writing Skills: Testing the Unique Contribution of Visuo-Spatial Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bourke, Lorna; Davies, Simon J.; Sumner, Emma; Green, Carolyn

2014-01-01

Visually mediated processes including, exposure to print (e.g. reading) as well as orthographic transcription and coding skills, have been found to contribute to individual differences in literacy development. The current study examined the role of visuospatial working memory (WM) in underpinning this relationship and emergent writing. One hundred…

MRI morphometry of mamillary bodies, caudate nuclei, and prefrontal cortices after chemotherapy for childhood leukemia: multivariate models of early and late developing memory subsystems.

PubMed

Ciesielski, K T; Lesnik, P G; Benzel, E C; Hart, B L; Sanders, J A

1999-06-01

Neurotoxic intrathecal chemotherapy for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) affects developing structures and functions of memory and learning subsystems selectively. Results show significant reductions in magnetic resonance imaging morphometry of mamillary bodies, components of the corticolimbic-diencephalic subsystem subserving functionally later developing, single-trial memory, nonsignificant changes in bilateral heads of the caudate nuclei, components of the corticostriatal subsystem subserving functionally earlier developing, multitrial learning, significant reductions in prefrontal cortical volume, visual and verbal single-trial memory deficits, and visuospatial, but not verbal, multitrial learning deficits. Multiple regression models provide evidence for partial dissociation and connectivity between the subsystems, and suggest that greater involvement of caudate may compensate for inefficient corticolimbic-diencephalic components.

Working Memory, Long-Term Memory, and Medial Temporal Lobe Function

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jeneson, Annette; Squire, Larry R.

2012-01-01

Early studies of memory-impaired patients with medial temporal lobe (MTL) damage led to the view that the hippocampus and related MTL structures are involved in the formation of long-term memory and that immediate memory and working memory are independent of these structures. This traditional idea has recently been revisited. Impaired performance…

Early programming and late-acting checkpoints governing the development of CD4 T cell memory.

PubMed

Dhume, Kunal; McKinstry, K Kai

2018-04-27

CD4 T cells contribute to protection against pathogens through numerous mechanisms. Incorporating the goal of memory CD4 T cell generation into vaccine strategies thus offers a powerful approach to improve their efficacy, especially in situations where humoral responses alone cannot confer long-term immunity. These threats include viruses such as influenza that mutate coat proteins to avoid neutralizing antibodies, but that are targeted by T cells that recognize more conserved protein epitopes shared by different strains. A major barrier in the design of such vaccines is that the mechanisms controlling the efficiency with which memory cells form remain incompletely understood. Here, we discuss recent insights into fate decisions controlling memory generation. We focus on the importance of three general cues: interleukin-2, antigen, and costimulatory interactions. It is increasingly clear that these signals have a powerful influence on the capacity of CD4 T cells to form memory during two distinct phases of the immune response. First, through 'programming' that occurs during initial priming, and second, through 'checkpoints' that operate later during the effector stage. These findings indicate that novel vaccine strategies must seek to optimize cognate interactions, during which interleukin-2-, antigen, and costimulation-dependent signals are tightly linked, well beyond initial antigen encounter to induce robust memory CD4 T cells. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Time perception impairment in early-to-moderate stages of Huntington's disease is related to memory deficits.

PubMed

Righi, Stefania; Galli, Luca; Paganini, Marco; Bertini, Elisabetta; Viggiano, Maria Pia; Piacentini, Silvia

2016-01-01

Huntington's disease (HD) primarily affects striatum and prefrontal dopaminergic circuits which are fundamental neural correlates of the timekeeping mechanism. The few studies on HD mainly investigated motor timing performance in second durations. The present work explored time perception in early-to-moderate symptomatic HD patients for seconds and milliseconds with the aim to clarify which component of the scalar expectancy theory (SET) is mainly responsible for HD timing defect. Eleven HD patients were compared to 11 controls employing two separate temporal bisection tasks in second and millisecond ranges. Our results revealed the same time perception deficits for seconds and milliseconds in HD patients. Time perception impairment in early-to-moderate stages of Huntington's disease is related to memory deficits. Furthermore, both the non-systematical defect of temporal sensitivity and the main impairment of timing performance in the extreme value of the psychophysical curves suggested an HD deficit in the memory component of the SET. This result was further confirmed by the significant correlations between time perception performance and long-term memory test scores. Our findings added important preliminary data for both a deeper comprehension of HD time-keeping deficits and possible implications on neuro-rehabilitation practices.

Scientific developments of liquid crystal-based optical memory: a review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prakash, Jai; Chandran, Achu; Biradar, Ashok M.

2017-01-01

The memory behavior in liquid crystals (LCs), although rarely observed, has made very significant headway over the past three decades since their discovery in nematic type LCs. It has gone from a mere scientific curiosity to application in variety of commodities. The memory element formed by numerous LCs have been protected by patents, and some commercialized, and used as compensation to non-volatile memory devices, and as memory in personal computers and digital cameras. They also have the low cost, large area, high speed, and high density memory needed for advanced computers and digital electronics. Short and long duration memory behavior for industrial applications have been obtained from several LC materials, and an LC memory with interesting features and applications has been demonstrated using numerous LCs. However, considerable challenges still exist in searching for highly efficient, stable, and long-lifespan materials and methods so that the development of useful memory devices is possible. This review focuses on the scientific and technological approach of fascinating applications of LC-based memory. We address the introduction, development status, novel design and engineering principles, and parameters of LC memory. We also address how the amalgamation of LCs could bring significant change/improvement in memory effects in the emerging field of nanotechnology, and the application of LC memory as the active component for futuristic and interesting memory devices.

Scientific developments of liquid crystal-based optical memory: a review.

PubMed

Prakash, Jai; Chandran, Achu; Biradar, Ashok M

2017-01-01

The memory behavior in liquid crystals (LCs), although rarely observed, has made very significant headway over the past three decades since their discovery in nematic type LCs. It has gone from a mere scientific curiosity to application in variety of commodities. The memory element formed by numerous LCs have been protected by patents, and some commercialized, and used as compensation to non-volatile memory devices, and as memory in personal computers and digital cameras. They also have the low cost, large area, high speed, and high density memory needed for advanced computers and digital electronics. Short and long duration memory behavior for industrial applications have been obtained from several LC materials, and an LC memory with interesting features and applications has been demonstrated using numerous LCs. However, considerable challenges still exist in searching for highly efficient, stable, and long-lifespan materials and methods so that the development of useful memory devices is possible. This review focuses on the scientific and technological approach of fascinating applications of LC-based memory. We address the introduction, development status, novel design and engineering principles, and parameters of LC memory. We also address how the amalgamation of LCs could bring significant change/improvement in memory effects in the emerging field of nanotechnology, and the application of LC memory as the active component for futuristic and interesting memory devices.

Memory in Early Onset Bipolar Disorder and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Similarities and Differences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Udal, Anne H.; Oygarden, Bjorg; Egeland, Jens; Malt, Ulrik F.; Groholt, Berit

2012-01-01

Differentiating between early-onset bipolar disorder (BD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can be difficult. Memory problems are commonly reported in BD, and forgetfulness is among the diagnostic criteria for ADHD. We compared children and adolescents with BD (n = 23), ADHD combined type (ADHD-C; n = 26), BD + ADHD-C (n = 15),…

Satb2 Ablation Impairs Hippocampus-Based Long-Term Spatial Memory and Short-Term Working Memory and Immediate Early Genes (IEGs)-Mediated Hippocampal Synaptic Plasticity.

PubMed

Li, Ying; You, Qiang-Long; Zhang, Sheng-Rong; Huang, Wei-Yuan; Zou, Wen-Jun; Jie, Wei; Li, Shu-Ji; Liu, Ji-Hong; Lv, Chuang-Ye; Cong, Jin; Hu, Yu-Ying; Gao, Tian-Ming; Li, Jian-Ming

2017-04-18

Special AT-rich sequence-binding protein 2 (Satb2) is a protein binding to the matrix attachment regions of DNA and important for gene regulation. Patients with SATB2 mutation usually suffer moderate to severe mental retardation. However, the mechanisms for the defects of intellectual activities in patients with SATB2 mutation are largely unclear. Here we established the heterozygous Satb2 mutant mice and Satb2 conditional knockout mice to mimic the patients with SATB2 mutation and figured out the role of Satb2 in mental activities. We found that the spatial memory and working memory were significantly damaged in the heterozygous Satb2 mutant mice, early postnatal Satb2-deficient mice (CaMKIIα-Cre + Satb2 fl/fl mice), and adult Satb2 ablation mice (Satb2 fl/fl mice injected with CaMKIIα-Cre virus). Functionally, late phase long-term potentiation (L-LTP) in these Satb2 mutant mice was greatly impaired. Morphologically, in CA1 neurons of CaMKIIα-Cre + Satb2 fl/fl mice, we found decreased spine density of the basal dendrites and less branches of apical dendrites that extended into lacunar molecular layer. Mechanistically, expression levels of immediate early genes (IEGs) including Fos, FosB, and Egr1 were significantly decreased after Satb2 deletion. And, Satb2 could regulate expression of FosB by binding to the promoter of FosB directly. In general, our study uncovers that Satb2 plays an important role in spatial memory and working memory by regulating IEGs-mediated hippocampal synaptic plasticity.

Changing Conception of Sources of Memory Development. 1985/23.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chi, Michelene T. H.

1985-01-01

Explanations for memory development have tended to focus on acquistion of general strategies and metaknowledge. Recently, emphasis has been given to the knowledge base as a whole, including general world-knowledge and domain-specific knowledge and procedures. Evidence is presented from the memory development literature showing why strategies and…

Does Post-task Declarative Learning Have an Influence on Early Motor Memory Consolidation Over Day? An fMRI Study

PubMed Central

Rothkirch, Inken; Wolff, Stephan; Margraf, Nils G.; Pedersen, Anya; Witt, Karsten

2018-01-01

Previous studies demonstrated the influence of the post-learning period on procedural motor memory consolidation. In an early period after the acquisition, motor skills are vulnerable to modifications during wakefulness. Indeed, specific interventions such as world-list learning within this early phase of motor memory consolidation seem to enhance motor performance as an indicator for successful consolidation. This finding highlights the idea that manipulations of procedural and declarative memory systems during the early phase of memory consolidation over wakefulness may influence off-line consolidation. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during initial motor sequence learning and motor sequence recall, we indirectly assess the influence of a secondary task taken place in the early phase of memory consolidation. All participants were scanned using fMRI during the learning phase of a serial reaction time task (SRTT) at 8 a.m. Afterwards, they were randomly assigned to one of five conditions. One group performed a declarative verbal, one a declarative nonverbal learning task. Two groups worked on attention tasks. A control group passed a resting condition. Participants stayed awake the whole day and performed the SRTT in the MRI scanner 12 h later at 8 p.m. At the behavioral level, the analysis of the reaction times failed to show a significant group difference. The primary analysis assessing fMRI data based on the contrast (sequence – random) between learning and retrieval also did not show any significant group differences. Therefore, our main analysis do not support the hypothesis that a secondary task influences the retrieval of the SRTT. In a more liberal fMRI analysis, we compared only the sequence blocks of the SRTT from learning to recall. BOLD signal decreased in the ipsilateral cerebellum and the supplementary motor area solely in the verbal learning group. Although our primary analysis failed to show significant changes between our

Does Post-task Declarative Learning Have an Influence on Early Motor Memory Consolidation Over Day? An fMRI Study.

PubMed

Rothkirch, Inken; Wolff, Stephan; Margraf, Nils G; Pedersen, Anya; Witt, Karsten

2018-01-01

Previous studies demonstrated the influence of the post-learning period on procedural motor memory consolidation. In an early period after the acquisition, motor skills are vulnerable to modifications during wakefulness. Indeed, specific interventions such as world-list learning within this early phase of motor memory consolidation seem to enhance motor performance as an indicator for successful consolidation. This finding highlights the idea that manipulations of procedural and declarative memory systems during the early phase of memory consolidation over wakefulness may influence off-line consolidation. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during initial motor sequence learning and motor sequence recall, we indirectly assess the influence of a secondary task taken place in the early phase of memory consolidation. All participants were scanned using fMRI during the learning phase of a serial reaction time task (SRTT) at 8 a.m. Afterwards, they were randomly assigned to one of five conditions. One group performed a declarative verbal, one a declarative nonverbal learning task. Two groups worked on attention tasks. A control group passed a resting condition. Participants stayed awake the whole day and performed the SRTT in the MRI scanner 12 h later at 8 p.m. At the behavioral level, the analysis of the reaction times failed to show a significant group difference. The primary analysis assessing fMRI data based on the contrast (sequence - random) between learning and retrieval also did not show any significant group differences. Therefore, our main analysis do not support the hypothesis that a secondary task influences the retrieval of the SRTT. In a more liberal fMRI analysis, we compared only the sequence blocks of the SRTT from learning to recall. BOLD signal decreased in the ipsilateral cerebellum and the supplementary motor area solely in the verbal learning group. Although our primary analysis failed to show significant changes between our groups

Influence of early stress on memory reconsolidation: Implications for post-traumatic stress disorder treatment

PubMed Central

Birmes, Philippe; Ferry, Barbara

2018-01-01

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common consequence of exposure to a life-threatening event. Currently, pharmacological treatments are limited by high rates of relapse, and novel treatment approaches are needed. We have recently demonstrated that propranolol, a β-adrenergic antagonist, inhibited aversive memory reconsolidation in animals. Following this, in an open-label study 70% of patients with PTSD treated with propranolol during reactivation of traumatic memory exhibited full remission. However, the reason why 30% of these patients did not respond positively to propranolol treatment is still unclear. One of the major candidates as factor of treatment resistance is the patient's early-life traumatic history. To test the role of this factor, mice with pre- or postnatal stress are being tested in fear conditioning and in a new behavioral task, the "city-like", specifically designed as a mouse model of PTSD. After reactivation of the traumatic event, mice received propranolol injection to block the noradrenergic system during memory reconsolidation. Results show that, in the “city-like” test, control mice strongly avoided the shock compartment but also the compartments containing cues associated with the electric shocks. Injection of propranolol after reactivation greatly reduced the memory of the traumatic event, but this effect was not present when mice had received pre- or postnatal stress. Moreover, propranolol produced only a very weak effect in the fear conditioning test, and never changed the corticosterone level whatever the behavioral experiment. Taken together our results suggest that our new behavioural paradigm is well adapted to PTSD study in mice, and that early stress exposure may have an impact on propranolol PTSD treatment outcome. These data are critical to understanding the effect of propranolol treatment, in order to improve the therapeutic protocol currently used in humans. PMID:29352277

Influence of early stress on memory reconsolidation: Implications for post-traumatic stress disorder treatment.

PubMed

Villain, Hélène; Benkahoul, Aïcha; Birmes, Philippe; Ferry, Barbara; Roullet, Pascal

2018-01-01

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common consequence of exposure to a life-threatening event. Currently, pharmacological treatments are limited by high rates of relapse, and novel treatment approaches are needed. We have recently demonstrated that propranolol, a β-adrenergic antagonist, inhibited aversive memory reconsolidation in animals. Following this, in an open-label study 70% of patients with PTSD treated with propranolol during reactivation of traumatic memory exhibited full remission. However, the reason why 30% of these patients did not respond positively to propranolol treatment is still unclear. One of the major candidates as factor of treatment resistance is the patient's early-life traumatic history. To test the role of this factor, mice with pre- or postnatal stress are being tested in fear conditioning and in a new behavioral task, the "city-like", specifically designed as a mouse model of PTSD. After reactivation of the traumatic event, mice received propranolol injection to block the noradrenergic system during memory reconsolidation. Results show that, in the "city-like" test, control mice strongly avoided the shock compartment but also the compartments containing cues associated with the electric shocks. Injection of propranolol after reactivation greatly reduced the memory of the traumatic event, but this effect was not present when mice had received pre- or postnatal stress. Moreover, propranolol produced only a very weak effect in the fear conditioning test, and never changed the corticosterone level whatever the behavioral experiment. Taken together our results suggest that our new behavioural paradigm is well adapted to PTSD study in mice, and that early stress exposure may have an impact on propranolol PTSD treatment outcome. These data are critical to understanding the effect of propranolol treatment, in order to improve the therapeutic protocol currently used in humans.

The First Seventy Years: Bryan Memorial Hospital School of Nursing and Bryan Memorial Hospital, 1926-1996. A Seventieth Anniversary Publication.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vontz, Marilyn J.

Celebrating the 70th anniversary of Bryan Memorial Hospital School of Nursing (BMHSN) and Bryan Memorial Hospital, in Nebraska, this monograph reviews the development and achievements of the school and hospital. Chapter 1 (1900-1919) provides a history of nursing in the early 20th century, while chapter 2 (1920-1929) describes the establishment of…

Dissection and Downstream Analysis of Zebra Finch Embryos at Early Stages of Development

PubMed Central

Murray, Jessica R.; Stanciauskas, Monika E.; Aralere, Tejas S.; Saha, Margaret S.

2014-01-01

The zebra finch (Taeniopygiaguttata) has become an increasingly important model organism in many areas of research including toxicology1,2, behavior3, and memory and learning4,5,6. As the only songbird with a sequenced genome, the zebra finch has great potential for use in developmental studies; however, the early stages of zebra finch development have not been well studied. Lack of research in zebra finch development can be attributed to the difficulty of dissecting the small egg and embryo. The following dissection method minimizes embryonic tissue damage, which allows for investigation of morphology and gene expression at all stages of embryonic development. This permits both bright field and fluorescence quality imaging of embryos, use in molecular procedures such as in situ hybridization (ISH), cell proliferation assays, and RNA extraction for quantitative assays such as quantitative real-time PCR (qtRT-PCR). This technique allows investigators to study early stages of development that were previously difficult to access. PMID:24999108

Psychotic Experiences, Working Memory, and the Developing Brain: A Multimodal Neuroimaging Study

PubMed Central

Fonville, Leon; Cohen Kadosh, Kathrin; Drakesmith, Mark; Dutt, Anirban; Zammit, Stanley; Mollon, Josephine; Reichenberg, Abraham; Lewis, Glyn; Jones, Derek K.; David, Anthony S.

2015-01-01

Psychotic experiences (PEs) occur in the general population, especially in children and adolescents, and are associated with poor psychosocial outcomes, impaired cognition, and increased risk of transition to psychosis. It is unknown how the presence and persistence of PEs during early adulthood affects cognition and brain function. The current study assessed working memory as well as brain function and structure in 149 individuals, with and without PEs, drawn from a population cohort. Observer-rated PEs were classified as persistent or transient on the basis of longitudinal assessments. Working memory was assessed using the n-back task during fMRI. Dynamic causal modeling (DCM) was used to characterize frontoparietal network configuration and voxel-based morphometry was utilized to examine gray matter. Those with persistent, but not transient, PEs performed worse on the n-back task, compared with controls, yet showed no significant differences in regional brain activation or brain structure. DCM analyses revealed greater emphasis on frontal connectivity within a frontoparietal network in those with PEs compared with controls. We propose that these findings portray an altered configuration of working memory function in the brain, potentially indicative of an adaptive response to atypical development associated with the manifestation of PEs. PMID:26286920

Role of Immediate-Early Genes in Synaptic Plasticity and Neuronal Ensembles Underlying the Memory Trace

PubMed Central

Minatohara, Keiichiro; Akiyoshi, Mika; Okuno, Hiroyuki

2016-01-01

In the brain, neuronal gene expression is dynamically changed in response to neuronal activity. In particular, the expression of immediate-early genes (IEGs) such as egr-1, c-fos, and Arc is rapidly and selectively upregulated in subsets of neurons in specific brain regions associated with learning and memory formation. IEG expression has therefore been widely used as a molecular marker for neuronal populations that undergo plastic changes underlying formation of long-term memory. In recent years, optogenetic and pharmacogenetic studies of neurons expressing c-fos or Arc have revealed that, during learning, IEG-positive neurons encode and store information that is required for memory recall, suggesting that they may be involved in formation of the memory trace. However, despite accumulating evidence for the role of IEGs in synaptic plasticity, the molecular and cellular mechanisms associated with this process remain unclear. In this review, we first summarize recent literature concerning the role of IEG-expressing neuronal ensembles in organizing the memory trace. We then focus on the physiological significance of IEGs, especially Arc, in synaptic plasticity, and describe our hypotheses about the importance of Arc expression in various types of input-specific circuit reorganization. Finally, we offer perspectives on Arc function that would unveil the role of IEG-expressing neurons in the formation of memory traces in the hippocampus and other brain areas. PMID:26778955

Command and Control Software Development Memory Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Joseph, Austin Pope

2017-01-01

This internship was initially meant to cover the implementation of unit test automation for a NASA ground control project. As is often the case with large development projects, the scope and breadth of the internship changed. Instead, the internship focused on finding and correcting memory leaks and errors as reported by a COTS software product meant to track such issues. Memory leaks come in many different flavors and some of them are more benign than others. On the extreme end a program might be dynamically allocating memory and not correctly deallocating it when it is no longer in use. This is called a direct memory leak and in the worst case can use all the available memory and crash the program. If the leaks are small they may simply slow the program down which, in a safety critical system (a system for which a failure or design error can cause a risk to human life), is still unacceptable. The ground control system is managed in smaller sub-teams, referred to as CSCIs. The CSCI that this internship focused on is responsible for monitoring the health and status of the system. This team's software had several methods/modules that were leaking significant amounts of memory. Since most of the code in this system is safety-critical, correcting memory leaks is a necessity.

NMDA receptors in mouse anterior piriform cortex initialize early odor preference learning and L-type calcium channels engage for long-term memory.

PubMed

Mukherjee, Bandhan; Yuan, Qi

2016-10-14

The interactions of L-type calcium channels (LTCCs) and NMDA receptors (NMDARs) in memories are poorly understood. Here we investigated the specific roles of anterior piriform cortex (aPC) LTCCs and NMDARs in early odor preference memory in mice. Using calcium imaging in aPC slices, LTCC activation was shown to be dependent on NMDAR activation. Either D-APV (NMDAR antagonist) or nifedipine (LTCC antagonist) reduced somatic calcium transients in pyramidal cells evoked by lateral olfactory tract stimulation. However, nifedipine did not further reduce calcium in the presence of D-APV. In mice that underwent early odor preference training, blocking NMDARs in the aPC prevented short-term (3 hr) and long-term (24 hr) odor preference memory, and both memories were rescued when BayK-8644 (LTCC agonist) was co-infused. However, activating LTCCs in the absence of NMDARs resulted in loss of discrimination between the conditioned odor and a similar odor mixture at 3 hr. Elevated synaptic AMPAR expression at 3 hr was prevented by D-APV infusion but restored when LTCCs were directly activated, mirroring the behavioral outcomes. Blocking LTCCs prevented 24 hr memory and spared 3 hr memory. These results suggest that NMDARs mediate stimulus-specific encoding of odor memory while LTCCs mediate intracellular signaling leading to long-term memory.

Verbal memory and search speed in early midlife are associated with mortality over 25 years' follow-up, independently of health status and early life factors: a British birth cohort study.

PubMed

Davis, Daniel; Cooper, Rachel; Terrera, Graciela Muniz; Hardy, Rebecca; Richards, Marcus; Kuh, Diana

2016-08-01

Cognitive capabilities in childhood and in late life are inversely associated with mortality rates. However, it is unclear if adult cognition, at a time still relatively free from comorbidity, is associated with subsequent mortality, and whether this explains the associations of early life factors with adult mortality. We used data from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development, a birth cohort study prospectively assessing 5362 participants born in 1946. The present analysis includes participants followed up from age 43 and undergoing cognitive assessment (verbal memory and search speed). Mortality outcomes were notified through linkage with a national register. Cox regression was used to estimate mortality hazards in relation to cognitive performance at age 43, adjusting for early life factors, socioeconomic position and health status. Data were available on 3192 individuals. Univariable analyses indicated that adult verbal memory and search speed, parental factors, childhood cognition and educational attainment were associated with mortality. However, multivariable models showed that the mortality associations with earlier life factors were explained by adult cognitive capability. A standard deviation increase in verbal memory and search speed scores was associated with lower mortality rates [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.86, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.77-0.97, P = 0.02; HR = 0.88, 95% CI 0.78-1.00, P = 0.05, respectively), after adjustment for adult health. Cognitive capability in early midlife was inversely associated with mortality rates over 25 years and accounted for the associations of family background, childhood cognitive ability and educational attainment with mortality. These findings, in a nationally representative cohort with long-term follow-up, suggest that building cognitive reserve may improve later life health and survival chances. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological

Role of early visual cortex in trans-saccadic memory of object features.

PubMed

Malik, Pankhuri; Dessing, Joost C; Crawford, J Douglas

2015-08-01

Early visual cortex (EVC) participates in visual feature memory and the updating of remembered locations across saccades, but its role in the trans-saccadic integration of object features is unknown. We hypothesized that if EVC is involved in updating object features relative to gaze, feature memory should be disrupted when saccades remap an object representation into a simultaneously perturbed EVC site. To test this, we applied transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over functional magnetic resonance imaging-localized EVC clusters corresponding to the bottom left/right visual quadrants (VQs). During experiments, these VQs were probed psychophysically by briefly presenting a central object (Gabor patch) while subjects fixated gaze to the right or left (and above). After a short memory interval, participants were required to detect the relative change in orientation of a re-presented test object at the same spatial location. Participants either sustained fixation during the memory interval (fixation task) or made a horizontal saccade that either maintained or reversed the VQ of the object (saccade task). Three TMS pulses (coinciding with the pre-, peri-, and postsaccade intervals) were applied to the left or right EVC. This had no effect when (a) fixation was maintained, (b) saccades kept the object in the same VQ, or (c) the EVC quadrant corresponding to the first object was stimulated. However, as predicted, TMS reduced performance when saccades (especially larger saccades) crossed the remembered object location and brought it into the VQ corresponding to the TMS site. This suppression effect was statistically significant for leftward saccades and followed a weaker trend for rightward saccades. These causal results are consistent with the idea that EVC is involved in the gaze-centered updating of object features for trans-saccadic memory and perception.

Parents’ Education, Mothers’ Vocabulary, and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood: Longitudinal Evidence From Ecuador

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Objectives. I estimated the association between parents’ education, mothers’ vocabulary, and early child cognitive development in a sample of poor children in rural Ecuador. Methods. I used regression analysis to estimate the association between parents’ education, mothers’ vocabulary, and the vocabulary, memory, and visual integration skills of children at early ages, controlling for possible confounders. The study is based on a longitudinal cohort of children in rural Ecuador (n = 2118). Results. The schooling and vocabulary levels of mothers were strong predictors of the cognitive development of young children. Household wealth and child's height, weight, and hemoglobin levels explained only a modest fraction of the observed associations. The vocabulary levels of mothers and children were more strongly correlated among older children in the sample, suggesting that the effects of a richer maternal vocabulary are cumulative. Conclusions. Differences in children's cognitive outcomes start very early, which has important implications for the intergenerational transmission of poverty and inequality. Programs that seek to increase early stimulation for disadvantaged children, perhaps through parenting programs or high-quality center-based care, hold promise. PMID:22021308

The Cost of Learning: Interference Effects in Memory Development

PubMed Central

Darby, Kevin P.; Sloutsky, Vladimir M.

2015-01-01

Learning often affects future learning and memory for previously learned information by exerting either facilitation or interference effects. Several theoretical accounts of interference effects have been proposed, each making different developmental predictions. This research examines interference effects across development, with the goal of better understanding mechanisms of interference and of memory development. Preschool-aged children and adults participated in a three-phased associative learning paradigm containing stimuli that were either unique or repeated across phases. Both age groups demonstrated interference effects, but only for repeated items. Whereas proactive interference effects were comparable across age groups, retroactive interference reached catastrophic-like levels in children. Additionally, retroactive interference increased in adults when contextual differences between phases were minimized (Experiment 2), and decreased in adults who were more successful at encoding repeated pairs of stimuli during a training phase (Experiment 3). These results are discussed with respect to theories of memory and memory development. PMID:25688907

Language and memory abilities of internationally adopted children from China: evidence for early age effects.

PubMed

Delcenserie, Audrey; Genesee, Fred

2014-11-01

The goal of the present study was to examine if internationally adopted (IA) children from China (M = 10;8) adopted by French-speaking families exhibit lags in verbal memory in addition to lags in verbal abilities documented in previous studies (Gauthier & Genesee, 2011). Tests assessing verbal and non-verbal memory, language, non-verbal cognitive ability, and socio-emotional development were administered to thirty adoptees. Their results were compared to those of thirty non-adopted monolingual French-speaking children matched on age, gender, and socioeconomic status. The IA children scored significantly lower than the controls on language, verbal short-term memory, verbal working memory, and verbal long-term memory. No group differences were found on non-verbal memory, non-verbal cognitive ability, and socio-emotional development, suggesting language-specific difficulties. Despite extended exposure to French, adoptees may experience language difficulties due to limitations in verbal memory, possibly as a result of their delayed exposure to that language and/or attrition of the birth language.

Working Memory Underpins Cognitive Development, Learning, and Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cowan, Nelson

2014-01-01

Working memory is the retention of a small amount of information in a readily accessible form. It facilitates planning, comprehension, reasoning, and problem solving. I examine the historical roots and conceptual development of the concept and the theoretical and practical implications of current debates about working memory mechanisms. Then, I…

Age-related differences in memory expression during infancy: using eye-tracking to measure relational memory in 6- and 12-month-olds.

PubMed

Richmond, Jenny L; Power, Jessica

2014-09-01

Relational memory, or the ability to bind components of an event into a network of linked representations, is a primary function of the hippocampus. Here we extend eye-tracking research showing that infants are capable of forming memories for the relation between arbitrarily paired scenes and faces, by looking at age-related changes in relational memory over the first year of life. Six- and 12-month-old infants were familiarized with pairs of faces and scenes before being tested with arrays of three familiar faces that were presented on a familiar scene. Preferential looking at the face that matches the scene is typically taken as evidence of relational memory. The results showed that while 6-month-old showed very early preferential looking when face/scene pairs were tested immediately, 12-month-old did not exhibit evidence of relational memory either immediately or after a short delay. Theoretical implications for the functional development of the hippocampus and practical implications for the use of eye tracking to measure memory during early life are discussed. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Episodic memory, semantic memory, and amnesia.

PubMed

Squire, L R; Zola, S M

1998-01-01

Episodic memory and semantic memory are two types of declarative memory. There have been two principal views about how this distinction might be reflected in the organization of memory functions in the brain. One view, that episodic memory and semantic memory are both dependent on the integrity of medial temporal lobe and midline diencephalic structures, predicts that amnesic patients with medial temporal lobe/diencephalic damage should be proportionately impaired in both episodic and semantic memory. An alternative view is that the capacity for semantic memory is spared, or partially spared, in amnesia relative to episodic memory ability. This article reviews two kinds of relevant data: 1) case studies where amnesia has occurred early in childhood, before much of an individual's semantic knowledge has been acquired, and 2) experimental studies with amnesic patients of fact and event learning, remembering and knowing, and remote memory. The data provide no compelling support for the view that episodic and semantic memory are affected differently in medial temporal lobe/diencephalic amnesia. However, episodic and semantic memory may be dissociable in those amnesic patients who additionally have severe frontal lobe damage.

Future Development of Dense Ferroelectric Memories for Space Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Philpy, Stephen C.; Derbenwick, Gary F.

2001-01-01

The availability of high density, radiation tolerant, nonvolatile memories is critical for space applications. Ferroelectric memories, when fabricated with radiation hardened complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS), can be manufactured and packaged to provide high density replacements for Flash memory, which is not radiation tolerant. Previous work showed ferroelectric memory cells to be resistant to single event upsets and proton irradiation, and ferroelectric storage capacitors to be resistant to neutron exposure. In addition to radiation hardness, the fast programming times, virtually unlimited endurance, and low voltage, low power operation make ferroelectric memories ideal for space missions. Previously, a commercial double level metal 64-kilobit ferroelectric memory was presented. Although the capabilities of radiation hardened wafer fabrication facilities lag behind those of the most modern commercial wafer fabrication facilities, several paths to achieving radiation tolerant, dense ferroelectric memories are emerging. Both short and long term solutions are presented in this paper. Although worldwide major semiconductor companies are introducing commercial ferroelectric memories, funding limitations must be overcome to proceed with the development of high density, radiation tolerant ferroelectric memories.

Memory-related hippocampal activation in the sleeping toddler.

PubMed

Prabhakar, Janani; Johnson, Elliott G; Nordahl, Christine Wu; Ghetti, Simona

2018-06-19

Nonhuman research has implicated developmental processes within the hippocampus in the emergence and early development of episodic memory, but methodological challenges have hindered assessments of this possibility in humans. Here, we delivered a previously learned song and a novel song to 2-year-old toddlers during natural nocturnal sleep and, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, found that hippocampal activation was stronger for the learned song compared with the novel song. This was true regardless of whether the song was presented intact or backwards. Toddlers who remembered where and in the presence of which toy character they heard the song exhibited stronger hippocampal activation for the song. The results establish that hippocampal activation in toddlers reflects past experiences, persists despite some alteration of the stimulus, and is associated with behavior. This research sheds light on early hippocampal and memory functioning and offers an approach to interrogate the neural substrates of early memory.

Remembering Childhood: Do Our Memories and Experiences Influence Our Understanding of Early Childhood and Our Practice with Young Children?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horsley, Karen; Penn, Helen

2014-01-01

Students on the Early Childhood Studies degree programme at the University of East London were asked to reflect on their childhood memories and how these have shaped their understandings of early childhood and practices with young children. Students' rich and varied accounts reflect the diversity of largely non-traditional students from countries…

Selective alterations of neurons and circuits related to early memory loss in Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Llorens-Martín, Maria; Blazquez-Llorca, Lidia; Benavides-Piccione, Ruth; Rabano, Alberto; Hernandez, Felix; Avila, Jesus; DeFelipe, Javier

2014-01-01

A progressive loss of episodic memory is a well-known clinical symptom that characterizes Alzheimer's disease (AD). The beginning of this loss of memory has been associated with the very early, pathological accumulation of tau and neuronal degeneration observed in the entorhinal cortex (EC). Tau-related pathology is thought to then spread progressively to the hippocampal formation and other brain areas as the disease progresses. The major cortical afferent source of the hippocampus and dentate gyrus is the EC through the perforant pathway. At least two main circuits participate in the connection between EC and the hippocampus; one originating in layer II and the other in layer III of the EC giving rise to the classical trisynaptic (ECII → dentate gyrus → CA3 → CA1) and monosynaptic (ECIII → CA1) circuits. Thus, the study of the early pathological changes in these circuits is of great interest. In this review, we will discuss mainly the alterations of the granule cell neurons of the dentate gyrus and the atrophy of CA1 pyramidal neurons that occur in AD in relation to the possible differential alterations of these two main circuits.

CaMKII knockdown affects both early and late phases of olfactory long-term memory in the honeybee.

PubMed

Scholl, Christina; Kübert, Natalie; Muenz, Thomas S; Rössler, Wolfgang

2015-12-01

Honeybees are able to solve complex learning tasks and memorize learned information for long time periods. The molecular mechanisms mediating long-term memory (LTM) in the honeybee Apis mellifera are, to a large part, still unknown. We approached this question by investigating the potential function of the calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), an enzyme known as a 'molecular memory switch' in vertebrates. CaMKII is able to switch to a calcium-independent constitutively active state, providing a mechanism for a molecular memory and has further been shown to play an essential role in structural synaptic plasticity. Using a combination of knockdown by RNA interference and pharmacological manipulation, we disrupted the function of CaMKII during olfactory learning and memory formation. We found that learning, memory acquisition and mid-term memory were not affected, but all manipulations consistently resulted in an impaired LTM. Both early LTM (24 h after learning) and late LTM (72 h after learning) were significantly disrupted, indicating the necessity of CaMKII in two successive stages of LTM formation in the honeybee. © 2015. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

The sensory timecourses associated with conscious visual item memory and source memory.

PubMed

Thakral, Preston P; Slotnick, Scott D

2015-09-01

Previous event-related potential (ERP) findings have suggested that during visual item and source memory, nonconscious and conscious sensory (occipital-temporal) activity onsets may be restricted to early (0-800 ms) and late (800-1600 ms) temporal epochs, respectively. In an ERP experiment, we tested this hypothesis by separately assessing whether the onset of conscious sensory activity was restricted to the late epoch during source (location) memory and item (shape) memory. We found that conscious sensory activity had a late (>800 ms) onset during source memory and an early (<200 ms) onset during item memory. In a follow-up fMRI experiment, conscious sensory activity was localized to BA17, BA18, and BA19. Of primary importance, the distinct source memory and item memory ERP onsets contradict the hypothesis that there is a fixed temporal boundary separating nonconscious and conscious processing during all forms of visual conscious retrieval. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Memory timeline: Brain ERP C250 (not P300) is an early biomarker of short-term storage.

PubMed

Chapman, Robert M; Gardner, Margaret N; Mapstone, Mark; Dupree, Haley M; Antonsdottir, Inga M

2015-04-16

Brain event-related potentials (ERPs) offer a quantitative link between neurophysiological activity and cognitive performance. ERPs were measured while young adults performed a task that required storing a relevant stimulus in short-term memory. Using principal components analysis, ERP component C250 (maximum at 250 ms post-stimulus) was extracted from a set of ERPs that were separately averaged for various task conditions, including stimulus relevancy and stimulus sequence within a trial. C250 was more positive in response to task-specific stimuli that were successfully stored in short-term memory. This relationship between C250 and short-term memory storage of a stimulus was confirmed by a memory probe recall test where the behavioral recall of a stimulus was highly correlated with its C250 amplitude. ERP component P300 (and its subcomponents of P3a and P3b, which are commonly thought to represent memory operations) did not show a pattern of activation reflective of storing task-relevant stimuli. C250 precedes the P300, indicating that initial short-term memory storage may occur earlier than previously believed. Additionally, because C250 is so strongly predictive of a stimulus being stored in short-term memory, C250 may provide a strong index of early memory operations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Recognition memory for Braille or spoken words: an fMRI study in early blind.

PubMed

Burton, Harold; Sinclair, Robert J; Agato, Alvin

2012-02-15

We examined cortical activity in early blind during word recognition memory. Nine participants were blind at birth and one by 1.5years. In an event-related design, we studied blood oxygen level-dependent responses to studied ("old") compared to novel ("new") words. Presentation mode was in Braille or spoken. Responses were larger for identified "new" words read with Braille in bilateral lower and higher tier visual areas and primary somatosensory cortex. Responses to spoken "new" words were larger in bilateral primary and accessory auditory cortex. Auditory cortex was unresponsive to Braille words and occipital cortex responded to spoken words but not differentially with "old"/"new" recognition. Left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex had larger responses to "old" words only with Braille. Larger occipital cortex responses to "new" Braille words suggested verbal memory based on the mechanism of recollection. A previous report in sighted noted larger responses for "new" words studied in association with pictures that created a distinctiveness heuristic source factor which enhanced recollection during remembering. Prior behavioral studies in early blind noted an exceptional ability to recall words. Utilization of this skill by participants in the current study possibly engendered recollection that augmented remembering "old" words. A larger response when identifying "new" words possibly resulted from exhaustive recollecting the sensory properties of "old" words in modality appropriate sensory cortices. The uniqueness of a memory role for occipital cortex is in its cross-modal responses to coding tactile properties of Braille. The latter possibly reflects a "sensory echo" that aids recollection. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

When Autobiographical Memory Begins

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howe, Mark L.; Courage, Mary L.; Edison, Shannon C.

2003-01-01

The authors review competing theories concerning the emergence and early development of autobiographical memory. It is argued that the differences between these accounts, although important, may be more apparent than real. The crux of these disagreements lies not in "what" processes are important, but rather, the role these different processes…

Early-Life Nutritional Programming of Cognition-The Fundamental Role of Epigenetic Mechanisms in Mediating the Relation between Early-Life Environment and Learning and Memory Process.

PubMed

Moody, Laura; Chen, Hong; Pan, Yuan-Xiang

2017-03-01

The perinatal period is a window of heightened plasticity that lays the groundwork for future anatomic, physiologic, and behavioral outcomes. During this time, maternal diet plays a pivotal role in the maturation of vital organs and the establishment of neuronal connections. However, when perinatal nutrition is either lacking in specific micro- and macronutrients or overloaded with excess calories, the consequences can be devastating and long lasting. The brain is particularly sensitive to perinatal insults, with several neurologic and psychiatric disorders having been linked to a poor in utero environment. Diseases characterized by learning and memory impairments, such as autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer disease, are hypothesized to be attributed in part to environmental factors, and evidence suggests that the etiology of these conditions may date back to very early life. In this review, we discuss the role of the early-life diet in shaping cognitive outcomes in offspring. We explore the endocrine and immune mechanisms responsible for these phenotypes and discuss how these systemic factors converge to change the brain's epigenetic landscape and regulate learning and memory across the lifespan. Through understanding the maternal programming of cognition, critical steps may be taken toward preventing and treating diseases that compromise learning and memory. © 2017 American Society for Nutrition.

Assessing the Effect of Early Visual Cortex Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Working Memory Consolidation.

PubMed

van Lamsweerde, Amanda E; Johnson, Jeffrey S

2017-07-01

Maintaining visual working memory (VWM) representations recruits a network of brain regions, including the frontal, posterior parietal, and occipital cortices; however, it is unclear to what extent the occipital cortex is engaged in VWM after sensory encoding is completed. Noninvasive brain stimulation data show that stimulation of this region can affect working memory (WM) during the early consolidation time period, but it remains unclear whether it does so by influencing the number of items that are stored or their precision. In this study, we investigated whether single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (spTMS) to the occipital cortex during VWM consolidation affects the quantity or quality of VWM representations. In three experiments, we disrupted VWM consolidation with either a visual mask or spTMS to retinotopic early visual cortex. We found robust masking effects on the quantity of VWM representations up to 200 msec poststimulus offset and smaller, more variable effects on WM quality. Similarly, spTMS decreased the quantity of VWM representations, but only when it was applied immediately following stimulus offset. Like visual masks, spTMS also produced small and variable effects on WM precision. The disruptive effects of both masks and TMS were greatly reduced or entirely absent within 200 msec of stimulus offset. However, there was a reduction in swap rate across all time intervals, which may indicate a sustained role of the early visual cortex in maintaining spatial information.

Epigenetic regulation of neuronal immediate early genes is associated with decline in their expression and memory consolidation in scopolamine-induced amnesic mice.

PubMed

Srivas, Sweta; Thakur, Mahendra K

2017-09-01

Recently, we reported a correlation of scopolamine mediated decline in memory consolidation with increase in the expression of DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) and histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) in the mouse hippocampus. Memory consolidation is a protein synthesis-dependent process which involves the expression of synaptic plasticity genes, particularly neuronal immediate early genes (IEGs). However, the mechanism of regulation of these genes during decline in memory is poorly understood. Therefore, we have studied the epigenetic regulation of expression of neuronal IEGs in scopolamine-induced amnesic mice. Scopolamine significantly impaired memory consolidation as tested by radial arm maze, and the expression of neuronal IEGs was downregulated in the hippocampus as revealed by qRT-PCR and Western blotting. Further, methylated DNA immunoprecipitation (MeDIP) analysis showed increase in DNA methylation, while chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) revealed decrease in H3K9/14 acetylation at the promoter of neuronal IEGs. Taken together, the present study shows that increased DNA methylation and decreased histone acetylation at the promoter of neuronal IEGs are associated with decline in their expression and memory consolidation during scopolamine-induced amnesia. These findings suggest that the epigenetic regulation through altered DNA methylation and histone acetylation might be explored further to develop potential therapeutic interventions for amnesia.

Infant Visual Recognition Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rose, Susan A.; Feldman, Judith F.; Jankowski, Jeffery J.

2004-01-01

Visual recognition memory is a robust form of memory that is evident from early infancy, shows pronounced developmental change, and is influenced by many of the same factors that affect adult memory; it is surprisingly resistant to decay and interference. Infant visual recognition memory shows (a) modest reliability, (b) good discriminant…

Early postnatal exposure to isoflurane causes cognitive deficits and disrupts development of newborn hippocampal neurons via activation of the mTOR pathway

PubMed Central

Lim, Sanghee; Kwak, Minhye; Gray, Christy D.; Xu, Michael; Choi, Jun H.; Junn, Sue; Kim, Jieun; Xu, Jing; Schaefer, Michele; Johns, Roger A.; Song, Hongjun; Ming, Guo-Li; Mintz, C. David

2017-01-01

Clinical and preclinical studies indicate that early postnatal exposure to anesthetics can lead to lasting deficits in learning and other cognitive processes. The mechanism underlying this phenomenon has not been clarified and there is no treatment currently available. Recent evidence suggests that anesthetics might cause persistent deficits in cognitive function by disrupting key events in brain development. The hippocampus, a brain region that is critical for learning and memory, contains a large number of neurons that develop in the early postnatal period, which are thus vulnerable to perturbation by anesthetic exposure. Using an in vivo mouse model we demonstrate abnormal development of dendrite arbors and dendritic spines in newly generated dentate gyrus granule cell neurons of the hippocampus after a clinically relevant isoflurane anesthesia exposure conducted at an early postnatal age. Furthermore, we find that isoflurane causes a sustained increase in activity in the mechanistic target of rapamycin pathway, and that inhibition of this pathway with rapamycin not only reverses the observed changes in neuronal development, but also substantially improves performance on behavioral tasks of spatial learning and memory that are impaired by isoflurane exposure. We conclude that isoflurane disrupts the development of hippocampal neurons generated in the early postnatal period by activating a well-defined neurodevelopmental disease pathway and that this phenotype can be reversed by pharmacologic inhibition. PMID:28683067

Early Adolescent Sexual Debut: The Mediating Role of Working Memory Ability, Sensation Seeking, and Impulsivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khurana, Atika; Romer, Daniel; Betancourt, Laura M.; Brodsky, Nancy L.; Giannetta, Joan M.; Hurt, Hallam

2012-01-01

Although deficits in working memory ability have been implicated in suboptimal decision making and risk taking among adolescents, its influence on early sexual initiation has so far not been examined. Analyzing 2 waves of panel data from a community sample of adolescents (N = 347; Mean age[subscript baseline] = 13.4 years), assessed 1 year apart,…

Memory Hazard Functions: A Vehicle for Theory Development and Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chechile, Richard A.

2006-01-01

A framework is developed to rigorously test an entire class of memory retention functions by examining hazard properties. Evidence is provided that the memory hazard function is not monotonically decreasing. Yet most of the proposals for retention functions, which have emerged from the psychological literature, imply that memory hazard is…

Development and psychometric properties of a new measure for memory phenomenology: The Autobiographical Memory Characteristics Questionnaire.

PubMed

Boyacioglu, Inci; Akfirat, Serap

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study is to develop a valid and reliable measure for the phenomenology of autobiographical memories. The psychometric properties of the Autobiographical Memory Characteristics Questionnaire (AMCQ) were tested in three studies: the factor structure of the AMCQ was examined for childhood memories in Study 1 (N = 305); for autobiographical memories related to romantic relationships in Study 2 (N = 197); and for self-defining memories in Study 3 (N = 262). The explanatory factor analyses performed for each memory type demonstrated the consistency of the AMCQ factor structure across all memory types; while a confirmatory factor analysis on the data garnered from all three studies supported the constructs for the autobiographical memory characteristics defined by the researchers. The AMCQ consists of 63 items and 14 factors, and the internal consistency values of all 14 scales were ranged between .66 and .97. The relationships between the AMCQ scales related to gender and individual emotions, as well as the intercorrelations among the scales, were consistent with both theoretical expectations and previous findings. The results of all the three studies indicated that this new instrument is a reliable and robust measure for memory phenomenology.

Maternal Reminiscing Style during Early Childhood Predicts the Age of Adolescents' Earliest Memories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jack, Fiona; MacDonald, Shelley; Reese, Elaine; Hayne, Harlene

2009-01-01

Individual differences in parental reminiscing style are hypothesized to have long-lasting effects on children's autobiographical memory development, including the age of their earliest memories. This study represents the first prospective test of this hypothesis. Conversations about past events between 17 mother-child dyads were recorded on…

Working memory in Farsi-speaking children with normal development and cochlear implant.

PubMed

Soleymani, Zahra; Amidfar, Meysam; Dadgar, Hooshang; Jalaie, Shohre

2014-04-01

Working memory has an important role in language acquisition and development of cognition skills. The ability of encoding, storage and retrieval of phonological codes, as activities of working memory, acquired by audition sense. Children with cochlear implant experience a period that they are not able to perceive sounds. In order to assess the effect of hearing on working memory, we investigated working memory as a cognition skill in children with normal development and cochlear implant. Fifty students with normal hearing and 50 students with cochlear implant aged 5-7 years participated in this study. Children educated in the preschool, the first and second grades. Children with normal development were matched based on age, gender, and grade of education with cochlear implant. Two components of working memory including phonological loop and central executive were compared between two groups. Phonological loop assessed by nonword repetition task and forward digit span. To assess central executive component backward digit span was used. The developmental trend was studied in children with normal development and cochlear implant as well. The effect of age at implantation in children with cochlear implants on components of working memory was investigated. There are significant differences between children with normal development and cochlear implant in all tasks that assess working memory (p < 0.001). The children's age at implantation was negatively correlated with all tasks (p < 0.001). In contrast, duration of usage of cochlear implant set was positively correlated with all tasks (p < 0.001). The comparison of working memory between different grades showed significant differences both in children with normal development and in children with cochlear implant (p < 0.05). These results implied that children with cochlear implant may experience difficulties in working memory. Therefore, these children have problems in encoding, practicing, and repeating phonological

Episodic, semantic and procedural memory in a case of amnesia at an early age.

PubMed

Ostergaard, A L

1987-01-01

The patient C.C. developed an amnesic syndrome at the age of 10 yr. Like adult amnesics, C.C. demonstrated impaired episodic memory for both verbal and visual materials although immediate memory span was spared. However, striking deficits were also observed on a wide variety of semantic memory tasks, including reading vocabulary and verbal fluency tests, semantic classification and lexical decision tasks and tests of verbal intelligence. On the other hand, C.C. showed normal learning and retention of two procedural tasks. It was argued that this evidence is inconsistent with the view that the amnesic syndrome represents a selective defect of episodic memory that leaves semantic memory relatively unaffected.

Development of episodic and autobiographical memory: The importance of remembering forgetting

PubMed Central

Bauer, Patricia J.

2015-01-01

Some memories of the events of our lives have a long shelf-life—they remain accessible to recollection even after long delays. Yet many other of our experiences are forgotten, sometimes very soon after they take place. In spite of the prevalence of forgetting, theories of the development of episodic and autobiographical memory largely ignore it as a potential source of variance in explanation of age-related variability in long-term recall. They focus instead on what may be viewed as positive developmental changes, that is, changes that result in improvements in the quality of memory representations that are formed. The purpose of this review is to highlight the role of forgetting as an important variable in understanding the development of episodic and autobiographical memory. Forgetting processes are implicated as a source of variability in long-term recall due to the protracted course of development of the neural substrate responsible for transformation of fleeting experiences into memory traces that can be integrated into long-term stores and retrieved at later points in time. It is logical to assume that while the substrate is developing, neural processing is relatively inefficient and ineffective, resulting in loss of information from memory (i.e., forgetting). For this reason, focus on developmental increases in the quality of representations of past events and experiences will tell only a part of the story of how memory develops. A more complete account is afforded when we also consider changes in forgetting. PMID:26644633

Biomaterial-based Memory Device Development by Conducting Metallic DNA

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-05-28

time. Therefore, we have created a multiple-states memory system . This is the first multi-states resistance memory device by using bio-nanowire of the...world. Based on this achievement, logic device and application will be developed in the near future, too. Moreover, by using Ni-DNA detection system ...ions in DNA can change the resistance of Ni-DNA by applying different polar bias and time. Therefore, we have created a multiple-states memory system

Relations among Language Exposure, Phonological Memory, and Language Development in Spanish-English Bilingually-Developing Two-Year-Olds

PubMed Central

Parra, Marisol; Hoff, Erika; Core, Cynthia

2010-01-01

The relation of phonological memory to language experience and development was investigated in 41 Spanish-English bilingual first language learners. The children’s relative exposure to English and Spanish and phonological memory for English-like and Spanish-like nonwords were assessed at 22 months; their productive vocabulary and grammar in both languages were assessed at 25 months. Phonological memory for English- and Spanish-like nonwords were highly correlated, and each was related to vocabulary and grammar in both languages, suggesting a language-general component to phonological memory skill. In addition, there was evidence of language-specific benefits of language exposure to phonological memory skill and of language-specific benefits of phonological memory skill to language development. PMID:20828710

The development and validation of the Memory Support Rating Scale.

PubMed

Lee, Jason Y; Worrell, Frank C; Harvey, Allison G

2016-06-01

Patient memory for treatment information is poor, and worse memory for treatment information is associated with poorer clinical outcomes. Memory support techniques have been harnessed to improve patient memory for treatment. However, a measure of memory support used by treatment providers during sessions has yet to be established. The present study reports on the development and psychometric properties of the Memory Support Rating Scale (MSRS)-an observer-rated scale designed to measure memory support. Adults with major depressive disorder (MDD; N = 42) were randomized to either cognitive therapy plus memory support (CT + MS; n = 22) or cognitive therapy as-usual (CT-as-usual; n = 20). At posttreatment, patients freely recalled treatment points via the patient recall task. Sessions (n = 171) were coded for memory support using the MSRS, 65% of which were also assessed for the quality of cognitive therapy via the Cognitive Therapy Rating Scale (CTRS). A unidimensional scale composed of 8 items was developed using exploratory factor analysis, though a larger sample is needed to further assess the factor structure of MSRS scores. High interrater and test-retest reliabilities of MSRS scores were observed across 7 MSRS coders. MSRS scores were higher in the CT + MS condition compared with CT-as-usual, demonstrating group differentiation ability. MSRS scores were positively associated with patient recall task scores but not associated with CTRS scores, demonstrating convergent and discriminant validity, respectively. Results indicate that the MSRS yields reliable and valid scores for measuring treatment providers' use of memory support while delivering cognitive therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Propofol exposure during early gestation impairs learning and memory in rat offspring by inhibiting the acetylation of histone.

PubMed

Lin, Jiamei; Wang, Shengqiang; Feng, Yunlin; Zhao, Weihong; Zhao, Weilu; Luo, Foquan; Feng, Namin

2018-05-01

Propofol is widely used in clinical practice, including non-obstetric surgery in pregnant women. Previously, we found that propofol anaesthesia in maternal rats during the third trimester (E18) caused learning and memory impairment to the offspring rats, but how about the exposure during early pregnancy and the underlying mechanisms? Histone acetylation plays an important role in synaptic plasticity. In this study, propofol was administered to the pregnant rats in the early pregnancy (E7). The learning and memory function of the offspring were tested by Morris water maze (MWM) test on post-natal day 30. Two hours before each MWM trial, histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) inhibitor, suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), Senegenin (SEN, traditional Chinese medicine), hippyragranin (HGN) antisense oligonucleotide (HGNA) or vehicle were given to the offspring. The protein levels of HDAC2, acetylated histone 3 (H3) and 4 (H4), cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) response element-binding protein (CREB), N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) 2 subunit B (NR2B), HGN and synaptophysin in offspring's hippocampus were determined by Western blot or immunofluorescence test. It was discovered that infusion with propofol in maternal rats on E7 leads to impairment of learning and memory in offspring, increased the protein levels of HDAC2 and HGN, decreased the levels of acetylated H3 and H4 and phosphorylated CREB, NR2B and synaptophysin. HDAC2 inhibitor SAHA, Senegenin or HGN antisense oligonucleotide reversed all the changes. Thus, present results indicate exposure to propofol during the early gestation impairs offspring's learning and memory via inhibiting histone acetylation. SAHA, Senegenin and HGN antisense oligonucleotide might have therapeutic value for the adverse effect of propofol. © 2018 The Authors. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine.

Early stages of memory formation in filial imprinting: Fos-like immunoreactivity and behavior in the domestic chick.

PubMed

Suge, R; McCabe, B J

2004-01-01

Early stages of memory formation in filial imprinting were studied in domestic chicks. Chicks trained for 15 min showed strong imprinting, demonstrated by a strong preference for their training stimulus, and the time course of this preference over 2 days after training was similar to that of chicks trained for 60 min. The chicks therefore learned characteristics of the training stimulus very early during training. The intermediate and medial hyperstriatum ventrale (IMHV) is a part of the chick forebrain that is crucial for imprinting. Previous experiments have shown a learning-specific increase in Fos-like immunoreactivity, used as a marker of neuronal activity, in the IMHV after training for 60 min. The time course of Fos expression in the IMHV was measured after training for 15 min and 60 min. The same pattern of expression was found for both training times, showing a peak 120 min after the start of training. The time course of expression was stimulus-dependent. Fos expression in the IMHV, but not the hippocampus, was significantly correlated with strength of imprinting. It is concluded that the learning-specific change in Fos expression in the IMHV is associated with very early components of memory formation.

Drawing a dog: The role of working memory and executive function.

PubMed

Panesi, Sabrina; Morra, Sergio

2016-12-01

Previous research suggests that young children draw animals by adapting their scheme for the human figure. This can be considered an early form of drawing flexibility. This study investigated preschoolers' ability to draw a dog that is different from the human figure. The role of working memory capacity and executive function was examined. The participants were 123 children (36-73 months old) who were required to draw both a person and a dog. The dog figure was scored on a list of features that could render it different from the human figure. Regression analyses showed that both working memory capacity and executive function predicted development in the dog drawing; the dog drawing score correlated with working memory capacity and executive function, even partialling out age, motor coordination, and drawing ability (measured with Goodenough's Draw-a-Man test). These results suggest that both working memory capacity and executive function play an important role in the early development of drawing flexibility. The implications regarding executive functions and working memory are also discussed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Recognition Memory for Braille or Spoken Words: An fMRI study in Early Blind

PubMed Central

Burton, Harold; Sinclair, Robert J.; Agato, Alvin

2012-01-01

We examined cortical activity in early blind during word recognition memory. Nine participants were blind at birth and one by 1.5 yrs. In an event-related design, we studied blood oxygen level-dependent responses to studied (“old”) compared to novel (“new”) words. Presentation mode was in Braille or spoken. Responses were larger for identified “new” words read with Braille in bilateral lower and higher tier visual areas and primary somatosensory cortex. Responses to spoken “new” words were larger in bilateral primary and accessory auditory cortex. Auditory cortex was unresponsive to Braille words and occipital cortex responded to spoken words but not differentially with “old”/“new” recognition. Left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex had larger responses to “old” words only with Braille. Larger occipital cortex responses to “new” Braille words suggested verbal memory based on the mechanism of recollection. A previous report in sighted noted larger responses for “new” words studied in association with pictures that created a distinctiveness heuristic source factor which enhanced recollection during remembering. Prior behavioral studies in early blind noted an exceptional ability to recall words. Utilization of this skill by participants in the current study possibly engendered recollection that augmented remembering “old” words. A larger response when identifying “new” words possibly resulted from exhaustive recollecting the sensory properties of “old” words in modality appropriate sensory cortices. The uniqueness of a memory role for occipital cortex is in its cross-modal responses to coding tactile properties of Braille. The latter possibly reflects a “sensory echo” that aids recollection. PMID:22251836

Recurrent images and early memories in social phobia.

PubMed

Hackmann, A; Clark, D M; McManus, F

2000-06-01

A recent model [Clark, D. M. & Wells, A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In R. Heimberg, M. Liebowitz, D. A. Hope & F. R. Schneier (Eds.), Social phobia: diagnosis, assessment and treatment (pp. 69-93). New York: Guildford Press] suggests that a distorted image of one's public self lies at the heart of social phobia. A previous study of spontaneous imagery [Hackmann, A., Surawy, C. & Clark, D. M. (1998) Seeing yourself through others' eyes: a study of spontaneously occurring images in social phobia. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 26, 3-12] confirmed that patients with social phobia frequently report experiencing negative, distorted, observer-perspective images when in anxiety provoking social situations. In the present study, 22 patients with social phobia were given a semistructured interview which aimed to further explore the nature of social phobic imagery. All participants were able to identify negative spontaneous images that were recurrent in the sense that their content appeared to be relatively stable over time and across different feared social situations. Most recurrent images involved several sensory modalities. Most recurrent images were linked to memories of adverse social events that clustered in time around the onset of the disorder. Taken together, the results suggest that in patients with social phobia, early unpleasant experiences may lead to the development of excessively negative images of their social selves that are repeatedly activated in subsequent social situations and fail to update in the light of subsequent, more favourable experiences. Implications of the findings for the understanding and treatment of social phobia are discussed.

Comparing single- and dual-process models of memory development.

PubMed

Hayes, Brett K; Dunn, John C; Joubert, Amy; Taylor, Robert

2017-11-01

This experiment examined single-process and dual-process accounts of the development of visual recognition memory. The participants, 6-7-year-olds, 9-10-year-olds and adults, were presented with a list of pictures which they encoded under shallow or deep conditions. They then made recognition and confidence judgments about a list containing old and new items. We replicated the main trends reported by Ghetti and Angelini () in that recognition hit rates increased from 6 to 9 years of age, with larger age changes following deep than shallow encoding. Formal versions of the dual-process high threshold signal detection model and several single-process models (equal variance signal detection, unequal variance signal detection, mixture signal detection) were fit to the developmental data. The unequal variance and mixture signal detection models gave a better account of the data than either of the other models. A state-trace analysis found evidence for only one underlying memory process across the age range tested. These results suggest that single-process memory models based on memory strength are a viable alternative to dual-process models for explaining memory development. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Does learning to read shape verbal working memory?

PubMed

Demoulin, Catherine; Kolinsky, Régine

2016-06-01

Many experimental studies have investigated the relationship between the acquisition of reading and working memory in a unidirectional way, attempting to determine to what extent individual differences in working memory can predict reading achievement. In contrast, very little attention has been dedicated to the converse possibility that learning to read shapes the development of verbal memory processes. In this paper, we present available evidence that advocates a more prominent role for reading acquisition on verbal working memory and then discuss the potential mechanisms of such literacy effects. First, the early decoding activities might bolster the development of subvocal rehearsal, which, in turn, would enhance serial order performance in immediate memory tasks. In addition, learning to read and write in an alphabetical system allows the emergence of phonemic awareness and finely tuned phonological representations, as well as of orthographic representations. This could improve the quality, strength, and precision of lexical representations, and hence offer better support for the temporary encoding of memory items and/or for their retrieval.

Ear2 deletion causes early memory and learning deficits in APP/PS1 mice.

PubMed

Kummer, Markus P; Hammerschmidt, Thea; Martinez, Ana; Terwel, Dick; Eichele, Gregor; Witten, Anika; Figura, Stefanie; Stoll, Monika; Schwartz, Stephanie; Pape, Hans-Christian; Schultze, Joachim L; Weinshenker, David; Heneka, Michael T; Urban, Inga

2014-06-25

To assess the consequences of locus ceruleus (LC) degeneration and subsequent noradrenaline (NA) deficiency in early Alzheimer's disease (AD), mice overexpressing mutant amyloid precursor protein and presenilin-1 (APP/PS1) were crossed with Ear2(-/-) mice that have a severe loss of LC neurons projecting to the hippocampus and neocortex. Testing spatial memory and hippocampal long-term potentiation revealed an impairment in APP/PS1 Ear2(-/-) mice, whereas APP/PS1 or Ear2(-/-) mice showed only minor changes. These deficits were associated with distinct synaptic changes including reduced expression of the NMDA 2A subunit and increased levels of NMDA receptor 2B in APP/PS1 Ear2(-/-) mice. Acute pharmacological replacement of NA by L-threo-DOPS partially restored phosphorylation of β-CaMKII and spatial memory performance in APP/PS1 Ear2(-/-) mice. These changes were not accompanied by altered APP processing or amyloid β peptide (Aβ) deposition. Thus, early LC degeneration and subsequent NA reduction may contribute to cognitive deficits via CaMKII and NMDA receptor dysfunction independent of Aβ and suggests that NA supplementation could be beneficial in treating AD. Copyright © 2014 the authors 0270-6474/14/348845-10$15.00/0.

Tone series and the nature of working memory capacity development.

PubMed

Clark, Katherine M; Hardman, Kyle O; Schachtman, Todd R; Saults, J Scott; Glass, Bret A; Cowan, Nelson

2018-04-01

Recent advances in understanding visual working memory, the limited information held in mind for use in ongoing processing, are extended here to examine auditory working memory development. Research with arrays of visual objects has shown how to distinguish the capacity, in terms of the number of objects retained, from the precision of the object representations. We adapt the technique to sequences of nonmusical tones, in an investigation including children (6-13 years, N = 84) and adults (26-50 years, N = 31). For each series of 1 to 4 tones, the participant responded by using an 80-choice scale to try to reproduce the tone at a queried serial position. Despite the much longer-lasting usefulness of sensory memory for tones compared with visual objects, the observed tone capacity was similar to previous findings for visual capacity. The results also constrain theories of childhood working memory development, indicating increases with age in both the capacity and the precision of the tone representations, similar to the visual studies, rather than age differences in time-based memory decay. The findings, including patterns of correlations between capacity, precision, and some auxiliary tasks and questionnaires, establish capacity and precision as dissociable processes and place important constraints on various hypotheses of working memory development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Shape-Memory-Alloy-Based Deicing System Developed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

Ice buildup on aircraft leading edge surfaces has historically been a problem. Most conventional deicing systems rely either on surface heating to melt the accreted ice or pneumatic surface inflation to mechanically debond the ice. Deicers that rely solely on surface heating require large amounts of power. Pneumatic deicers usually cannot remove thin layers of ice and lack durability. Thus, there is a need for an advanced, low-power ice protection system. As part of the NASA Small Business and Innovation Research (SBIR) program, Innovative Dynamics, Inc., developed an aircraft deicing system that utilizes the properties of Shape Memory Alloys (SMA). The SMA-based system has achieved promising improvements in energy efficiency and durability over more conventional deicers. When they are thermally activated, SMA materials change shape; this is analogous to a conventional thermal expansion. The thermal input is currently applied via conventional technology, but there are plans to implement a passive thermal input that is supplied from the energy transfer due to the formation of the ice itself. The actively powered deicer was tested in the NASA Lewis Icing Research Tunnel on a powered rotating rig in early 1995. The system showed promise, deicing both rime and glaze ice shapes as thin as 1/8 in. The first prototype SMA deicer reduced power usage by 45 percent over existing electrothermal systems. This prototype system was targeted for rotorcraft system development. However, there are current plans underway to develop a fixed-wing version of the deicer.

Early deficits in spatial memory and theta rhythm in experimental temporal lobe epilepsy.

PubMed

Chauvière, Laetitia; Rafrafi, Nadia; Thinus-Blanc, Catherine; Bartolomei, Fabrice; Esclapez, Monique; Bernard, Christophe

2009-04-29

Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), the most common form of epilepsy in adults, often display cognitive deficits. The time course and underlying mechanisms of cognitive decline remain unknown during epileptogenesis (the process leading to epilepsy). Using the rat pilocarpine model of TLE, we performed a longitudinal study to assess spatial and nonspatial cognitive performance during epileptogenesis. In parallel, we monitored interictal-like activity (ILA) in the hippocampal CA1 region, as well as theta oscillations, a brain rhythm central to numerous cognitive processes. Here, we report that spatial memory was altered soon after pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus, i.e., already during the seizure-free, latent period. Spatial deficits correlated with a decrease in the power of theta oscillations but not with the frequency of ILA. Spatial deficits persisted when animals had spontaneous seizures (chronic stage) without further modification. In contrast, nonspatial memory performances remained unaffected throughout. We conclude that the reorganization of hippocampal circuitry that immediately follows the initial insult can affect theta oscillation mechanisms, in turn, resulting in deficits in hippocampus-dependent memory tasks. These deficits may be dissociated from the process that leads to epilepsy itself but could instead constitute, as ILA, early markers in at-risk patients and/or provide beneficial therapeutic targets.

The Birth Memories and Recall Questionnaire (BirthMARQ): development and evaluation

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Childbirth is a challenging and emotive experience that is accompanied by strong positive and/or negative emotions. Memories of birth may be associated with how women cognitively process birth events postpartum and potentially their adaptation to parenthood. Characteristics of memories for birth may also be associated with postnatal psychological wellbeing. This paper reports the development and evaluation of a questionnaire to measure characteristics of memories of childbirth and to examine the relationship between memories for birth and mental health. Methods The Birth Memories and Recall Questionnaire (BirthMARQ) was developed by generating items from literature reviews and general measures of memory characteristics to cover dimensions relevant to childbirth. Fifty nine items were administered to 523 women in the first year after childbirth (M = 23.7 weeks) as part of an online study of childbirth. Validity of the final scale was checked by examining differences between women with and without probable depression and PTSD. Results Principal components analysis identified 23 items representing six aspects of memory accounting for 64% of the variance. These were: Emotional memory, Centrality of memory to identity, Coherence, Reliving, Involuntary recall, and Sensory memory. Reliability was good (M alpha = .80). Women with probable depression or PTSD reported more emotional memory, centrality of memories and involuntary recall. Women with probable depression also reported more reliving, and those with probable PTSD reported less coherence and sensory memory. Conclusion The results suggest the BirthMARQ is a coherent and valid measure of the characteristics of memory for childbirth which may be important in postnatal mood and psychopathology. While further testing of its reliability and validity is needed, it is a measure capable of becoming a valuable tool for examining memory characteristics in the important context of childbirth. PMID:24950589

The Birth Memories and Recall Questionnaire (BirthMARQ): development and evaluation.

PubMed

Foley, Suzanne; Crawley, Rosalind; Wilkie, Stephanie; Ayers, Susan

2014-06-20

Childbirth is a challenging and emotive experience that is accompanied by strong positive and/or negative emotions. Memories of birth may be associated with how women cognitively process birth events postpartum and potentially their adaptation to parenthood. Characteristics of memories for birth may also be associated with postnatal psychological wellbeing. This paper reports the development and evaluation of a questionnaire to measure characteristics of memories of childbirth and to examine the relationship between memories for birth and mental health. The Birth Memories and Recall Questionnaire (BirthMARQ) was developed by generating items from literature reviews and general measures of memory characteristics to cover dimensions relevant to childbirth. Fifty nine items were administered to 523 women in the first year after childbirth (M = 23.7 weeks) as part of an online study of childbirth. Validity of the final scale was checked by examining differences between women with and without probable depression and PTSD. Principal components analysis identified 23 items representing six aspects of memory accounting for 64% of the variance. These were: Emotional memory, Centrality of memory to identity, Coherence, Reliving, Involuntary recall, and Sensory memory. Reliability was good (M alpha = .80). Women with probable depression or PTSD reported more emotional memory, centrality of memories and involuntary recall. Women with probable depression also reported more reliving, and those with probable PTSD reported less coherence and sensory memory. The results suggest the BirthMARQ is a coherent and valid measure of the characteristics of memory for childbirth which may be important in postnatal mood and psychopathology. While further testing of its reliability and validity is needed, it is a measure capable of becoming a valuable tool for examining memory characteristics in the important context of childbirth.

Associations between and development of cool and hot executive functions across early childhood.

PubMed

O'Toole, Sarah; Monks, Claire P; Tsermentseli, Stella

2018-03-01

This study explored the development of cool and hot EF skills across early childhood. Children 4.5- to 5.5-years-old (N = 80) completed performance-based assessments of cool EF (inhibition and working memory), hot EF (affective decision-making and delay of gratification) at three time points across 12 months. Cool EF task performance was consistently correlated with early childhood, but hot EF task performance was not. Performance on cool EF tasks showed significant improvements over early childhood, but performance on hot EF tasks did not. During early childhood performance on delay of gratification and affective decision-making tasks may therefore be unrelated and show limited sensitivity to improvement. Statement of contribution What is already known about cool and hot EF An EF model has been proposed that distinguishes between cool-cognitive and hot-affective skills. Findings regarding whether cool and hot EF are distinct in early childhood are mixed. Hot EF skills, compared to cool EF abilities, are thought to develop more gradually. What the present study adds to understanding of cool and hot EF Performance on cool EF tasks and hot delay of gratification were associated in early childhood. Performance on hot EF tasks was not related, meaning they do not tap the same underlying factor. Age related gains in hot EF were not found, but 5-year-olds had better hot EF than 4-year-olds. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

Selective alterations of neurons and circuits related to early memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease

PubMed Central

Llorens-Martín, Maria; Blazquez-Llorca, Lidia; Benavides-Piccione, Ruth; Rabano, Alberto; Hernandez, Felix; Avila, Jesus; DeFelipe, Javier

2014-01-01

A progressive loss of episodic memory is a well-known clinical symptom that characterizes Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The beginning of this loss of memory has been associated with the very early, pathological accumulation of tau and neuronal degeneration observed in the entorhinal cortex (EC). Tau-related pathology is thought to then spread progressively to the hippocampal formation and other brain areas as the disease progresses. The major cortical afferent source of the hippocampus and dentate gyrus is the EC through the perforant pathway. At least two main circuits participate in the connection between EC and the hippocampus; one originating in layer II and the other in layer III of the EC giving rise to the classical trisynaptic (ECII → dentate gyrus → CA3 → CA1) and monosynaptic (ECIII → CA1) circuits. Thus, the study of the early pathological changes in these circuits is of great interest. In this review, we will discuss mainly the alterations of the granule cell neurons of the dentate gyrus and the atrophy of CA1 pyramidal neurons that occur in AD in relation to the possible differential alterations of these two main circuits. PMID:24904307

Excess iron: considerations related to development and early growth.

PubMed

Wessling-Resnick, Marianne

2017-12-01

What effects might arise from early life exposures to high iron? This review considers the specific effects of high iron on the brain, stem cells, and the process of erythropoiesis and identifies gaps in our knowledge of what molecular damage may be incurred by oxidative stress that is imparted by high iron status in early life. Specific areas to enhance research on this topic include the following: longitudinal behavioral studies of children to test associations between iron exposures and mood, emotion, cognition, and memory; animal studies to determine epigenetic changes that reprogram brain development and metabolic changes in early life that could be followed through the life course; and the establishment of human epigenetic markers of iron exposures and oxidative stress that could be monitored for early origins of adult chronic diseases. In addition, efforts to understand how iron exposure influences stem cell biology could be enhanced by establishing platforms to collect biological specimens, including umbilical cord blood and amniotic fluid, to be made available to the research community. At the molecular level, there is a need to better understand stress erythropoiesis and changes in iron metabolism during pregnancy and development, especially with respect to regulatory control under high iron conditions that might promote ineffective erythropoiesis and iron-loading anemia. These investigations should focus not only on factors such as hepcidin and erythroferrone but should also include newly identified interactions between transferrin receptor-2 and the erythropoietin receptor. Finally, despite our understanding that several key micronutrients (e.g., vitamin A, copper, manganese, and zinc) support iron's function in erythropoiesis, how these nutrients interact remains, to our knowledge, unknown. It is necessary to consider many factors when formulating recommendations on iron supplementation. © 2017 American Society for Nutrition.

Early postnatal effects of noopept and piracetam on declarative and procedural memory of adult male and female rats.

PubMed

Trofimov, S S; Voronina, T A; Guzevatykh, L S

2005-06-01

We studied the effect of a new nootropic dipeptide Noopept and reference nootropic preparation piracetam injected subcutaneously on days 8-20 of life on learning of alternative feeding response in a 6-arm-maze in male and female rats. Early postnatal administration of Noopept disturbed the dynamics of learning by parameters of declarative and procedural memory. Piracetam impaired learning by parameters of procedural, but not declarative memory (only in males). Both preparations decreased the ratio of successfully learned males (but not females). The observed effects were not associated with changes in locomotor activity.

When memory is not enough: Electrophysiological evidence for goal-dependent use of working memory representations in guiding visual attention

PubMed Central

Carlisle, Nancy B.; Woodman, Geoffrey F.

2014-01-01

Biased competition theory proposes that representations in working memory drive visual attention to select similar inputs. However, behavioral tests of this hypothesis have led to mixed results. These inconsistent findings could be due to the inability of behavioral measures to reliably detect the early, automatic effects on attentional deployment that the memory representations exert. Alternatively, executive mechanisms may govern how working memory representations influence attention based on higher-level goals. In the present study, we tested these hypotheses using the N2pc component of participants’ event-related potentials (ERPs) to directly measure the early deployments of covert attention. Participants searched for a target in an array that sometimes contained a memory-matching distractor. In Experiments 1–3, we manipulated the difficulty of the target discrimination and the proximity of distractors, but consistently observed that covert attention was deployed to the search targets and not the memory-matching distractors. In Experiment 4, we showed that when participants’ goal involved attending to memory-matching items that these items elicited a large and early N2pc. Our findings demonstrate that working memory representations alone are not sufficient to guide early deployments of visual attention to matching inputs and that goal-dependent executive control mediates the interactions between working memory representations and visual attention. PMID:21254796

Early detection of memory impairment in people over 65 years old consulting at Health Examination Centers for the French health insurance: the EVATEM protocol

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Only half of those living with Alzheimer’s disease in France are currently diagnosed, and only one patient in three is supported during the early stages of dementia. This study aims to evaluate three cognitive tests for their predictive ability to diagnose mild cognitive impairments and Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. For people aged 65 years or over, presenting with a memory complaint, these tests can be performed easily during a preventative consultation. Method/design The EVATEM (évaluation des troubles de l’équilibre et de la mémoire (evaluation of balance and memory problems)) cohort study was designed to prospectively assess the predictive value of tests for the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairments and Alzheimer’s disease in elderly subjects aged 65 years or over. Subjects were recruited from three health examination centers that are part of the French health insurance system. If a memory complaint was identified (using a dedicated questionnaire), the five-word test, the cognitive disorders examination test and the verbal fluency test were administered during a preventative consultation. A memory consultation was performed at a University Hospital to diagnosis any potential cognitive disorder and a one-year follow-up consultation was also scheduled. We recorded 2041 cases of memory complaint at our Health Examination Centers. Cognitive tests were refused by 33.6% of people who had a memory complaint. The number of subjects sent to a University Hospital memory consultation was 832 and 74.5% of them completed this consultation. The study population therefore includes 620 subjects. Discussion Tests for the early diagnosis of a mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders should be used in centers dedicated to disease prevention. These should guide subjects with memory impairment to full memory consultations at hospitals and improve the access to early medical and behavioral support. Trial

Memory loss in Alzheimer's disease: implications for development of therapeutics

PubMed Central

Gold, Carl A; Budson, Andrew E

2009-01-01

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease marked by a constellation of cognitive disturbances, the earliest and most prominent being impaired episodic memory. Episodic memory refers to the memory system that allows an individual to consciously retrieve a previously experienced item or episode of life. Many recent studies have focused on characterizing how AD pathology impacts particular aspects of episodic memory and underlying mental and neural processes. This review summarizes the findings of those studies and discusses the effects of current and promising treatments for AD on episodic memory. The goal of this review is to raise awareness of the strides that cognitive neuroscientists have made in understanding intact and dysfunctional memory. Knowledge of the specific memorial processes that are impaired in AD may be of great value to basic scientists developing novel therapies and to clinical researchers assessing the efficacy of those therapies. PMID:19086882

Regional hippocampal volumes and development predict learning and memory.

PubMed

Tamnes, Christian K; Walhovd, Kristine B; Engvig, Andreas; Grydeland, Håkon; Krogsrud, Stine K; Østby, Ylva; Holland, Dominic; Dale, Anders M; Fjell, Anders M

2014-01-01

The hippocampus is an anatomically and functionally heterogeneous structure, but longitudinal studies of its regional development are scarce and it is not known whether protracted maturation of the hippocampus in adolescence is related to memory development. First, we investigated hippocampal subfield development using 170 longitudinally acquired brain magnetic resonance imaging scans from 85 participants aged 8-21 years. Hippocampal subfield volumes were estimated by the use of automated segmentation of 7 subfields, including the cornu ammonis (CA) sectors and the dentate gyrus (DG), while longitudinal subfield volumetric change was quantified using a nonlinear registration procedure. Second, associations between subfield volumes and change and verbal learning/memory across multiple retention intervals (5 min, 30 min and 1 week) were tested. It was hypothesized that short and intermediate memory would be more closely related to CA2-3/CA4-DG and extended, remote memory to CA1. Change rates were significantly different across hippocampal subfields, but nearly all subfields showed significant volume decreases over time throughout adolescence. Several subfield volumes were larger in the right hemisphere and in males, while for change rates there were no hemisphere or sex differences. Partly in support of the hypotheses, greater volume of CA1 and CA2-3 was related to recall and retention after an extended delay, while longitudinal reduction of CA2-3 and CA4-DG was related to learning. This suggests continued regional development of the hippocampus across adolescence and that volume and volume change in specific subfields differentially predict verbal learning and memory over different retention intervals, but future high-resolution studies are called for. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel.

What Is False Memory Development the Development of? Comment on Brainerd, Reyna, and Ceci (2008)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howe, Mark L.

2008-01-01

In this commentary, assumptions about the nature and development of children's false memories as described in a recent article by C. J. Brainerd, V. F. Reyna, and S. J. Ceci (2008) are reviewed. Specifically, questions are raised about what drives the development of false memories in fuzzy-trace theory (FTT). Recent studies that challenge a core…

Orienting attention within visual short-term memory: development and mechanisms.

PubMed

Shimi, Andria; Nobre, Anna C; Astle, Duncan; Scerif, Gaia

2014-01-01

How does developing attentional control operate within visual short-term memory (VSTM)? Seven-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and adults (total n = 205) were asked to report whether probe items were part of preceding visual arrays. In Experiment 1, central or peripheral cues oriented attention to the location of to-be-probed items either prior to encoding or during maintenance. Cues improved memory regardless of their position, but younger children benefited less from cues presented during maintenance, and these benefits related to VSTM span over and above basic memory in uncued trials. In Experiment 2, cues of low validity eliminated benefits, suggesting that even the youngest children use cues voluntarily, rather than automatically. These findings elucidate the close coupling between developing visuospatial attentional control and VSTM. © 2013 The Authors. Child Development © 2013 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

HPA Axis Function Alters Development of Working Memory in Boys with FXS

PubMed Central

Scherr, Jessica F.; Hahn, Laura J.; Hooper, Stephen R.; Hatton, Deborah; Roberts, Jane E.

2016-01-01

The present study examines verbal working memory over time in boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS) compared to nonverbal mental-age (NVMA) matched, typically developing (TD) boys. Concomitantly, the relationship between cortisol—a physiological marker for stress—and verbal working memory performance over time is examined to understand the role of physiological mechanisms in cognitive development in FXS. Participants were assessed between one and three times over a 2-year time frame using two verbal working memory tests that differ in complexity: memory for words and auditory working memory with salivary cortisol collected at the beginning and end of each assessment. Multilevel modeling results indicate specific deficits over time on the memory for words task in boys with FXS compared to TD controls that is exacerbated by elevated baseline cortisol. Similar increasing rates of growth over time were observed for boys with FXS and TD controls on the more complex auditory working memory task, but only boys with FXS displayed an association of increased baseline cortisol and lower performance. This study highlights the benefit of investigations of how dynamic biological and cognitive factors interact and influence cognitive development over time. PMID:26760450

Development of subjective recollection: understanding of and introspection on memory States.

PubMed

Ghetti, Simona; Mirandola, Chiara; Angelini, Laura; Cornoldi, Cesare; Ciaramelli, Elisa

2011-01-01

The development of subjective recollection was investigated in participants aged 6-18 years. In Experiment 1 (N = 90), age-related improvements were found in understanding of the subjective experience of recollection, although robust levels of understanding were observed even in the youngest group. In Experiment 2 (N = 100), age-related differences were found in subjective recollection during a memory task, suggesting development not only in the ability to reflect on memory states, but also in the informational basis of subjective recollection. Lower understanding of memory states was associated with increased propensity to claim recollection. These results indicate that subjective recollection develops considerably during childhood and suggest that the development of metamemory supports this capacity. © 2011 The Authors. Child Development © 2011 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

The development of real-time stability supports visual working memory performance: Young children's feature binding can be improved through perceptual structure.

PubMed

Simmering, Vanessa R; Wood, Chelsey M

2017-08-01

Working memory is a basic cognitive process that predicts higher-level skills. A central question in theories of working memory development is the generality of the mechanisms proposed to explain improvements in performance. Prior theories have been closely tied to particular tasks and/or age groups, limiting their generalizability. The cognitive dynamics theory of visual working memory development has been proposed to overcome this limitation. From this perspective, developmental improvements arise through the coordination of cognitive processes to meet demands of different behavioral tasks. This notion is described as real-time stability, and can be probed through experiments that assess how changing task demands impact children's performance. The current studies test this account by probing visual working memory for colors and shapes in a change detection task that compares detection of changes to new features versus swaps in color-shape binding. In Experiment 1, 3- to 4-year-old children showed impairments specific to binding swaps, as predicted by decreased real-time stability early in development; 5- to 6-year-old children showed a slight advantage on binding swaps, but 7- to 8-year-old children and adults showed no difference across trial types. Experiment 2 tested the proposed explanation of young children's binding impairment through added perceptual structure, which supported the stability and precision of feature localization in memory-a process key to detecting binding swaps. This additional structure improved young children's binding swap detection, but not new-feature detection or adults' performance. These results provide further evidence for the cognitive dynamics and real-time stability explanation of visual working memory development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Transactive memory systems scale for couples: development and validation

PubMed Central

Hewitt, Lauren Y.; Roberts, Lynne D.

2015-01-01

People in romantic relationships can develop shared memory systems by pooling their cognitive resources, allowing each person access to more information but with less cognitive effort. Research examining such memory systems in romantic couples largely focuses on remembering word lists or performing lab-based tasks, but these types of activities do not capture the processes underlying couples’ transactive memory systems, and may not be representative of the ways in which romantic couples use their shared memory systems in everyday life. We adapted an existing measure of transactive memory systems for use with romantic couples (TMSS-C), and conducted an initial validation study. In total, 397 participants who each identified as being a member of a romantic relationship of at least 3 months duration completed the study. The data provided a good fit to the anticipated three-factor structure of the components of couples’ transactive memory systems (specialization, credibility and coordination), and there was reasonable evidence of both convergent and divergent validity, as well as strong evidence of test–retest reliability across a 2-week period. The TMSS-C provides a valuable tool that can quickly and easily capture the underlying components of romantic couples’ transactive memory systems. It has potential to help us better understand this intriguing feature of romantic relationships, and how shared memory systems might be associated with other important features of romantic relationships. PMID:25999873

Visual working memory gives up attentional control early in learning: ruling out interhemispheric cancellation.

PubMed

Reinhart, Robert M G; Carlisle, Nancy B; Woodman, Geoffrey F

2014-08-01

Current research suggests that we can watch visual working memory surrender the control of attention early in the process of learning to search for a specific object. This inference is based on the observation that the contralateral delay activity (CDA) rapidly decreases in amplitude across trials when subjects search for the same target object. Here, we tested the alternative explanation that the role of visual working memory does not actually decline across learning, but instead lateralized representations accumulate in both hemispheres across trials and wash out the lateralized CDA. We show that the decline in CDA amplitude occurred even when the target objects were consistently lateralized to a single visual hemifield. Our findings demonstrate that reductions in the amplitude of the CDA during learning are not simply due to the dilution of the CDA from interhemispheric cancellation. Copyright © 2014 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

The Development and Validation of the Memory Support Rating Scale (MSRS)

PubMed Central

Lee, Jason Y.; Worrell, Frank C.; Harvey, Allison G.

2015-01-01

Patient memory for treatment information is poor, and worse memory for treatment information is associated with poorer clinical outcomes. Memory support techniques have been harnessed to improve patient memory for treatment. However, a measure of memory support used by treatment providers during sessions has yet to be established. The present study reports on the development and psychometric properties of the Memory Support Rating Scale (MSRS) – an observer-rated scale designed to measure memory support. Forty-two adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) were randomized to either cognitive therapy plus memory support (CS+MS; n = 22) or cognitive therapy as-usual (CT-as-usual; n = 20). At post-treatment, patients freely recalled treatment points via the Patient Recall Task. Sessions (n = 171) were coded for memory support using the MSRS, 65% of which were also assessed for the quality of cognitive therapy via the Cognitive Therapy Rating Scale (CTRS). A unidimensional scale composed of 8 items was developed using exploratory factor analysis, though a larger sample is needed to further assess the factor structure of MSRS scores. High inter-rater and test-retest reliabilities of MSRS scores were observed across seven MSRS coders. MSRS scores were higher in the CT+MS condition compared to CT-as-usual, demonstrating group differentiation ability. MSRS scores were positively associated with Patient Recall Task scores but not associated with CTRS scores, demonstrating convergent and discriminant validity, respectively. Results indicate that the MSRS yields reliable and valid scores for measuring treatment providers’ use of memory support while delivering cognitive therapy. PMID:26389597

Functional neuroanatomical correlates of episodic memory impairment in early phase psychosis

PubMed Central

Hummer, Tom A.; Vohs, Jenifer L.; Yung, Matthew G.; Liffick, Emily; Mehdiyoun, Nicole F.; Radnovich, Alexander J.; McDonald, Brenna C.; Saykin, Andrew J.; Breier, Alan

2015-01-01

Studies have demonstrated that episodic memory (EM) is often preferentially disrupted in schizophrenia. The neural substrates that mediate EM impairment in this illness are not fully understood. Several functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have employed EM probe tasks to elucidate the neural underpinnings of impairment, though results have been inconsistent. The majority of EM imaging studies have been conducted in chronic forms of schizophrenia with relatively few studies in early phase patients. Early phase schizophrenia studies are important because they may provide information regarding when EM deficits occur and address potential confounds more frequently observed in chronic populations. In this study, we assessed brain activation during the performance of visual scene encoding and recognition fMRI tasks in patients with earlyphase psychosis (n=35) and age, sex, and race matched healthy control subjects (n = 20). Patients demonstrated significantly lower activation than controls in the right hippocampus and left fusiform gyrus during scene encoding and lower activation in the posterior cingulate, precuneus, and left middle temporal cortex during recognition of target scenes. Symptom levels were not related to the imaging findings, though better cognitive performance in patients was associated with greater right hippocampal activation during encoding. These results provide evidence of altered function in neuroanatomical circuitry subserving EM early in the course of psychotic illness, which may have implications for pathophysiological models of this illness. PMID:25749917

Early effects of modern electroconvulsive therapy on subjective memory in patients with mania or depression

PubMed Central

Bag, Sevda; Canbek, Ozge; Atagun, Ilhan Murat; Kutlar, Tarik Mehmet

2016-01-01

Context: Although electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is considered a very effective tool for the treatment of psychiatric diseases, memory disturbances are among the most important adverse effects. Aims: This study aimed to assess prospectively early subjective memory complaints in depressive and manic patients due to bilateral, brief-pulse ECT, at different stages of the treatment, compare the associations between psychiatric diagnosis, sociodemographic characteristics, and ECT characteristics. Settings and Design: This prospective study was done with patients undergoing ECT between November 2008 and April 2009 at a tertiary care psychiatry hospital of 2000 beds. Materials and Methods: A total of 140 patients, scheduled for ECT with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder (depressive or manic episode) or unipolar depression according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV diagnostic criteria, were included in the study and invited to complete the Squire Subjective Memory Questionnaire (SSMQ) before ECT, after the first and third sessions and end of ECT treatment. Statistical Analysis: Mean values were compared with the Kruskal–Wallis test and comparison of the longitudinal data was performed with a nonparametric longitudinal data analysis method, F1_LD_F1 design. Results: SSMQ scores of the patients before ECT were zero. SSMQ scores showed a decrease after the first and third ECT sessions and before discharge, showing a memory disturbance after ECT and were significantly less severe in patients with mania in comparison to those with depression. Conclusions: These findings suggest an increasing degree of subjective memory complaints with bilateral brief-pulse ECT parallel to the increasing number of ECT sessions. PMID:27385854

The Contribution of Short-Term Memory for Serial Order to Early Reading Acquisition: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perez, Trecy Martinez; Majerus, Steve; Poncelet, Martine

2012-01-01

Early reading acquisition skills have been linked to verbal short-term memory (STM) capacity. However, the nature of this relationship remains controversial because verbal STM, like reading acquisition, depends on the complexity of underlying phonological processing skills. This longitudinal study addressed the relation between STM and reading…

Predictive model for early math skills based on structural equations.

PubMed

Aragón, Estíbaliz; Navarro, José I; Aguilar, Manuel; Cerda, Gamal; García-Sedeño, Manuel

2016-12-01

Early math skills are determined by higher cognitive processes that are particularly important for acquiring and developing skills during a child's early education. Such processes could be a critical target for identifying students at risk for math learning difficulties. Few studies have considered the use of a structural equation method to rationalize these relations. Participating in this study were 207 preschool students ages 59 to 72 months, 108 boys and 99 girls. Performance with respect to early math skills, early literacy, general intelligence, working memory, and short-term memory was assessed. A structural equation model explaining 64.3% of the variance in early math skills was applied. Early literacy exhibited the highest statistical significance (β = 0.443, p < 0.05), followed by intelligence (β = 0.286, p < 0.05), working memory (β = 0.220, p < 0.05), and short-term memory (β = 0.213, p < 0.05). Correlations between the independent variables were also significant (p < 0.05). According to the results, cognitive variables should be included in remedial intervention programs. © 2016 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Children's visuospatial memory predicts mathematics achievement through early adolescence.

PubMed

Li, Yaoran; Geary, David C

2017-01-01

A previous study showed that gains in visuospatial memory from first to fifth grade predicted end-of-fifth grade mathematics but not reading achievement, controlling other factors. In this follow up study, these relations were assessed from sixth to ninth grade, inclusive (n = 145). The results showed that growth in visuospatial memory across the elementary school years was related to growth in mathematics achievement after fifth grade, controlling intelligence, the central executive and phonological memory components of working memory, in-class attentive behavior, parental education, and fifth grade mathematics achievement. As found for fifth grade, this relation was not found for reading achievement after fifth grade. In total, the results suggest that visuospatial memory has a unique influence on ease of learning some types of mathematics and that this influence becomes more important across successive grades.

Reorganization of Functional Networks in Verbal Working Memory Circuitry in Early Midlife: The Impact of Sex and Menopausal Status.

PubMed

Jacobs, Emily G; Weiss, Blair; Makris, Nikos; Whitfield-Gabrieli, Sue; Buka, Stephen L; Klibanski, Anne; Goldstein, Jill M

2017-05-01

Converging preclinical and human evidence indicates that the decline in ovarian estradiol production during the menopausal transition may play a mechanistic role in the neuronal changes that occur early in the aging process. Here, we present findings from a population-based fMRI study characterizing regional and network-level differences in working memory (WM) circuitry in midlife men and women (N = 142; age range 46-53), as a function of sex and reproductive stage. Reproductive histories and hormonal evaluations were used to determine menopausal status. Participants performed a verbal WM task during fMRI scanning. Results revealed robust differences in task-evoked responses in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and hippocampus as a function of women's reproductive stage, despite minimal variance in chronological age. Sex differences in regional activity and functional connectivity that were pronounced between men and premenopausal women were diminished for postmenopausal women. Critically, analyzing data without regard to sex or reproductive status obscured group differences in the circuit-level neural strategies associated with successful working memory performance. These findings underscore the importance of reproductive age and hormonal status, over and above chronological age, for understanding sex differences in the aging of memory circuitry. Further, these findings suggest that early changes in working memory circuitry are evident decades before the age range typically targeted in cognitive aging studies. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Assessment of cognition in early dementia

PubMed Central

Silverberg, Nina B.; Ryan, Laurie M.; Carrillo, Maria C.; Sperling, Reisa; Petersen, Ronald C.; Posner, Holly B.; Snyder, Peter J.; Hilsabeck, Robin; Gallagher, Michela; Raber, Jacob; Rizzo, Albert; Possin, Katherine; King, Jonathan; Kaye, Jeffrey; Ott, Brian R.; Albert, Marilyn S.; Wagster, Molly V.; Schinka, John A.; Cullum, C. Munro; Farias, Sarah T.; Balota, David; Rao, Stephen; Loewenstein, David; Budson, Andrew E.; Brandt, Jason; Manly, Jennifer J.; Barnes, Lisa; Strutt, Adriana; Gollan, Tamar H.; Ganguli, Mary; Babcock, Debra; Litvan, Irene; Kramer, Joel H.; Ferman, Tanis J.

2012-01-01

Better tools for assessing cognitive impairment in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are required to enable diagnosis of the disease before substantial neurodegeneration has taken place and to allow detection of subtle changes in the early stages of progression of the disease. The National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association convened a meeting to discuss state of the art methods for cognitive assessment, including computerized batteries, as well as new approaches in the pipeline. Speakers described research using novel tests of object recognition, spatial navigation, attentional control, semantic memory, semantic interference, prospective memory, false memory and executive function as among the tools that could provide earlier identification of individuals with AD. In addition to early detection, there is a need for assessments that reflect real-world situations in order to better assess functional disability. It is especially important to develop assessment tools that are useful in ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse populations as well as in individuals with neurodegenerative disease other than AD. PMID:23559893

Children with differing developmental trajectories of prelinguistic communication skills: language and working memory at age 5.

PubMed

Määttä, Sira; Laakso, Marja-Leena; Tolvanen, Asko; Ahonen, Timo; Aro, Tuija

2014-06-01

In this article, the authors examine the developmental continuity from prelinguistic communication to kindergarten age in language and working memory capacity. Following work outlining 6 groups of children with different trajectories of early communication development (ECD; Määttä, Laakso, Tolvanen, Ahonen, & Aro, 2012), the authors examined their later development by psychometric assessment. Ninety-one children first assessed at ages 12-21 months completed a battery of language and working memory tests at age 5;3 (years;months). Two of the ECD groups previously identified as being at risk for language difficulties continued to show weaker performance at follow-up. Seventy-nine percent of the children with compromised language skills at follow-up were identified on the basis of the ECD groups, but the number of false positives was high. The 2 at-risk groups also differed significantly from the typically developing groups in the measures tapping working memory capacity. In line with the dimensional view of language impairment, the accumulation of early delays predicted the amount of later difficulties; however, at the individual level, the prediction had rather low specificity. The results imply a strong link between language and working memory and call for further studies examining the early developmental interaction between language and memory.

An International Evaluation of Cognitive Reserve and Memory Changes in Early Old Age in 10 European Countries.

PubMed

Cadar, Dorina; Robitaille, Annie; Clouston, Sean; Hofer, Scott M; Piccinin, Andrea M; Muniz-Terrera, Graciela

2017-01-01

Cognitive reserve was postulated to explain individual differences in susceptibility to ageing, offering apparent protection to those with higher education. We investigated the association between education and change in memory in early old age. Immediate and delayed memory scores from over 10,000 individuals aged 65 years and older, from 10 countries of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, were modeled as a function of time in the study over an 8-year period, fitting independent latent growth models. Education was used as a marker of cognitive reserve and evaluated in association with memory performance and rate of change, while accounting for income, general health, smoking, body mass index, gender, and baseline age. In most countries, more educated individuals performed better on both memory tests at baseline, compared to those less educated. However, education was not protective against faster decline, except for in Spain for both immediate and delayed recall (0.007 [SE = 0.003] and 0.006 [SE = 0.002]), and Switzerland for immediate recall (0.006 [SE = 0.003]). Interestingly, highly educated Italian respondents had slightly faster declines in immediate recall (-0.006 [SE = 0.003]). We found weak evidence of a protective effect of education on memory change in most European samples, although there was a positive association with memory performance at individuals' baseline assessment. © 2017 The Author(s) Published by S. Karger AG, Basel.

Food restriction affects Y-maze spatial recognition memory in developing mice.

PubMed

Fu, Yu; Chen, Yanmei; Li, Liane; Wang, Yumei; Kong, Xiangyang; Wang, Jianhong

2017-08-01

The ambiguous effects of food restriction (FR) on cognition in rodents have been mostly explored in the aged brain by a variety of paradigms, in which either rewards or punishments are involved. This study aims to examine the effects of chronic and acute FR with varying intensities on spatial recognition memory in developing mice. We have used a Y-maze task that is based on the innate tendency of rodents to explore novel environments. In chronic FR, mice had 70-30% chow of control for seven weeks. In acute FR, mice were food restricted for 12-48h before the tests. We found that chronic FR had no effect on the preference of mice for novelty in the Y-maze, but severe FR (50-30% of control) caused impairment on spatial recognition memory. The impairment significantly correlated with the slow weight growth induced by FR. Acute FR also did not affect the novelty preference of mice, but either improved or impaired the memory retention. These data suggest chronic FR impairs Y-maze spatial recognition memory in developing mice depending on FR intensity and individual tolerability of the FR. Moreover, acute FR exerts diverse effects on the memory, either positive or negative. Our findings have revealed new insights on the effects of FR on spatial recognition memory in developing animals. Copyright © 2017 ISDN. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Working Memory Ability Predicts Trajectories of Early Alcohol Use in Adolescents: The Mediational Role of Impulsivity

PubMed Central

Khurana, Atika; Romer, Dan; Betancourt, Laura M.; Brodsky, Nancy L.; Giannetta, Joan M.; Hurt, Hallam

2012-01-01

Aims 1) To evaluate the role of pre-existing weakness in working memory ability (WM) as a risk factor for early alcohol use as mediated by different forms of impulsivity. 2) To assess the adverse effects of progressive alcohol use on variations in WM over time. Design, Setting and Participants A community sample of 358 adolescents [48% males, Meanage(baseline) = 11.4± 0.87 years] from a longitudinal cohort design, assessed annually over four consecutive years with less than 6% attrition. Measurements Repeated assessments were conducted for the following key variables: WM (based on performance on four separate tasks), frequency of alcohol use (AU), and three forms of impulsivity, namely sensation seeking (SS), acting-without-thinking (AWT) and delay discounting (DD). Latent growth curve modeling procedures were used to identify individual trajectories of change for all key variables. Findings Weakness in WM (at baseline) significantly predicted both concurrent alcohol use and increased frequency of use over the four waves (p <.05). This effect was entirely mediated by two forms of impulsivity, AWT and DD, both of which were characterized by underlying weakness in WM. No individual variation was observed in the slopes of WM, which suggests that individual variations in alcohol use were not associated with changes in WM in our early adolescent sample. Conclusions Early adolescent alcohol use may be a consequence of (pre-existing) weaknesses in working memory (WM) rather than a cause of it. Efforts to reduce early alcohol use should consider the distinct roles of different impulsivity dimensions, in addition to WM, as potential targets of intervention. PMID:23033972

Early transduction produces highly functional chimeric antigen receptor-modified virus-specific T-cells with central memory markers: a Production Assistant for Cell Therapy (PACT) translational application.

PubMed

Sun, Jiali; Huye, Leslie E; Lapteva, Natalia; Mamonkin, Maksim; Hiregange, Manasa; Ballard, Brandon; Dakhova, Olga; Raghavan, Darshana; Durett, April G; Perna, Serena K; Omer, Bilal; Rollins, Lisa A; Leen, Ann M; Vera, Juan F; Dotti, Gianpietro; Gee, Adrian P; Brenner, Malcolm K; Myers, Douglas G; Rooney, Cliona M

2015-01-01

Virus-specific T-cells (VSTs) proliferate exponentially after adoptive transfer into hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients, eliminate virus infections, then persist and provide long-term protection from viral disease. If VSTs behaved similarly when modified with tumor-specific chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), they should have potent anti-tumor activity. This theory was evaluated by Cruz et al. in a previous clinical trial with CD19.CAR-modified VSTs, but there was little apparent expansion of these cells in patients. In that study, VSTs were gene-modified on day 19 of culture and we hypothesized that by this time, sufficient T-cell differentiation may have occurred to limit the subsequent proliferative capacity of the transduced T-cells. To facilitate the clinical testing of this hypothesis in a project supported by the NHLBI-PACT mechanism, we developed and optimized a good manufacturing practices (GMP) compliant method for the early transduction of VSTs directed to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), Adenovirus (AdV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) using a CAR directed to the tumor-associated antigen disialoganglioside (GD2). Ad-CMVpp65-transduced EBV-LCLs effectively stimulated VSTs directed to all three viruses (triVSTs). Transduction efficiency on day three was increased in the presence of cytokines and high-speed centrifugation of retroviral supernatant onto retronectin-coated plates, so that under optimal conditions up to 88% of tetramer-positive VSTs expressed the GD2.CAR. The average transduction efficiency of early-and late transduced VSTs was 55 ± 4% and 22 ± 5% respectively, and early-transduced VSTs maintained higher frequencies of T cells with central memory or intermediate memory phenotypes. Early-transduced VSTs also had higher proliferative capacity and produced higher levels of TH1 cytokines IL-2, TNF-α, IFN-γ, MIP-1α, MIP-1β and other cytokines in vitro. We developed a rapid and GMP compliant method for the early transduction of

Novel Cognitive Paradigms for the Detection of Memory Impairment in Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease

PubMed Central

Loewenstein, David A.; Curiel, Rosie E.; Duara, Ranjan; Buschke, Herman

2017-01-01

In spite of advances in neuroimaging and other brain biomarkers to assess preclinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD), cognitive assessment has relied on traditional memory paradigms developed well over six decades ago. This has led to a growing concern about their effectiveness in the early diagnosis of AD which is essential to develop preventive and early targeted interventions before the occurrence of multisystem brain degeneration. We describe the development of novel tests that are more cognitively challenging, minimize variability in learning strategies, enhance initial acquisition and retrieval using cues, and exploit vulnerabilities in persons with incipient AD such as the susceptibility to proactive semantic interference, and failure to recover from proactive semantic interference. The advantages of various novel memory assessment paradigms are examined as well as how they compare with traditional neuropsychological assessments of memory. Finally, future directions for the development of more effective assessment paradigms are suggested. PMID:29214859

Association of KIBRA rs17070145 polymorphism with episodic memory in the early stages of a human neurodevelopmental disorder.

PubMed

Vyas, Nora S; Ahn, Kwangmi; Stahl, Daniel R; Caviston, Paul; Simic, Mima; Netherwood, Siobhan; Puri, Basant K; Lee, Yohan; Aitchison, Katherine J

2014-12-15

A common T/C polymorphism within the ninth intron of the KIBRA gene (rs17070145) is thought to influence memory in humans. Since cognitive impairment, including memory, is a core feature of schizophrenia, we attempted to investigate this association in an independent sample of adolescent patients with early-onset schizophrenia (EOS; onset before age 18) probands and their healthy siblings. In a sample of 25 pairs of EOS proband-healthy full sibling, we sought to investigate the association of KIBRA with memory performance. Episodic memory was measured using immediate and delayed recall measures of the California Verbal Learning Test. EOS underperformed at immediate and delayed recall compared with siblings. In a combined analysis (TT vs. TC/CC) assuming a C dominant model of inheritance, we found a main effect of genotype where individuals with TT genotype outperformed non-TT-carriers at immediate and delayed recall. A genotype by group interaction showed that EOS with TT genotype did not show a memory advantage over siblings with TT or non-TT-carriers at immediate or delayed recall. Siblings with TT genotype showed enhanced immediate recall (not delayed recall) compared with non-TT-carriers. This study demonstrates an association between the KIBRA gene and episodic memory (immediate free recall) and suggests a differential effect of this genetic variant in EOS and healthy siblings. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Influence of Family and Childhood Memories in the Development and Manifestation of Paranoid Ideation.

PubMed

Carvalho, Célia Barreto; da Motta, Carolina; Pinto-Gouveia, José; Peixoto, Ermelindo

2016-09-01

Several studies point out to the influence of social experiences on perceptions of the environment and others in cognitive functioning and different aspects of psychopathology. The current study aimed at studying the influence of the psychosocial risk factors in a mixed sample of participants from the general population and affected by paranoid schizophrenia. The extent to which the existence of negative life events and events that are threatening to the inner models of the self (i.e., history of maltreatment, physical, social or psychological abuse) or the memories of these traumatic events occurring during childhood are related to the existence of paranoid beliefs in adulthood was explored. Results suggested that memories of parental behaviours characterized by antipathy from both parental figures, submissiveness and bullying victimization were important predictors of paranoid ideation in adult life. This further emphasizes the need for understanding the family and social dynamics of people presenting paranoid ideations to the development of therapeutic interventions that can effectively reduce the invalidation caused by severe psychopathology, as is the case of schizophrenia. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Memories of family dynamics characterized by behaviours of antipathy from both parental figures, submissiveness and bullying victimization are important predictors of paranoid ideation in adult life. The study highlights the importance of exploring subjective recalls of feelings and behaviours associated with early rearing experiences, peer relationships and themes related to social rank theory in the roots of internal models of relationship with the self and others in the general sample, patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and their first-degree relatives. Our findings indicate that schizophrenic patients in active phase differ regarding memories of threat and submission and are more likely to remember childhood experiences perceived as

Memoir of Tanzania: Learning about Early Childhood Projects in Developing Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Penn, Helen

2017-01-01

This article considers the contribution of memoir as a method for understanding complex early childhood issues. It recounts the author's first visit to Tanzania, a low-income country with a chequered history of independence from colonial rule. The article uses memories from that initial visit to reflect on the changing interpretations of colonial…

Does Early Kurmanji Speaking Bilingualism Lead to Better Academic Performance? The Role of Working Memory and Reading Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seadatee-Shamir, Abootaleb; Soleimanian, AliAkbar; Zahmatkesh, Zeinab; Mahdian, Hossein

2011-01-01

The relationship among WMC (working memory capacity), reading performance and academic achievement is both logically and theoretically undisputable. However, what may not be as obvious is that such capacity and performance, and as a result, achievement, could be higher among ECBL (early childhood bilingual) students. To reaffirm the obvious and…

Tone Series and the Nature of Working Memory Capacity Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Katherine M.; Hardman, Kyle O.; Schachtman, Todd R.; Saults, J. Scott; Glass, Bret A.; Cowan, Nelson

2018-01-01

Recent advances in understanding visual working memory, the limited information held in mind for use in ongoing processing, are extended here to examine auditory working memory development. Research with arrays of visual objects has shown how to distinguish the capacity, in terms of the "number" of objects retained, from the…

Memory development in the second year: for events or locations?

PubMed

Russell, James; Thompson, Doreen

2003-04-01

We employed an object-placement/object-removal design, inspired by recent work on 'episodic-like' memory in scrub jays (Clayton, N. S., & Dickinson, A. (1998). Episodic-like memory during cache recovery by scrub jays. Nature, 395, 272-274), to examine the possibility that children in the second year of life have event-based memories. In one task, a successful search could have been due to the recall of an object-removal event. In the second task, a successful search could only have been caused by recall of where objects were located. Success was general in the oldest group of children (21-25 months), while performance was broadly similar on the two tasks. The parsimonious interpretation of this outcome is that the first task was performed by location memory, not by event memory. We place these data in the context of object permanence development.

Structural Components of Synaptic Plasticity and Memory Consolidation

PubMed Central

Bailey, Craig H.; Kandel, Eric R.; Harris, Kristen M.

2015-01-01

Consolidation of implicit memory in the invertebrate Aplysia and explicit memory in the mammalian hippocampus are associated with remodeling and growth of preexisting synapses and the formation of new synapses. Here, we compare and contrast structural components of the synaptic plasticity that underlies these two distinct forms of memory. In both cases, the structural changes involve time-dependent processes. Thus, some modifications are transient and may contribute to early formative stages of long-term memory, whereas others are more stable, longer lasting, and likely to confer persistence to memory storage. In addition, we explore the possibility that trans-synaptic signaling mechanisms governing de novo synapse formation during development can be reused in the adult for the purposes of structural synaptic plasticity and memory storage. Finally, we discuss how these mechanisms set in motion structural rearrangements that prepare a synapse to strengthen the same memory and, perhaps, to allow it to take part in other memories as a basis for understanding how their anatomical representation results in the enhanced expression and storage of memories in the brain. PMID:26134321

Development of auditory sensory memory from 2 to 6 years: an MMN study.

PubMed

Glass, Elisabeth; Sachse, Steffi; von Suchodoletz, Waldemar

2008-08-01

Short-term storage of auditory information is thought to be a precondition for cognitive development, and deficits in short-term memory are believed to underlie learning disabilities and specific language disorders. We examined the development of the duration of auditory sensory memory in normally developing children between the ages of 2 and 6 years. To probe the lifetime of auditory sensory memory we elicited the mismatch negativity (MMN), a component of the late auditory evoked potential, with tone stimuli of two different frequencies presented with various interstimulus intervals between 500 and 5,000 ms. Our findings suggest that memory traces for tone characteristics have a duration of 1-2 s in 2- and 3-year-old children, more than 2 s in 4-year-olds and 3-5 s in 6-year-olds. The results provide insights into the maturational processes involved in auditory sensory memory during the sensitive period of cognitive development.

Activation of the occipital cortex and deactivation of the default mode network during working memory in the early blind.

PubMed

Park, Hae-Jeong; Chun, Ji-Won; Park, Bumhee; Park, Haeil; Kim, Joong Il; Lee, Jong Doo; Kim, Jae-Jin

2011-05-01

Although blind people heavily depend on working memory to manage daily life without visual information, it is not clear yet whether their working memory processing involves functional reorganization of the memory-related cortical network. To explore functional reorganization of the cortical network that supports various types of working memory processes in the early blind, we investigated activation differences between 2-back tasks and 0-back tasks using fMRI in 10 congenitally blind subjects and 10 sighted subjects. We used three types of stimulus sequences: words for a verbal task, pitches for a non-verbal task, and sound locations for a spatial task. When compared to the sighted, the blind showed additional activations in the occipital lobe for all types of stimulus sequences for working memory and more significant deactivation in the posterior cingulate cortex of the default mode network. The blind had increased effective connectivity from the default mode network to the left parieto-frontal network and from the occipital cortex to the right parieto-frontal network during the 2-back tasks than the 0-back tasks. These findings suggest not only cortical plasticity of the occipital cortex but also reorganization of the cortical network for the executive control of working memory.

Dehydroepiandrosterone impacts working memory by shaping cortico-hippocampal structural covariance during development.

PubMed

Nguyen, Tuong-Vi; Wu, Mia; Lew, Jimin; Albaugh, Matthew D; Botteron, Kelly N; Hudziak, James J; Fonov, Vladimir S; Collins, D Louis; Campbell, Benjamin C; Booij, Linda; Herba, Catherine; Monnier, Patricia; Ducharme, Simon; McCracken, James T

2017-12-01

Existing studies suggest that dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) may be important for human brain development and cognition. For example, molecular studies have hinted at the critical role of DHEA in enhancing brain plasticity. Studies of human brain development also support the notion that DHEA is involved in preserving cortical plasticity. Further, some, though not all, studies show that DHEA administration may lead to improvements in working memory in adults. Yet these findings remain limited by an incomplete understanding of the specific neuroanatomical mechanisms through which DHEA may impact the CNS during development. Here we examined associations between DHEA, cortico-hippocampal structural covariance, and working memory (216 participants [female=123], age range 6-22 years old, mean age: 13.6 +/-3.6 years, each followed for a maximum of 3 visits over the course of 4 years). In addition to administering performance-based, spatial working memory tests to these children, we also collected ecological, parent ratings of working memory in everyday situations. We found that increasingly higher DHEA levels were associated with a shift toward positive insular-hippocampal and occipito-hippocampal structural covariance. In turn, DHEA-related insular-hippocampal covariance was associated with lower spatial working memory but higher overall working memory as measured by the ecological parent ratings. Taken together with previous research, these results support the hypothesis that DHEA may optimize cortical functions related to general attentional and working memory processes, but impair the development of bottom-up, hippocampal-to-cortical connections, resulting in impaired encoding of spatial cues. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Longitudinal Investigation of Source Memory Reveals Different Developmental Trajectories for Item Memory and Binding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riggins, Tracy

2014-01-01

The present study used a cohort-sequential design to examine developmental changes in children's ability to bind items in memory during early and middle childhood. Three cohorts of children (aged 4, 6, or 8 years) were followed longitudinally for 3 years. Each year, children completed a source memory paradigm assessing memory for items and…

Evidence for a differential contribution of early perceptual and late cognitive processes during encoding to episodic memory impairment in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Green, Amity E; Fitzgerald, Paul B; Johnston, Patrick J; Nathan, Pradeep J; Kulkarni, Jayashri; Croft, Rodney J

2017-08-01

Schizophrenia is characterised by significant episodic memory impairment that is thought to be related to problems with encoding, however the neuro-functional mechanisms underlying these deficits are not well understood. The present study used a subsequent recognition memory paradigm and event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate temporal aspects of episodic memory encoding deficits in schizophrenia. Electroencephalographic data was recorded in 24 patients and 19 healthy controls whilst participants categorised single words as pleasant/unpleasant. ERPs were generated to subsequently recognised versus unrecognised words on the basis of a forced-choice recognition memory task. Subsequent memory effects were examined with the late positive component (LPP). Group differences in N1, P2, N400 and LPP were examined for words correctly recognised. Patients performed more poorly than controls on the recognition task. During encoding patients had significantly reduced N400 and LPP amplitudes than controls. LPP amplitude correlated with task performance however amplitudes did not differ between patients and controls as a function of subsequent memory. No significant differences in N1 or P2 amplitude or latency were observed. The present results indicate that early sensory processes are intact and dysfunctional higher order cognitive processes during encoding are contributing to episodic memory impairments in schizophrenia.

Astrocyte glycogen and lactate: New insights into learning and memory mechanisms.

PubMed

Alberini, Cristina M; Cruz, Emmanuel; Descalzi, Giannina; Bessières, Benjamin; Gao, Virginia

2018-06-01

Memory, the ability to retain learned information, is necessary for survival. Thus far, molecular and cellular investigations of memory formation and storage have mainly focused on neuronal mechanisms. In addition to neurons, however, the brain comprises other types of cells and systems, including glia and vasculature. Accordingly, recent experimental work has begun to ask questions about the roles of non-neuronal cells in memory formation. These studies provide evidence that all types of glial cells (astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and microglia) make important contributions to the processing of encoded information and storing memories. In this review, we summarize and discuss recent findings on the critical role of astrocytes as providers of energy for the long-lasting neuronal changes that are necessary for long-term memory formation. We focus on three main findings: first, the role of glucose metabolism and the learning- and activity-dependent metabolic coupling between astrocytes and neurons in the service of long-term memory formation; second, the role of astrocytic glucose metabolism in arousal, a state that contributes to the formation of very long-lasting and detailed memories; and finally, in light of the high energy demands of the brain during early development, we will discuss the possible role of astrocytic and neuronal glucose metabolisms in the formation of early-life memories. We conclude by proposing future directions and discussing the implications of these findings for brain health and disease. Astrocyte glycogenolysis and lactate play a critical role in memory formation. Emotionally salient experiences form strong memories by recruiting astrocytic β2 adrenergic receptors and astrocyte-generated lactate. Glycogenolysis and astrocyte-neuron metabolic coupling may also play critical roles in memory formation during development, when the energy requirements of brain metabolism are at their peak. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Taiwanese Early Childhood Educators' Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsu, Ching-Yun

2008-01-01

This study was designed based on a qualitative paradigm to explore the professional development of Taiwanese early childhood educators. The method of phenomenology was employed. The main research question addressed was "How do early childhood educators construe their professional development experience?" Seven Taiwanese early childhood…

Early blindness alters the spatial organization of verbal working memory.

PubMed

Bottini, Roberto; Mattioni, Stefania; Collignon, Olivier

2016-10-01

Several studies suggest that serial order in working memory (WM) is grounded on space. For a list of ordered items held in WM, items at the beginning of the list are associated with the left side of space and items at the end of the list with the right side. This suggests that maintaining items in verbal WM is performed in strong analogy to writing these items down on a physical whiteboard for later consultation (The Mental Whiteboard Hypothesis). What drives this spatial mapping of ordered series in WM remains poorly understood. In the present study we tested whether visual experience is instrumental in establishing the link between serial order in WM and spatial processing. We tested early blind (EB), late blind (LB) and sighted individuals in an auditory WM task. Replicating previous studies, left-key responses were faster for early items in the list whereas later items facilitated right-key responses in the sighted group. The same effect was observed in LB individuals. In contrast, EB participants did not show any association between space and serial position in WM. These results suggest that early visual experience plays a critical role in linking ordered items in WM and spatial representations. The analogical spatial structure of WM may depend in part on the actual experience of using spatially organized devices (e.g., notes, whiteboards) to offload WM. These practices are largely precluded to EB individuals, who instead rely to mnemonic devices that are less spatially organized (e.g., recordings, vocal notes). The way we habitually organize information in the external world may bias the way we organize information in our WM. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Early Years Practitioners' Views on Early Personal, Social and Emotional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aubrey, Carol; Ward, Karen

2013-01-01

Current policy guidance stresses the need for early identification of obstacles to learning and appropriate intervention. New standards for learning (Early Years Foundation Stage) place personal, social and emotional development (PSED) as central to learning and development. This paper reports a survey and follow-up interviews with early years…

Relational Associative Learning Induces Cross-Modal Plasticity in Early Visual Cortex

PubMed Central

Headley, Drew B.; Weinberger, Norman M.

2015-01-01

Neurobiological theories of memory posit that the neocortex is a storage site of declarative memories, a hallmark of which is the association of two arbitrary neutral stimuli. Early sensory cortices, once assumed uninvolved in memory storage, recently have been implicated in associations between neutral stimuli and reward or punishment. We asked whether links between neutral stimuli also could be formed in early visual or auditory cortices. Rats were presented with a tone paired with a light using a sensory preconditioning paradigm that enabled later evaluation of successful association. Subjects that acquired this association developed enhanced sound evoked potentials in their primary and secondary visual cortices. Laminar recordings localized this potential to cortical Layers 5 and 6. A similar pattern of activation was elicited by microstimulation of primary auditory cortex in the same subjects, consistent with a cortico-cortical substrate of association. Thus, early sensory cortex has the capability to form neutral stimulus associations. This plasticity may constitute a declarative memory trace between sensory cortices. PMID:24275832

Volume of hippocampal subfields and episodic memory in childhood and adolescence.

PubMed

Lee, Joshua K; Ekstrom, Arne D; Ghetti, Simona

2014-07-01

Episodic memory critically depends on the hippocampus to bind the features of an experience into memory. Episodic memory develops in childhood and adolescence, and hippocampal changes during this period may contribute to this development. Little is known, however, about how the hippocampus contributes to episodic memory development. The hippocampus is comprised of several cytoarchitectural subfields with functional significance for episodic memory. However, hippocampal subfields have not been assessed in vivo during child development, nor has their relation with episodic memory been assessed during this period. In the present study, high-resolution T2-weighted images of the hippocampus were acquired in 39 children and adolescents aged 8 to 14 years (M=11.30, SD=2.38), and hippocampal subfields were segmented using a protocol previously validated in adult populations. We first validated the method in children and adolescents and examined age-related differences in hippocampal subfields and correlations between subfield volumes and episodic memory. Significant age-related increases in the subfield volume were observed into early adolescence in the right CA3/DG and CA1. The right CA3/DG subfield volumes were positively correlated with accurate episodic memory for item-color relations, and the right CA3/DG and subiculum were negatively correlated with item false alarm rates. Subfield development appears to follow a protracted developmental trajectory, and likely plays a pivotal role in episodic memory development. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Episodic but not semantic order memory difficulties in autism spectrum disorder: evidence from the Historical Figures Task.

PubMed

Gaigg, Sebastian B; Bowler, Dermot M; Gardiner, John M

2014-01-01

Considerable evidence suggests that the episodic memory system operates abnormally in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) whereas the functions of the semantic memory system are relatively preserved. Here we show that the same dissociation also applies to the domain of order memory. We asked adult participants to order the names of famous historical figures either according to their chronological order in history (probing semantic memory) or according to a random sequence shown once on a screen (probing episodic memory). As predicted, adults with ASD performed less well than age- and IQ-matched comparison individuals only on the episodic task. This observation is of considerable importance in the context of developmental theory because semantic and episodic order memory abilities can be dissociated in typically developing infants before they reach the age at which the behavioural markers associated with ASD are first apparent. This raises the possibility that early emerging memory abnormalities play a role in shaping the developmental trajectory of the disorder. We discuss the broader implications of this possibility and highlight the urgent need for greater scrutiny of memory competences in ASD early in development.

Memory for “mean” over “nice”: The influence of threat on children’s face memory

PubMed Central

Kinzler, Katherine D.; Shutts, Kristin

2008-01-01

Adults remember faces of threatening over non-threatening individuals. This memory advantage could be indicative of a system rooted deeply in cognitive evolution to track and remember individuals who have been harmful in the past and therefore might be harmful again. Conversely, adults may have learned through experience that it pays to be vigilant. In the present research, we investigated whether attention to threatening individuals is privileged in young children’s face memory. In Experiment 1, preschool-age children showed a face recognition memory advantage for individuals who were said to have committed harmful rather than helpful actions. In a further experiment, children did not selectively remember individuals who were described as the recipients of these actions, suggesting that the memory enhancement was produced by threat rather than negative valence. Together, these findings provide evidence for an early-developing system for remembering threatening individuals, consistent with an evolutionary account of its origins. PMID:18001702

Bioecological Theory, Early Child Development and the Validation of the Population-Level Early Development Instrument

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guhn, Martin; Goelman, Hillel

2011-01-01

The Early Development Instrument (EDI; Janus and Offord in "Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science" 39:1-22, 2007) project is a Canadian population-level, longitudinal research project, in which teacher ratings of Kindergarten children's early development and wellbeing are linked to health and academic achievement variables at the…

The effects of early-life adversity on fear memories in adolescent rats and their persistence into adulthood.

PubMed

Chocyk, Agnieszka; Przyborowska, Aleksandra; Makuch, Wioletta; Majcher-Maślanka, Iwona; Dudys, Dorota; Wędzony, Krzysztof

2014-05-01

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by extensive morphological and functional remodeling of the brain. The processes of brain maturation during this period may unmask malfunctions that originate earlier in life as a consequence of early-life stress (ELS). This is associated with the emergence of many psychopathologies during adolescence, particularly affective spectrum disorders. In the present study, we applied a maternal separation (MS) procedure (3h/day, on postnatal days 1-14) as a model of ELS to examine its effects on the acquisition, expression and extinction of fear memories in adolescent rats. Additionally, we studied the persistence of these memories into adulthood. We found that MS decreased the expression of both contextual (CFC) and auditory (AFC) fear conditioning in adolescent rats. Besides, MS had no impact on the acquisition of extinction learning. During the recall of extinction MS animals both, those previously subjected and not subjected to the extinction session, exhibited equally low levels of freezing. In adulthood, the MS animals (conditioned during adolescence) still displayed impairments in the expression of AFC (only in males) and CFC. Furthermore, the MS procedure had also an impact on the expression of CFC (but not AFC) after retraining in adulthood. Our findings imply that ELS may permanently affect fear learning and memory. The results also support the hypothesis that, depending on individual predispositions and further experiences, ELS may either lead to a resilience or a vulnerability to early- and late-onsets psychopathologies. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Visual Memories Bypass Normalization.

PubMed

Bloem, Ilona M; Watanabe, Yurika L; Kibbe, Melissa M; Ling, Sam

2018-05-01

How distinct are visual memory representations from visual perception? Although evidence suggests that briefly remembered stimuli are represented within early visual cortices, the degree to which these memory traces resemble true visual representations remains something of a mystery. Here, we tested whether both visual memory and perception succumb to a seemingly ubiquitous neural computation: normalization. Observers were asked to remember the contrast of visual stimuli, which were pitted against each other to promote normalization either in perception or in visual memory. Our results revealed robust normalization between visual representations in perception, yet no signature of normalization occurring between working memory stores-neither between representations in memory nor between memory representations and visual inputs. These results provide unique insight into the nature of visual memory representations, illustrating that visual memory representations follow a different set of computational rules, bypassing normalization, a canonical visual computation.

Memory profiles of Down, Williams, and fragile X syndromes: implications for reading development.

PubMed

Conners, Frances A; Moore, Marie S; Loveall, Susan J; Merrill, Edward C

2011-06-01

The purpose of this review was to understand the types of memory impairments that are associated with intellectual disability (ID, formerly called mental retardation) and the implications of these impairments for reading development. Specifically, studies on working memory, delayed memory and learning, and semantic/conceptual memory in Down syndrome, Williams syndrome, and fragile X syndrome were examined. A distinct memory profile emerged for each of the 3 etiologies of ID. Memory profiles are discussed in relation to strengths and weaknesses in reading skills in these three etiologies. We suggest that reading instruction be designed to capitalize on relatively stronger memory skills while providing extra support for especially challenging aspects of reading.

The development of strategy use in elementary school children: working memory and individual differences.

PubMed

Imbo, Ineke; Vandierendonck, André

2007-04-01

The current study tested the development of working memory involvement in children's arithmetic strategy selection and strategy efficiency. To this end, an experiment in which the dual-task method and the choice/no-choice method were combined was administered to 10- to 12-year-olds. Working memory was needed in retrieval, transformation, and counting strategies, but the ratio between available working memory resources and arithmetic task demands changed across development. More frequent retrieval use, more efficient memory retrieval, and more efficient counting processes reduced the working memory requirements. Strategy efficiency and strategy selection were also modified by individual differences such as processing speed, arithmetic skill, gender, and math anxiety. Short-term memory capacity, in contrast, was not related to children's strategy selection or strategy efficiency.

Early, Involuntary Top-Down Guidance of Attention From Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soto, David; Heinke, Dietmar; Humphreys, Glyn W.; Blanco, Manuel J.

2005-01-01

Four experiments explored the interrelations between working memory, attention, and eye movements. Observers had to identify a tilted line amongst vertical distractors. Each line was surrounded by a colored shape that could be precued by a matching item held in memory. Relative to a neutral baseline, in which no shapes matched the memory item,…

Effects of Postnatal Serotonin Agonism on Fear Response and Memory

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT) also acts as a neurogenic compound in the developing brain. Early administration of a 5-HT agonist could alter the development of the serotonergic circuitry, altering behaviors mediated by 5-HT signaling, such as memory, fear and aggression. White leghorn chicks...

[Neurobiology of learning and memory and anti-dementia drug].

PubMed

Ishikawa, K

1995-08-01

Discoveries of long-term potentiation and immediate early gene in the central nervous system have enabled new developments in experiments on learning and memory. These experiments are conducted in many kinds of animals with different procedures, physiology, chemistry and pharmacology. However, there is still some confusion when these various procedures are discussed. Memory is defined as information storage of an animal's previous experiences. The memory induces changes in behavioral performance. This means that memory must be observed in whole animals, and one question that can occur is how does long-term potentiation, for example, correlate with memory. Furthermore, memory has been divided into two major classifications, declarative and non-declarative, from the comparison of amnesias observed in humans and animals. The declarative memory can be observed in human subjects, but not in animals. This article presents a neuronal circuit concerning memory formation and some results obtained from benzodiazepines, and it discusses some problems encountered executing when experiments on learning and memory. In addition, the discussion speculates over the possibility for an "anti-dementia drug".

Early Developments, 1998.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Little, Loyd, Ed.

1998-01-01

This document consists of the two 1998 issues of a journal reporting new research in early child development conducted by the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In the Spring 1998 issue, articles highlight the Center's diverse cross-cultural projects and global research, training and…

Selective Memory to Apoptotic Cell-Derived Self-Antigens with Implications for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Development.

PubMed

Duhlin, Amanda; Chen, Yunying; Wermeling, Fredrik; Sedimbi, Saikiran K; Lindh, Emma; Shinde, Rahul; Halaby, Marie Jo; Kaiser, Ylva; Winqvist, Ola; McGaha, Tracy L; Karlsson, Mikael C I

2016-10-01

Autoimmune diseases are characterized by pathogenic immune responses to self-antigens. In systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), many self-antigens are found in apoptotic cells (ACs), and defects in removal of ACs from the body are linked to a risk for developing SLE. This includes pathological memory that gives rise to disease flares. In this study, we investigated how memory to AC-derived self-antigens develops and the contribution of self-memory to the development of lupus-related pathology. Multiple injections of ACs without adjuvant into wild-type mice induce a transient primary autoimmune response without apparent anti-nuclear Ab reactivity or kidney pathology. Interestingly, as the transient Ab response reached baseline, a single boost injection fully recalled the immune response to ACs, and this memory response was furthermore transferable into naive mice. Additionally, the memory response contains elements of pathogenicity, accompanied by selective memory to selective Ags. Thus, we provide evidence for a selective self-memory that underlies progression of the response to self-antigens with implications for SLE development therapy. Copyright © 2016 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc.

Development of highly reliable static random access memory for 40-nm embedded split gate-MONOS flash memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Okamoto, Shin-ichi; Maekawa, Kei-ichi; Kawashima, Yoshiyuki; Shiba, Kazutoshi; Sugiyama, Hideki; Inoue, Masao; Nishida, Akio

2015-04-01

High quality static random access memory (SRAM) for 40-nm embedded MONOS flash memory with split gate (SG-MONOS) was developed. Marginal failure, which results in threshold voltage/drain current tailing and outliers of SRAM transistors, occurs when using a conventional SRAM structure. These phenomena can be explained by not only gate depletion but also partial depletion and percolation path formation in the MOS channel. A stacked poly-Si gate structure can suppress these phenomena and achieve high quality SRAM without any defects in the 6σ level and with high affinity to the 40-nm SG-MONOS process was developed.

Protracted development of executive and mnemonic brain systems underlying working memory in adolescence: A longitudinal fMRI study.

PubMed

Simmonds, Daniel J; Hallquist, Michael N; Luna, Beatriz

2017-08-15

Working memory (WM), the ability to hold information on-line to guide planned behavior, improves through adolescence in parallel with continued maturation of critical brain systems supporting cognitive control. Initial developmental neuroimaging studies with one or two timepoints have provided important though varied results limiting our understanding of which and how neural systems change during this transition into mature WM. In this study, we leverage functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) longitudinal data spanning up to 9 years in 129 normally developing individuals to identify which systems demonstrate growth changes that accompany improvements in WM performance. We used a memory guided saccade task that allowed us to probe encoding, pure maintenance, and retrieval neural processes of WM. Consistent with prior research, we found that WM performance continued to improve into the early 20's. fMRI region of interest (ROI) analyses revealed developmental (1) increases in sensorimotor-related (encoding/retrieval) activity in visual cortex from childhood through early adulthood that were associated with WM accuracy and (2) decreases in sustained (maintenance) activity in executive regions from childhood through mid-adolescence that were associated with response latency in childhood and early adolescence. Together these results provide compelling evidence that underlying the maturation of WM is a transition from reliance on executive systems to specialized regions related to the domain of mnemonic requirements of the task leading to optimal performance. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

A Genome-wide Regulatory Network Identifies Key Transcription Factors for Memory CD8+ T Cell Development

PubMed Central

Hu, Guangan; Chen, Jianzhu

2014-01-01

Memory CD8+ T cell development is defined by the expression of a specific set of memory signature genes (MSGs). Despite recent progress, many components of the transcriptional control of memory CD8+ T cell development are still unknown. To identify transcription factors (TFs) and their interactions in memory CD8+ T cell development, we construct a genome-wide regulatory network and apply it to identify key TFs that regulate MSGs. Most of the known TFs in memory CD8+ T cell development are rediscovered and about a dozen new TFs are also identified. Sox4, Bhlhe40, Bach2 and Runx2 are experimentally verified and Bach2 is further shown to promote both development and recall proliferation of memory CD8+ T cells through Prdm1 and Id3. Gene perturbation study identifies the mode of interactions among the TFs with Sox4 as a hub. The identified TFs and insights into their interactions should facilitate further dissection of molecular mechanisms underlying memory CD8+ T cell development. PMID:24335726

Children’s visuospatial memory predicts mathematics achievement through early adolescence

PubMed Central

Li, Yaoran

2017-01-01

A previous study showed that gains in visuospatial memory from first to fifth grade predicted end-of-fifth grade mathematics but not reading achievement, controlling other factors. In this follow up study, these relations were assessed from sixth to ninth grade, inclusive (n = 145). The results showed that growth in visuospatial memory across the elementary school years was related to growth in mathematics achievement after fifth grade, controlling intelligence, the central executive and phonological memory components of working memory, in-class attentive behavior, parental education, and fifth grade mathematics achievement. As found for fifth grade, this relation was not found for reading achievement after fifth grade. In total, the results suggest that visuospatial memory has a unique influence on ease of learning some types of mathematics and that this influence becomes more important across successive grades. PMID:28192484

Emotion knowledge and autobiographical memory across the preschool years: a cross-cultural longitudinal investigation.

PubMed

Wang, Qi

2008-07-01

Knowledge of emotion situations facilitates the interpretation, processing, and organization of significant personal event information and thus may be an important contributor to the development of autobiographical memory. This longitudinal study tested the hypothesis in a cross-cultural context. The participants were native Chinese children, Chinese children from first-generation Chinese immigrant families in the U.S., and European American children. Children's developing emotion knowledge and autobiographical memory were assessed three times at home, when children were 3, 3.5, and 4.5 years of age. Children's emotion knowledge uniquely predicted their autobiographical memory ability across groups and time points. Emotion knowledge further mediated culture effects on autobiographical memory. The findings provide important insight into early autobiographical memory development, and extend current theoretical understandings of the emotion-memory interplay. They further have implications for the phenomenon of infantile amnesia and cross-cultural differences in childhood recollections.

Development of the Wechsler Memory Scale--Revised.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herman, David O.; Young, Laura

A study involving a sample of people selected to represent the nonimpaired American population, aged 16 to 74 years, was undertaken to determine the effectiveness of the Wechsler Memory Scale--Revised. The scale's subtests were designed to assess memory of personal and general knowledge, logical memory, verbal paired association, figural memory,…

Visual Memories Bypass Normalization

PubMed Central

Bloem, Ilona M.; Watanabe, Yurika L.; Kibbe, Melissa M.; Ling, Sam

2018-01-01

How distinct are visual memory representations from visual perception? Although evidence suggests that briefly remembered stimuli are represented within early visual cortices, the degree to which these memory traces resemble true visual representations remains something of a mystery. Here, we tested whether both visual memory and perception succumb to a seemingly ubiquitous neural computation: normalization. Observers were asked to remember the contrast of visual stimuli, which were pitted against each other to promote normalization either in perception or in visual memory. Our results revealed robust normalization between visual representations in perception, yet no signature of normalization occurring between working memory stores—neither between representations in memory nor between memory representations and visual inputs. These results provide unique insight into the nature of visual memory representations, illustrating that visual memory representations follow a different set of computational rules, bypassing normalization, a canonical visual computation. PMID:29596038

The strengths and weaknesses in verbal short-term memory and visual working memory in children with hearing impairment and additional language learning difficulties.

PubMed

Willis, Suzi; Goldbart, Juliet; Stansfield, Jois

2014-07-01

To compare verbal short-term memory and visual working memory abilities of six children with congenital hearing-impairment identified as having significant language learning difficulties with normative data from typically hearing children using standardized memory assessments. Six children with hearing loss aged 8-15 years were assessed on measures of verbal short-term memory (Non-word and word recall) and visual working memory annually over a two year period. All children had cognitive abilities within normal limits and used spoken language as the primary mode of communication. The language assessment scores at the beginning of the study revealed that all six participants exhibited delays of two years or more on standardized assessments of receptive and expressive vocabulary and spoken language. The children with hearing-impairment scores were significantly higher on the non-word recall task than the "real" word recall task. They also exhibited significantly higher scores on visual working memory than those of the age-matched sample from the standardized memory assessment. Each of the six participants in this study displayed the same pattern of strengths and weaknesses in verbal short-term memory and visual working memory despite their very different chronological ages. The children's poor ability to recall single syllable words in relation to non-words is a clinical indicator of their difficulties in verbal short-term memory. However, the children with hearing-impairment do not display generalized processing difficulties and indeed demonstrate strengths in visual working memory. The poor ability to recall words, in combination with difficulties with early word learning may be indicators of children with hearing-impairment who will struggle to develop spoken language equal to that of their normally hearing peers. This early identification has the potential to allow for target specific intervention that may remediate their difficulties. Copyright © 2014. Published

Memory consolidation in human sleep depends on inhibition of glucocorticoid release.

PubMed

Plihal, W; Born, J

1999-09-09

Early sleep dominated by slow-wave sleep has been found to be particularly relevant for declarative memory formation via hippocampo-neocortical networks. Concurrently, early nocturnal sleep is characterized by an inhibition of glucocorticoid release from the adrenals. Here, we show in healthy humans that this inhibition serves to support declarative memory consolidation during sleep. Elevating plasma glucocorticoid concentration during early sleep by administration of cortisol impaired consolidation of paired associate words, but not of non-declarative memory of visuomotor skills. Since glucocorticoid concentration was enhanced only during retention sleep, but not during acquisition or retrieval, a specific effect on the consolidation process is indicated. Blocking mineralocorticoid receptors by canrenoate did not affect memory, suggesting inactivation of glucocorticoid receptors to be the essential prerequisite for memory consolidation during early sleep.

Development of verbal short-term memory and working memory in children with epilepsy: Developmental delay and impact of time-related variables. A cross-sectional study.

PubMed

van Iterson, Loretta; de Jong, Peter F

2018-01-01

While short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) are understood as being crucial for learning, and children with epilepsy often experience learning difficulties, little is known about the age-related development of memory span tasks in children with epilepsy. Short-term memory and WM, operationalized as digit span forwards (DSF) or digit span backwards (DSB), respectively, were studied. Participants were 314 children with epilepsy and 327 typically developing children in ages between 5 and 15years and full scale intelligence quotient (FS-IQ)≥75. Cross-sectional analyses of the data were done with analyses of variance and analyses of covariance ((M)ANCOVAs) and generalized linear analyses. The analyses revealed that STM problems in epilepsy were mediated by age-related gains in WM as well as by differences in IQ. Working memory developed at a quick pace in the younger children, the pace slowed down to some extent in the later primary school years and resumed again later on. Working memory problems prevailed in epilepsy, independent of IQ and development of STM. Timing of the epilepsy in terms of age at onset and duration determined memory development. The youngest children with epilepsy showed age-appropriate development in STM but were the most vulnerable in terms of WM development. Later in the course of the epilepsy, the WM problems of the young children attenuated. In later onset epilepsy, WM problems were smaller but persisted over time. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Associations Between White Matter Microstructure and Infants’ Working Memory

PubMed Central

Short, Sarah J.; Elison, Jed T.; Goldman, Barbara Davis; Styner, Martin; Gu, Hongbin; Connelly, Mark; Maltbie, Eric; Woolson, Sandra; Lin, Weili; Gerig, Guido; Reznick, J. Steven; Gilmore, John H.

2013-01-01

Working memory emerges in infancy and plays a privileged role in subsequent adaptive cognitive development. The neural networks important for the development of working memory during infancy remain unknown. We used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and deterministic fiber tracking to characterize the microstructure of white matter fiber bundles hypothesized to support working memory in 12-month-old infants (n=73). Here we show robust associations between infants’ visuospatial working memory performance and microstructural characteristics of widespread white matter. Significant associations were found for white matter tracts that connect brain regions known to support working memory in older children and adults (genu, anterior and superior thalamic radiations, anterior cingulum, arcuate fasciculus, and the temporal-parietal segment). Better working memory scores were associated with higher FA and lower RD values in these selected white matter tracts. These tract-specific brain-behavior relationships accounted for a significant amount of individual variation above and beyond infants’ gestational age and developmental level, as measured with the Mullen Scales of Early Learning. Working memory was not associated with global measures of brain volume, as expected, and few associations were found between working memory and control white matter tracts. To our knowledge, this study is among the first demonstrations of brain-behavior associations in infants using quantitative tractography. The ability to characterize subtle individual differences in infant brain development associated with complex cognitive functions holds promise for improving our understanding of normative development, biomarkers of risk, experience-dependent learning and neuro-cognitive periods of developmental plasticity. PMID:22989623

The effects of intersensory redundancy on attention and memory: infants' long-term memory for orientation in audiovisual events.

PubMed

Flom, Ross; Bahrick, Lorraine E

2010-03-01

This research examined the effects of bimodal audiovisual and unimodal visual stimulation on infants' memory for the visual orientation of a moving toy hammer following a 5-min, 2-week, or 1-month retention interval. According to the intersensory redundancy hypothesis (L. E. Bahrick & R. Lickliter, 2000; L. E. Bahrick, R. Lickliter, & R. Flom, 2004) detection of and memory for nonredundantly specified properties, including the visual orientation of an event, are facilitated in unimodal stimulation and attenuated in bimodal stimulation in early development. Later in development, however, nonredundantly specified properties can be perceived and remembered in both multimodal and unimodal stimulation. The current study extended tests of these predictions to the domain of memory in infants of 3, 5, and 9 months of age. Consistent with predictions of the intersensory redundancy hypothesis, in unimodal stimulation, memory for visual orientation emerged by 5 months and remained stable across age, whereas in bimodal stimulation, memory did not emerge until 9 months of age. Memory for orientation was evident even after a 1-month delay and was expressed as a shifting preference, from novelty to null to familiarity, across increasing retention time, consistent with Bahrick and colleagues' four-phase model of attention. Together, these findings indicate that infant memory for nonredundantly specified properties of events is a consequence of selective attention to those event properties and is facilitated in unimodal stimulation. Memory for nonredundantly specified properties thus emerges in unimodal stimulation, is later extended to bimodal stimulation, and lasts across a period of at least 1 month.

Genistein improves spatial learning and memory in male rats with elevated glucose level during memory consolidation.

PubMed

Kohara, Yumi; Kawaguchi, Shinichiro; Kuwahara, Rika; Uchida, Yutaro; Oku, Yushi; Yamashita, Kimihiro

2015-03-01

Cognitive dysfunction due to higher blood glucose level has been reported previously. Genistein (GEN) is a phytoestrogen that we hypothesized might lead to improved memory, despite elevated blood glucose levels at the time of memory consolidation. To investigate this hypothesis, we compared the effects of orally administered GEN on the central nervous system in normal versus glucose-loaded adult male rats. A battery of behavioral assessments was carried out. In the MAZE test, which measured spatial learning and memory, the time of normal rats was shortened by GEN treatment compared to the vehicle group, but only in the early stages of testing. In the glucose-loaded group, GEN treatment improved performance as mazes were advanced. In the open-field test, GEN treatment delayed habituation to the new environment in normal rats, and increased the exploratory behaviors of glucose-loaded rats. There were no significant differences observed for emotionality or fear-motivated learning and memory. Together, these results indicate that GEN treatment improved spatial learning and memory only in the early stages of testing in the normal state, but improved spatial learning and memory when glucose levels increased during memory consolidation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Scenery Picture Memory Test: A new type of quick and effective screening test to detect early stage Alzheimer’s disease patients

PubMed Central

Takechi, Hajime; Dodge, Hiroko H

2010-01-01

Aim It is highly desirable to develop a neuropsychological screening test which is sensitive to the early stage of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and is easy to administer at the primary care physician’s (PCP’s) office. Methods Participants were 128 AD patients and 54 healthy volunteers. Brief cognitive screening tests were administered to the participants including the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clock Drawing Test (CDT), Verbal Fluency Test (VFT), a Verbal Category Cued Memory test (CCMT) and the Scenery Picture Memory Test (SPMT). In the SPMT, a scenery picture of a living room containing 23 familiar objects was used. The administration of the SPMT comprised the first shallow memory session (Pict 1) and the second deep memory session (Pict 2). The area under the receiver–operator curve (AUC) was used to compare the efficacy of SPMT with other cognitive tests. Results Pict 1, which requires less than 2 min to complete, had the same AUC as Pict 2, and showed significantly larger AUC than MMSE, CDT and VFT for all (MMSE 19–23) and very mild (MMSE ≥ 24) AD patients. When we conducted the similar analysis separately for those younger than 75 years and those aged 75 years or older, we obtained the same results as above among the older age group. Pict 1 showed larger AUC than CCMT in overall sample and also in the older age group, although the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion The SPMT could be useful for detection of mild and very mild AD in settings even where time is limited. PMID:20446933

Development of bubble memory recorder onboard Japan Earth Resources Satellite-1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Araki, Tsunehiko; Ishida, Chu; Ochiai, Kiyoshi; Nozue, Tatsuhiro; Tachibana, Kyozo; Yoshida, Kazutoshi

The Bubble Memory Recorder (BMR) developed for use on the Earth Resources Satellite is described in terms of its design, capabilities, and functions. The specifications of the BMR are given listing memory capacity, functions, and interface types for data, command, and telemetry functions. The BMR has an emergency signal interface to provide contingency recording, and a satellite-separation signal interface can be turned on automatically by signal input. Data are stored in a novolatile memory device so that the memory is retained during power outages. The BMR is characterized by a capability for random access, nonvolatility, and a solid-state design that is useful for space operations since it does not disturb spacecraft attitude.

Programming social, cognitive, and neuroendocrine development by early exposure to novelty.

PubMed

Tang, Akaysha C; Akers, Katherine G; Reeb, Bethany C; Romeo, Russell D; McEwen, Bruce S

2006-10-17

Mildly stressful early life experiences can potentially impact a broad range of social, cognitive, and physiological functions in humans, nonhuman primates, and rodents. Recent rodent studies favor a maternal-mediation hypothesis that considers maternal-care differences induced by neonatal stimulation as the cause of individual differences in offspring development. Using neonatal novelty exposure, a neonatal stimulation paradigm that dissociates maternal individual differences from a direct stimulation effect on the offspring, we investigated the effect of early exposures to novelty on a diverse range of psychological functions using several assessment paradigms. Pups that received brief neonatal novelty exposures away from the home environment showed enhancement in spatial working memory, social competition, and corticosterone response to surprise during adulthood compared with their home-staying siblings. These functional enhancements in novelty-exposed rats occurred despite evidence that maternal care was directed preferentially toward home-staying instead of novelty-exposed pups, indicating that greater maternal care is neither necessary nor sufficient for these early stimulation-induced functional enhancements. We suggest a unifying maternal-modulation hypothesis, which distinguishes itself from the maternal-mediation hypothesis in that (i) neonatal stimulation can have direct effects on pups, cumulatively leading to long-term improvement in adult offspring; and (ii) maternal behavior can attenuate or potentiate these effects, thereby decreasing or increasing this long-term functional improvement.

Working memory, short-term memory and reading proficiency in school-age children with cochlear implants.

PubMed

Bharadwaj, Sneha V; Maricle, Denise; Green, Laura; Allman, Tamby

2015-10-01

The objective of the study was to examine short-term memory and working memory through both visual and auditory tasks in school-age children with cochlear implants. The relationship between the performance on these cognitive skills and reading as well as language outcomes were examined in these children. Ten children between the ages of 7 and 11 years with early-onset bilateral severe-profound hearing loss participated in the study. Auditory and visual short-term memory, auditory and visual working memory subtests and verbal knowledge measures were assessed using the Woodcock Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV Integrated and the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children II. Reading outcomes were assessed using the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test III. Performance on visual short-term memory and visual working memory measures in children with cochlear implants was within the average range when compared to the normative mean. However, auditory short-term memory and auditory working memory measures were below average when compared to the normative mean. Performance was also below average on all verbal knowledge measures. Regarding reading outcomes, children with cochlear implants scored below average for listening and passage comprehension tasks and these measures were positively correlated to visual short-term memory, visual working memory and auditory short-term memory. Performance on auditory working memory subtests was not related to reading or language outcomes. The children with cochlear implants in this study demonstrated better performance in visual (spatial) working memory and short-term memory skills than in auditory working memory and auditory short-term memory skills. Significant positive relationships were found between visual working memory and reading outcomes. The results of the study provide support for the idea that WM capacity is modality specific in children with hearing loss. Based on these

Word Associations and the Development of Lexical Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petrey, Sandy

1977-01-01

Endel Tulving's distinction between "episodic" and "semantic" memory defines age differences in word association norms more comprehensively than the usual syntactic classifications. As subjects mature the principal development is an episodic-semantic shift. Young children associate primarily with the stimulus' perceived…

Neuroanatomic organization of sound memory in humans.

PubMed

Kraut, Michael A; Pitcock, Jeffery A; Calhoun, Vince; Li, Juan; Freeman, Thomas; Hart, John

2006-11-01

The neural interface between sensory perception and memory is a central issue in neuroscience, particularly initial memory organization following perceptual analyses. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify anatomic regions extracting initial auditory semantic memory information related to environmental sounds. Two distinct anatomic foci were detected in the right superior temporal gyrus when subjects identified sounds representing either animals or threatening items. Threatening animal stimuli elicited signal changes in both foci, suggesting a distributed neural representation. Our results demonstrate both category- and feature-specific responses to nonverbal sounds in early stages of extracting semantic memory information from these sounds. This organization allows for these category-feature detection nodes to extract early, semantic memory information for efficient processing of transient sound stimuli. Neural regions selective for threatening sounds are similar to those of nonhuman primates, demonstrating semantic memory organization for basic biological/survival primitives are present across species.

Physiological Reactivity, Social Support, and Memory in Early Childhood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quas, Jodi A.; Bauer, Amy; Boyce, W. Thomas

2004-01-01

The interactive effects of physiological reactivity and social support on children's memory were examined. Four- to 6-year-olds completed a laboratory protocol during which autonomic responses and salivary cortisol were measured. Memory was assessed shortly afterward and 2 weeks later. During the second interview, children were questioned by a…

The development of a short domain-general measure of working memory capacity.

PubMed

Oswald, Frederick L; McAbee, Samuel T; Redick, Thomas S; Hambrick, David Z

2015-12-01

Working memory capacity is one of the most frequently measured individual difference constructs in cognitive psychology and related fields. However, implementation of complex span and other working memory measures is generally time-consuming for administrators and examinees alike. Because researchers often must manage the tension between limited testing time and measuring numerous constructs reliably, a short and effective measure of working memory capacity would often be a major practical benefit in future research efforts. The current study developed a shortened computerized domain-general measure of working memory capacity by representatively sampling items from three existing complex working memory span tasks: operation span, reading span, and symmetry span. Using a large archival data set (Study 1, N = 4,845), we developed and applied a principled strategy for developing the reduced measure, based on testing a series of confirmatory factor analysis models. Adequate fit indices from these models lent support to this strategy. The resulting shortened measure was then administered to a second independent sample (Study 2, N = 172), demonstrating that the new measure saves roughly 15 min (30%) of testing time on average, and even up to 25 min depending on the test-taker. On the basis of these initial promising findings, several directions for future research are discussed.

Ferroelectric memory evaluation and development system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bondurant, David W.

Attention is given to the Ramtron FEDS-1, an IBM PC/AT compatible single-board 16-b microcomputer with 8-kbyte program/data memory implemented with nonvolatile ferroelectric dynamic RAM. This is the first demonstration of a new type of solid state nonvolatile read/write memory, the ferroelectric RAM (FRAM). It is suggested that this memory technology will have a significant impact on avionics system performance and reliability.

Working memory, long-term memory, and medial temporal lobe function

PubMed Central

Jeneson, Annette; Squire, Larry R.

2012-01-01

Early studies of memory-impaired patients with medial temporal lobe (MTL) damage led to the view that the hippocampus and related MTL structures are involved in the formation of long-term memory and that immediate memory and working memory are independent of these structures. This traditional idea has recently been revisited. Impaired performance in patients with MTL lesions on tasks with short retention intervals, or no retention interval, and neuroimaging findings with similar tasks have been interpreted to mean that the MTL is sometimes needed for working memory and possibly even for visual perception itself. We present a reappraisal of this interpretation. Our main conclusion is that, if the material to be learned exceeds working memory capacity, if the material is difficult to rehearse, or if attention is diverted, performance depends on long-term memory even when the retention interval is brief. This fundamental notion is better captured by the terms subspan memory and supraspan memory than by the terms short-term memory and long-term memory. We propose methods for determining when performance on short-delay tasks must depend on long-term (supraspan) memory and suggest that MTL lesions impair performance only when immediate memory and working memory are insufficient to support performance. In neuroimaging studies, MTL activity during encoding is influenced by the memory load and correlates positively with long-term retention of the material that was presented. The most parsimonious and consistent interpretation of all the data is that subspan memoranda are supported by immediate memory and working memory and are independent of the MTL. PMID:22180053

CD4 memory T cells develop and acquire functional competence by sequential cognate interactions and stepwise gene regulation

PubMed Central

Kaji, Tomohiro; Hijikata, Atsushi; Ishige, Akiko; Kitami, Toshimori; Watanabe, Takashi; Ohara, Osamu; Yanaka, Noriyuki; Okada, Mariko; Shimoda, Michiko; Taniguchi, Masaru

2016-01-01

Memory CD4+ T cells promote protective humoral immunity; however, how memory T cells acquire this activity remains unclear. This study demonstrates that CD4+ T cells develop into antigen-specific memory T cells that can promote the terminal differentiation of memory B cells far more effectively than their naive T-cell counterparts. Memory T cell development requires the transcription factor B-cell lymphoma 6 (Bcl6), which is known to direct T-follicular helper (Tfh) cell differentiation. However, unlike Tfh cells, memory T cell development did not require germinal center B cells. Curiously, memory T cells that develop in the absence of cognate B cells cannot promote memory B-cell recall responses and this defect was accompanied by down-regulation of genes associated with homeostasis and activation and up-regulation of genes inhibitory for T-cell responses. Although memory T cells display phenotypic and genetic signatures distinct from Tfh cells, both had in common the expression of a group of genes associated with metabolic pathways. This gene expression profile was not shared to any great extent with naive T cells and was not influenced by the absence of cognate B cells during memory T cell development. These results suggest that memory T cell development is programmed by stepwise expression of gatekeeper genes through serial interactions with different types of antigen-presenting cells, first licensing the memory lineage pathway and subsequently facilitating the functional development of memory T cells. Finally, we identified Gdpd3 as a candidate genetic marker for memory T cells. PMID:26714588

Imagery Rescripting of Early Traumatic Memories in Social Phobia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wild, Jennifer; Clark, David M.

2011-01-01

Negative self-images appear to play a role in the maintenance of social phobia and research suggests they are often linked to earlier memories of socially traumatic events. Imagery rescripting is a clinical intervention that aims to update such unpleasant or traumatic memories, and is increasingly being incorporated in cognitive behavioral therapy…

Development of Curie point switching for thin film, random access, memory device

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lewicki, G. W.; Tchernev, D. I.

1967-01-01

Managanese bismuthide films are used in the development of a random access memory device of high packing density and nondestructive readout capability. Memory entry is by Curie point switching using a laser beam. Readout is accomplished by microoptical or micromagnetic scanning.

Short-Term and Working Memory Impairments in Early-Implanted, Long-Term Cochlear Implant Users Are Independent of Audibility and Speech Production.

PubMed

AuBuchon, Angela M; Pisoni, David B; Kronenberger, William G

2015-01-01

To determine whether early-implanted, long-term cochlear implant (CI) users display delays in verbal short-term and working memory capacity when processes related to audibility and speech production are eliminated. Twenty-three long-term CI users and 23 normal-hearing controls each completed forward and backward digit span tasks under testing conditions that differed in presentation modality (auditory or visual) and response output (spoken recall or manual pointing). Normal-hearing controls reproduced more lists of digits than the CI users, even when the test items were presented visually and the responses were made manually via touchscreen response. Short-term and working memory delays observed in CI users are not due to greater demands from peripheral sensory processes such as audibility or from overt speech-motor planning and response output organization. Instead, CI users are less efficient at encoding and maintaining phonological representations in verbal short-term memory using phonological and linguistic strategies during memory tasks.

Short-Term and Working Memory Impairments in Early-Implanted, Long-Term Cochlear Implant Users Are Independent of Audibility and Speech Production

PubMed Central

AuBuchon, Angela M.; Pisoni, David B.; Kronenberger, William G.

2015-01-01

OBJECTIVES Determine if early-implanted, long-term cochlear implant (CI) users display delays in verbal short-term and working memory capacity when processes related to audibility and speech production are eliminated. DESIGN Twenty-three long-term CI users and 23 normal-hearing controls each completed forward and backward digit span tasks under testing conditions which differed in presentation modality (auditory or visual) and response output (spoken recall or manual pointing). RESULTS Normal-hearing controls reproduced more lists of digits than the CI users, even when the test items were presented visually and the responses were made manually via touchscreen response. CONCLUSIONS Short-term and working memory delays observed in CI users are not due to greater demands from peripheral sensory processes such as audibility or from overt speech-motor planning and response output organization. Instead, CI users are less efficient at encoding and maintaining phonological representations in verbal short-term memory utilizing phonological and linguistic strategies during memory tasks. PMID:26496666

Durable fear memories require PSD-95

PubMed Central

Fitzgerald, Paul J.; Pinard, Courtney R.; Camp, Marguerite C.; Feyder, Michael; Sah, Anupam; Bergstrom, Hadley; Graybeal, Carolyn; Liu, Yan; Schlüter, Oliver; Grant, Seth G.N.; Singewald, Nicolas; Xu, Weifeng; Holmes, Andrew

2014-01-01

Traumatic fear memories are highly durable but also dynamic, undergoing repeated reactivation and rehearsal over time. While overly persistent fear memories underlie anxiety disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder, the key neural and molecular mechanisms underlying fear memory durability remain unclear. Post-synaptic density 95 (PSD-95) is a synaptic protein regulating glutamate receptor anchoring, synaptic stability and certain types of memory. Employing a loss-of-function mutant mouse lacking the guanylate kinase domain of PSD-95 (PSD-95GK), we analyzed the contribution of PSD-95 to fear memory formation and retrieval, and sought to identify the neural basis of PSD-95-mediated memory maintenance using ex vivo immediate-early gene mapping, in vivo neuronal recordings and viral-mediated knockdown approaches. We show that PSD-95 is dispensable for the formation and expression of recent fear memories, but essential for the formation of precise and flexible fear memories and for the maintenance of memories at remote time points. The failure of PSD-95GK mice to retrieve remote cued fear memories was associated with hypoactivation of the infralimbic cortex (IL) (not anterior cingulate (ACC) or prelimbic cortex), reduced IL single-unit firing and bursting, and attenuated IL gamma and theta oscillations. Adeno-associated PSD-95 virus-mediated knockdown in the IL, not ACC, was sufficient to impair recent fear extinction and remote fear memory, and remodel IL dendritic spines. Collectively, these data identify PSD-95 in the IL as a critical mechanism supporting the durability of fear memories over time. These preclinical findings have implications for developing novel approaches to treating trauma-based anxiety disorders that target the weakening of overly persistent fear memories. PMID:25510511

Age-Related Neurodegeneration and Memory Loss in Down Syndrome

PubMed Central

Lockrow, Jason P.; Fortress, Ashley M.; Granholm, Ann-Charlotte E.

2012-01-01

Down syndrome (DS) is a condition where a complete or segmental chromosome 21 trisomy causes variable intellectual disability, and progressive memory loss and neurodegeneration with age. Many research groups have examined development of the brain in DS individuals, but studies on age-related changes should also be considered, with the increased lifespan observed in DS. DS leads to pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD) by 40 or 50 years of age. Progressive age-related memory deficits occurring in both AD and in DS have been connected to degeneration of several neuronal populations, but mechanisms are not fully elucidated. Inflammation and oxidative stress are early events in DS pathology, and focusing on these pathways may lead to development of successful intervention strategies for AD associated with DS. Here we discuss recent findings and potential treatment avenues regarding development of AD neuropathology and memory loss in DS. PMID:22545043

Functional capacities of human IgM memory B cells in early inflammatory responses and secondary germinal center reactions.

PubMed

Seifert, Marc; Przekopowitz, Martina; Taudien, Sarah; Lollies, Anna; Ronge, Viola; Drees, Britta; Lindemann, Monika; Hillen, Uwe; Engler, Harald; Singer, Bernhard B; Küppers, Ralf

2015-02-10

The generation and functions of human peripheral blood (PB) IgM(+)IgD(+)CD27(+) B lymphocytes with somatically mutated IgV genes are controversially discussed. We determined their differential gene expression to naive B cells and to IgM-only and IgG(+) memory B cells. This analysis revealed a high similarity of IgM(+)(IgD(+))CD27(+) and IgG(+) memory B cells but also pointed at distinct functional capacities of both subsets. In vitro analyses revealed a tendency of activated IgM(+)IgD(+)CD27(+) B cells to migrate to B-cell follicles and undergo germinal center (GC) B-cell differentiation, whereas activated IgG(+) memory B cells preferentially showed a plasma cell (PC) fate. This observation was supported by reverse regulation of B-cell lymphoma 6 and PR domain containing 1 and differential BTB and CNC homology 1, basic leucine zipper transcription factor 2 expression. Moreover, IgM(+)IgD(+)CD27(+) B lymphocytes preferentially responded to neutrophil-derived cytokines. Costimulation with catecholamines, carcinoembryonic antigen cell adhesion molecule 8 (CEACAM8), and IFN-γ caused differentiation of IgM(+)IgD(+)CD27(+) B cells into PCs, induced class switching to IgG2, and was reproducible in cocultures with neutrophils. In conclusion, this study substantiates memory B-cell characteristics of human IgM(+)IgD(+)CD27(+) B cells in that they share typical memory B-cell transcription patterns with IgG(+) post-GC B cells and show a faster and more vigorous restimulation potential, a hallmark of immune memory. Moreover, this work reveals a functional plasticity of human IgM memory B cells by showing their propensity to undergo secondary GC reactions upon reactivation, but also by their special role in early inflammation via interaction with immunomodulatory neutrophils.

The Respiratory Environment Diverts the Development of Antiviral Memory CD8 T Cells.

PubMed

Shane, Hillary L; Reagin, Katie L; Klonowski, Kimberly D

2018-06-01

Our understanding of memory CD8 + T cells has been largely derived from acute, systemic infection models. However, memory CD8 + T cells generated from mucosal infection exhibit unique properties and, following respiratory infection, are not maintained in the lung long term. To better understand how infection route modifies memory differentiation, we compared murine CD8 + T cell responses to a vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) challenge generated intranasally (i.n.) or i.v. The i.n. infection resulted in greater peak expansion of VSV-specific CD8 + T cells. However, this numerical advantage was rapidly lost during the contraction phase of the immune response, resulting in memory CD8 + T cell numerical deficiencies when compared with i.v. infection. Interestingly, the antiviral CD8 + T cells generated in response to i.n. VSV exhibited a biased and sustained proportion of early effector cells (CD127 lo KLRG1 lo ) akin to the developmental program favored after i.n. influenza infection, suggesting that respiratory infection broadly favors an incomplete memory differentiation program. Correspondingly, i.n. VSV infection resulted in lower CD122 expression and eomesodermin levels by VSV-specific CD8 + T cells, further indicative of an inferior transition to bona fide memory. These results may be due to distinct (CD103 + CD11b + ) dendritic cell subsets in the i.n. versus i.v. T cell priming environments, which express molecules that regulate T cell signaling and the balance between tolerance and immunity. Therefore, we propose that distinct immunization routes modulate both the quality and quantity of antiviral effector and memory CD8 + T cells in response to an identical pathogen and should be considered in CD8 + T cell-based vaccine design. Copyright © 2018 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc.

The Anatomy of Non-conscious Recognition Memory.

PubMed

Rosenthal, Clive R; Soto, David

2016-11-01

Cortical regions as early as primary visual cortex have been implicated in recognition memory. Here, we outline the challenges that this presents for neurobiological accounts of recognition memory. We conclude that understanding the role of early visual cortex (EVC) in this process will require the use of protocols that mask stimuli from visual awareness. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Biomechanics of Early Cardiac Development

PubMed Central

Goenezen, Sevan; Rennie, Monique Y.

2012-01-01

Biomechanics affect early cardiac development, from looping to the development of chambers and valves. Hemodynamic forces are essential for proper cardiac development, and their disruption leads to congenital heart defects. A wealth of information already exists on early cardiac adaptations to hemodynamic loading, and new technologies, including high resolution imaging modalities and computational modeling, are enabling a more thorough understanding of relationships between hemodynamics and cardiac development. Imaging and modeling approaches, used in combination with biological data on cell behavior and adaptation, are paving the road for new discoveries on links between biomechanics and biology and their effect on cardiac development and fetal programming. PMID:22760547

A new intuitionism: Meaning, memory, and development in Fuzzy-Trace Theory.

PubMed

Reyna, Valerie F

2012-05-01

Combining meaning, memory, and development, the perennially popular topic of intuition can be approached in a new way. Fuzzy-trace theory integrates these topics by distinguishing between meaning-based gist representations, which support fuzzy (yet advanced) intuition, and superficial verbatim representations of information, which support precise analysis. Here, I review the counterintuitive findings that led to the development of the theory and its most recent extensions to the neuroscience of risky decision making. These findings include memory interference (worse verbatim memory is associated with better reasoning); nonnumerical framing (framing effects increase when numbers are deleted from decision problems); developmental decreases in gray matter and increases in brain connectivity; developmental reversals in memory, judgment, and decision making (heuristics and biases based on gist increase from childhood to adulthood, challenging conceptions of rationality); and selective attention effects that provide critical tests comparing fuzzy-trace theory, expected utility theory, and its variants (e.g., prospect theory). Surprising implications for judgment and decision making in real life are also discussed, notably, that adaptive decision making relies mainly on gist-based intuition in law, medicine, and public health.

Synapsin Is Selectively Required for Anesthesia-Sensitive Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knapek, Stephan; Gerber, Bertram; Tanimoto, Hiromu

2010-01-01

Odor-shock memory in "Drosophila melanogaster" consists of heterogeneous components each with different dynamics. We report that a null mutant for the evolutionarily conserved synaptic protein Synapsin entails a memory deficit selectively in early memory, leaving later memory as well as sensory motor function unaffected. Notably, a consolidated…

Epigenetic mechanisms in the development of memory and their involvement in certain neurological diseases.

PubMed

Rosales-Reynoso, M A; Ochoa-Hernández, A B; Juárez-Vázquez, C I; Barros-Núñez, P

Today, scientists accept that the central nervous system of an adult possesses considerable morphological and functional flexibility, allowing it to perform structural remodelling processes even after the individual is fully developed and mature. In addition to the vast number of genes participating in the development of memory, different known epigenetic mechanisms are involved in normal and pathological modifications to neurons and therefore also affect the mechanisms of memory development. This study entailed a systematic review of biomedical article databases in search of genetic and epigenetic factors that participate in synaptic function and memory. The activation of gene expression in response to external stimuli also occurs in differentiated nerve cells. Neural activity induces specific forms of synaptic plasticity that permit the creation and storage of long-term memory. Epigenetic mechanisms play a key role in synaptic modification processes and in the creation and development of memory. Changes in these mechanisms result in the cognitive and memory impairment seen in neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer disease, Huntington disease) and in neurodevelopmental disorders (Rett syndrome, fragile X, and schizophrenia). Nevertheless, results obtained from different models are promising and point to potential treatments for some of these diseases. Copyright © 2013 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Innate immune memory: implications for development of pediatric immunomodulatory agents and adjuvanted vaccines

PubMed Central

Levy, Ofer; Netea, Mihai G.

2014-01-01

Unique features of immunity early in life include a distinct immune system particularly reliant on innate immunity, with weak T helper (Th)1-polarizing immune responses, and impaired responses to certain vaccines leading to a heightened susceptibility to infection. To these important aspects, we now add an increasingly appreciated concept that the innate immune system displays epigenetic memory of an earlier infection or vaccination, a phenomenon that has been named “trained immunity”. Exposure of neonatal leukocytes in vitro or neonatal animals or humans in vivo to specific innate immune stimuli results in an altered innate immune set point. Given the particular importance of innate immunity early in life, trained immunity to early life infection and/or immunization may play an important role in modulating both acute and chronic diseases. PMID:24352476

Episodic Memory Development: Theory of Mind Is Part of Re-Experiencing Experienced Events

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perner, Josef; Kloo, Daniela; Gornik, Edith

2007-01-01

Two experiments with 3 1/2- to 6 1/2-year-old children showed that theory-of-mind development is associated with the growth of episodic memory. Episodic memory was assessed by manipulating informational conditions such that they permit or prevent the formation of episodic memories in terms of re-experiencing the recalled event. Only experienced…

"Family Stories" and Their Implications for Preschoolers' Memories of Personal Events

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larkina, Marina; Bauer, Patricia J.

2012-01-01

Most adults experience childhood amnesia: They have very few memories of events prior to 3 to 4 years of age. Nevertheless, some early memories are retained. Multiple factors likely are responsible for the survival of early childhood memories, including external representations such as videos, photographs, and conversations about past experiences,…

Memory for past public events depends on retrieval frequency but not memory age in Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Müller, Stephan; Mychajliw, Christian; Hautzinger, Martin; Fallgatter, Andreas J; Saur, Ralf; Leyhe, Thomas

2014-01-01

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by retrograde memory deficits primarily caused by dysfunction of the hippocampal complex. Unresolved questions exist concerning the time course of hippocampal involvement in conscious recollection of declarative knowledge, as reports of temporal gradients of retrograde amnesia have been inconclusive. The aim of this study was to examine whether the extent and severity of retrograde amnesia is mediated by retrieval frequency or, in contrast, whether it depends on the age of the memory according to the assumptions of the main current theories of memory formation. We compared recall of past public events in patients with AD and healthy control (HC) individuals using the Historic Events Test (HET). The HET assesses knowledge about famous public events of the past 60 years divided into four time segments and consists of subjective memory rating, dating accuracy, and contextual memory tasks. Although memory for public events was impaired in AD patients, there was a strong effect of retrieval frequency across all time segments and both groups. As AD and HC groups derived similar benefits from greater retrieval frequency, cortical structures other than the hippocampal complex may mediate memory retrieval. These findings suggest that more frequently retrieved events and facts become more independent of the hippocampal complex and thus better protected against early damage of AD. This could explain why cognitive activity may delay the onset of memory decline in persons who develop AD.

Awareness of Memory Ability and Change: (In)Accuracy of Memory Self-Assessments in Relation to Performance.

PubMed

Rickenbach, Elizabeth Hahn; Agrigoroaei, Stefan; Lachman, Margie E

2015-03-01

Little is known about subjective assessments of memory abilities and decline among middle-aged adults or their association with objective memory performance in the general population. In this study we examined self-ratings of memory ability and change in relation to episodic memory performance in two national samples of middle-aged and older adults from the Midlife in the United States study (MIDUS II in 2005-06) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; every two years from 2002 to 2012). MIDUS (Study 1) participants (N=3,581) rated their memory compared to others their age and to themselves five years ago; HRS (Study 2) participants (N=14,821) rated their current memory and their memory compared to two years ago, with up to six occasions of longitudinal data over ten years. In both studies, episodic memory performance was the total number of words recalled in immediate and delayed conditions. When controlling for demographic and health correlates, self-ratings of memory abilities, but not subjective change, were related to performance. We examined accuracy by comparing subjective and objective memory ability and change. More than one third of the participants across the studies had self-assessments that were inaccurate relative to their actual level of performance and change, and accuracy differed as a function of demographic and health factors. Further understanding of self-awareness of memory abilities and change beginning in midlife may be useful for identifying early warning signs of decline, with implications regarding policies and practice for early detection and treatment of cognitive impairment.

Prospective memory in adults with spina bifida

PubMed Central

Dennis, Maureen; Nelson, Rebekah; Jewell, Derryn; Fletcher, Jack M.

2011-01-01

Introduction Individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders have been observed to show accelerated cognitive aging or even dementia as early as 30 and 40 years of age. Memory deficits are an important component of age-related cognitive loss. Methods In this study, we investigated prospective memory, which is often impaired in aging, in a group of 32 adults with spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM), including members of the oldest living cohort successfully treated with shunts to divert excess cerebrospinal fluid, ventriculomegaly, and hydrocephalus, who are now around 50 years of age. Seventeen typically developing adults provided a comparison group. Results The SBM and comparison groups differed in the prospective memory total score as well as in both time-based and event-based subscores. Prospective memory was impaired in both older and younger individuals with SBM. However, the percentage of individuals with impaired or poor prospective memory was three times higher in the older SBM group than in the younger SBM group. The results are considered in relation to specific features of the complex brain reorganization in SBM. PMID:20393850

Sleep Deprivation During Early-Adult Development Results in Long-Lasting Learning Deficits in Adult Drosophila

PubMed Central

Seugnet, Laurent; Suzuki, Yasuko; Donlea, Jeff M.; Gottschalk, Laura; Shaw, Paul J.

2011-01-01

Study Objectives: Multiple lines of evidence indicate that sleep is important for the developing brain, although little is known about which cellular and molecular pathways are affected. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine whether the early adult life of Drosophila, which is associated with high amounts of sleep and critical periods of brain plasticity, could be used as a model to identify developmental processes that require sleep. Subjects: Wild type Canton-S Drosophila melanogaster. Design; Intervention: Flies were sleep deprived on their first full day of adult life and allowed to recover undisturbed for at least 3 days. The animals were then tested for short-term memory and response-inhibition using aversive phototaxis suppression (APS). Components of dopamine signaling were further evaluated using mRNA profiling, immunohistochemistry, and pharmacological treatments. Measurements and Results: Flies exposed to acute sleep deprivation on their first day of life showed impairments in short-term memory and response inhibition that persisted for at least 6 days. These impairments in adult performance were reversed by dopamine agonists, suggesting that the deficits were a consequence of reduced dopamine signaling. However, sleep deprivation did not impact dopaminergic neurons as measured by their number or by the levels of dopamine, pale (tyrosine hydroxylase), dopadecarboxylase, and the Dopamine transporter. However, dopamine pathways were impacted as measured by increased transcript levels of the dopamine receptors D2R and dDA1. Importantly, blocking signaling through the dDA1 receptor in animals that were sleep deprived during their critical developmental window prevented subsequent adult learning impairments. Conclusions: These data indicate that sleep plays an important and phylogenetically conserved role in the developing brain. Citation: Seugnet L; Suzuki Y; Donlea JM; Gottschalk L; Shaw PJ. Sleep deprivation during early-adult development results in

Does adolescent risk taking imply weak executive function? A prospective study of relations between working memory performance, impulsivity, and risk taking in early adolescence.

PubMed

Romer, Daniel; Betancourt, Laura M; Brodsky, Nancy L; Giannetta, Joan M; Yang, Wei; Hurt, Hallam

2011-09-01

Studies of brain development suggest that the increase in risk taking observed during adolescence may be due to insufficient prefrontal executive function compared to a more rapidly developing subcortical motivation system. We examined executive function as assessed by working memory ability in a community sample of youth (n = 387, ages 10 to 12 at baseline) in three annual assessments to determine its relation to two forms of impulsivity (sensation seeking and acting without thinking) and a wide range of risk and externalizing behavior. Using structural equation modeling, we tested a model in which differential activation of the dorsal and ventral striatum produces imbalance in the function of these brain regions. For youth high in sensation seeking, both regions were predicted to develop with age. However, for youth high in the tendency to act without thinking, the ventral striatum was expected to dominate. The model predicted that working memory ability would exhibit (1) early weakness in youth high in acting without thinking but (2) growing strength in those high in sensation seeking. In addition, it predicted that (3) acting without thinking would be more strongly related to risk and externalizing behavior than sensation seeking. Finally, it predicted that (4) controlling for acting without thinking, sensation seeking would predict later increases in risky and externalizing behavior. All four of these predictions were confirmed. The results indicate that the rise in sensation seeking that occurs during adolescence is not accompanied by a deficit in executive function and therefore requires different intervention strategies from those for youth whose impulsivity is characterized by early signs of acting without thinking. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Working memory-driven attention improves spatial resolution: Support for perceptual enhancement.

PubMed

Pan, Yi; Luo, Qianying; Cheng, Min

2016-08-01

Previous research has indicated that attention can be biased toward those stimuli matching the contents of working memory and thereby facilitates visual processing at the location of the memory-matching stimuli. However, whether this working memory-driven attentional modulation takes place on early perceptual processes remains unclear. Our present results showed that working memory-driven attention improved identification of a brief Landolt target presented alone in the visual field. Because the suprathreshold target appeared without any external noise added (i.e., no distractors or masks), the results suggest that working memory-driven attention enhances the target signal at early perceptual stages of visual processing. Furthermore, given that performance in the Landolt target identification task indexes spatial resolution, this attentional facilitation indicates that working memory-driven attention can boost early perceptual processing via enhancement of spatial resolution at the attended location.

Early Childhood Diplomacy: Policy Planning for Early Childhood Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vargas-Barón, Emily; Diehl, Kristel

2018-01-01

Children who are well nurtured, appropriately cared for, and provided with positive learning opportunities in their early years have a better chance of becoming healthy and productive citizens of nations and of the world. This article reviews the art and science of policy planning for early childhood development (ECD) from a diplomacy perspective.…

Spotlight on daytime napping during early childhood.

PubMed

Horváth, Klára; Plunkett, Kim

2018-01-01

Daytime napping undergoes a remarkable change in early childhood, and research regarding its relationship to cognitive development has recently accelerated. In this review, we summarize our current understanding of this relationship focusing on children aged <5 years. First, we evaluate different studies on the basis of the experimental design used and the specific cognitive processes they investigate. Second, we analyze how the napping status of children may modulate the relationship between learning and napping. Third, the possible role of sleep spindles, ie, specific electroencephalographic components during sleep, in cognitive development is explored. We conclude that daytime napping is crucial in early memory development.

Significant long-term, but not short-term, hippocampal-dependent memory impairment in adult rats exposed to alcohol in early postnatal life.

PubMed

Goodfellow, Molly J; Lindquist, Derick H

2014-09-01

In rodents, ethanol exposure in early postnatal life is known to induce structural and functional impairments throughout the brain, including the hippocampus. Herein, rat pups were administered one of three ethanol doses over postnatal days (PD) 4-9, a period of brain development comparable to the third trimester of human pregnancy. As adults, control and ethanol rats were trained and tested in a variant of hippocampal-dependent one-trial context fear conditioning. In Experiment 1, subjects were placed into a novel context and presented with an immediate footshock (i.e., within ∼8 sec). When re-exposed to the same context 24 hr later low levels of conditioned freezing were observed. Context pre-exposure 24 hr prior to the immediate shock reversed the deficit in sham-intubated and unintubated control rats, enhancing freezing behavior during the context retention test. Even with context pre-exposure, however, significant dose-dependent reductions in contextual freezing were seen in ethanol rats. In Experiment 2, the interval between context pre-exposure and the immediate shock was shortened to 2 hr, in addition to the standard 24 hr. Ethanol rats trained with the 2 hr, but not 24 hr, interval displayed retention test freezing levels roughly equal to controls. Results suggest the ethanol rats can encode a short-term context memory and associate it with the aversive footshock 2 hr later. In the 24 hr ethanol rats the short-term context memory is poorly transferred or consolidated into long-term memory, we propose, impeding the memory's subsequent retrieval and association with shock. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Early Childhood Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koh, Edgar, Ed.

1989-01-01

Focused on early childhood development, this "UNICEF Intercom" asserts that developmental programs should aim to give children a fair chance at growth beyond survival. First presented are moral, scientific, social equity, economic, population, and programatic arguments for looking beyond the fundamental objective of saving young lives.…

[Physiopathology of autobiographical memory in aging: episodic and semantic distinction, clinical findings and neuroimaging studies].

PubMed

Piolino, Pascale; Martinelli, Pénélope; Viard, Armelle; Noulhiane, Marion; Eustache, Francis; Desgranges, Béatrice

2010-01-01

From an early age, autobiographical memory models our feeling of identity and continuity. It grows throughout lifetime with our experiences and is built up from general self-knowledge and specific memories. The study of autobiographical memory depicts the dynamic and reconstructive features of this type of long-term memory, combining both semantic and episodic aspects, its strength and fragility. In this article, we propose to illustrate the properties of autobiographical memory from the field of cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and neuroimaging research through the analysis of the mechanisms of disturbance in normal and Alzheimer's disease. We show that the cognitive and neural bases of autobiographical memory are distinct in both cases. In normal aging, autobiographical memory retrieval is mainly dependent on frontal/executive function and on sense of reexperiencing specific context connected to hippocampal regions regardless of memory remoteness. In Alzheimer's disease, autobiographical memory deficit, characterized by a Ribot's temporal gradient, is connected to different regions according to memory remoteness. Our functional neuroimaging results suggest that patients at the early stage can compensate for their massive deficit of episodic recent memories correlated to hippocampal alteration with over general remote memories related to prefrontal regions. On the whole, the research findings allowed initiating new autobiographical memory studies by comparing normal and pathological aging and developing cognitive methods of memory rehabilitation in patients based on preserved personal semantic capacity. © Société de Biologie, 2010.

Aging, Estrogens, and Episodic Memory in Women

PubMed Central

Henderson, Victor W.

2009-01-01

Objective To review the relation in midlife and beyond between estrogen exposures and episodic memory in women. Background Episodic memory performance declines with usual aging, and impairments in episodic memory often portend the development of Alzheimer's disease. In the laboratory, estradiol influences hippocampal function and animal learning. However, it is controversial whether estrogens affect memory after a woman's reproductive years. Method Focused literature review, including a summary of a systematic search of clinical trials of estrogens in which outcomes included an objective measure of episodic memory. Results The natural menopause transition is not associated with objective changes in episodic memory. Strong clinical trial evidence indicates that initiating estrogen-containing hormone therapy after about age 60 years does not benefit episodic memory. Clinical trial findings in middle-age women before age 60 are limited by smaller sample sizes and shorter treatment durations, but these also do not indicate substantial memory effects. Limited short-term evidence, however, suggests that estrogens may improve verbal memory after surgical menopause. Although hormone therapy initiation in old age increases dementia risk, observational studies raise the question of an early critical window during which midlife estrogen therapy reduces late-life Alzheimer's disease. However, almost no data address whether midlife estrogen therapy affects episodic memory in old age. Conclusions Episodic memory is not substantially impacted by the natural menopause transition or improved by use of estrogen-containing hormone therapy after age 60. Further research is needed to determine whether outcomes differ after surgical menopause or whether episodic memory later in life is modified by midlife estrogenic exposures. PMID:19996872

Mental Objects in Working Memory: Development of Basic Capacity or of Cognitive Completion?

PubMed Central

Cowan, Nelson

2018-01-01

Working memory is the small amount of information that we hold in mind and use to carry out cognitive processes such as language comprehension and production, problem-solving, and decision-making. In order to understand cognitive development, it would be helpful to know whether working memory increases in capacity with development and, if so, how and why. I will focus on two major stumbling blocks toward understanding working memory development, namely that (1) many potentially relevant aspects of the mind change in parallel during development, obscuring the role of any one change; and (2) one cannot use the same test procedure from infancy to adulthood, complicating comparisons across age groups. With regard to the first stumbling block, the parallel development of different aspects of the mind, we discuss research in which attempts were made to hold constant some factors (knowledge, strategies, direction of attention) to investigate whether developmental differences remain. With regard to the second stumbling block, procedural differences in tests at different age groups, I suggest ways in which the results might be reconciled across procedures. I highlight the value of pursuing research that could distinguish between two different key hypotheses that emerge: that there is a developmental increase in the number of working memory slots (or in a basic resource that holds items in working memory), and that there is a developmental increase in the amount of detail that each of these slots can hold. PMID:28215289

Mental Objects in Working Memory: Development of Basic Capacity or of Cognitive Completion?

PubMed

Cowan, N

2017-01-01

Working memory is the small amount of information that we hold in mind and use to carry out cognitive processes such as language comprehension and production, problem solving, and decision making. In order to understand cognitive development, it would be helpful to know whether working memory increases in capacity with development and, if so, how and why. I will focus on two major stumbling blocks toward understanding working memory development, namely that (1) many potentially relevant aspects of the mind change in parallel during development, obscuring the role of any one change; and (2) one cannot use the same test procedure from infancy to adulthood, complicating comparisons across age groups. With regard to the first stumbling block, the parallel development of different aspects of the mind, we discuss research in which attempts were made to hold constant some factors (knowledge, strategies, direction of attention) to investigate whether developmental differences remain. With regard to the second stumbling block, procedural differences in tests for different age groups, I suggest ways in which the results might be reconciled across procedures. I highlight the value of pursuing research that could distinguish between two different key hypotheses that emerge: that there is a developmental increase in the number of working memory slots (or in a basic resource that holds items in working memory), and that there is a developmental increase in the amount of detail that each of these slots can hold. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Durable fear memories require PSD-95.

PubMed

Fitzgerald, P J; Pinard, C R; Camp, M C; Feyder, M; Sah, A; Bergstrom, H C; Graybeal, C; Liu, Y; Schlüter, O M; Grant, S G; Singewald, N; Xu, W; Holmes, A

2015-07-01

Traumatic fear memories are highly durable but also dynamic, undergoing repeated reactivation and rehearsal over time. Although overly persistent fear memories underlie anxiety disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, the key neural and molecular mechanisms underlying fear memory durability remain unclear. Postsynaptic density 95 (PSD-95) is a synaptic protein regulating glutamate receptor anchoring, synaptic stability and certain types of memory. Using a loss-of-function mutant mouse lacking the guanylate kinase domain of PSD-95 (PSD-95(GK)), we analyzed the contribution of PSD-95 to fear memory formation and retrieval, and sought to identify the neural basis of PSD-95-mediated memory maintenance using ex vivo immediate-early gene mapping, in vivo neuronal recordings and viral-mediated knockdown (KD) approaches. We show that PSD-95 is dispensable for the formation and expression of recent fear memories, but essential for the formation of precise and flexible fear memories and for the maintenance of memories at remote time points. The failure of PSD-95(GK) mice to retrieve remote cued fear memory was associated with hypoactivation of the infralimbic (IL) cortex (but not the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) or prelimbic cortex), reduced IL single-unit firing and bursting, and attenuated IL gamma and theta oscillations. Adeno-associated virus-mediated PSD-95 KD in the IL, but not the ACC, was sufficient to impair recent fear extinction and remote fear memory, and remodel IL dendritic spines. Collectively, these data identify PSD-95 in the IL as a critical mechanism supporting the durability of fear memories over time. These preclinical findings have implications for developing novel approaches to treating trauma-based anxiety disorders that target the weakening of overly persistent fear memories.

Trauma Films, Information Processing, and Intrusive Memory Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holmes, Emily A.; Brewin, Chris R.; Hennessy, Richard G.

2004-01-01

Three experiments indexed the effect of various concurrent tasks, while watching a traumatic film, on intrusive memory development. Hypotheses were based on the dual-representation theory of posttraumatic stress disorder (C. R. Brewin, T. Dalgleish, & S. Joseph, 1996). Nonclinical participants viewed a trauma film under various encoding conditions…

Imagery Rescripting of Early Traumatic Memories in Social Phobia

PubMed Central

Wild, Jennifer; Clark, David M.

2011-01-01

Negative self-images appear to play a role in the maintenance of social phobia and research suggests they are often linked to earlier memories of socially traumatic events. Imagery rescripting is a clinical intervention that aims to update such unpleasant or traumatic memories, and is increasingly being incorporated in cognitive behavioral therapy programs. In previous research, we have found that imagery rescripting was superior to a control condition in terms of its beneficial effects on negative beliefs, image and memory distress, fear of negative evaluation, and anxiety in social situations. In this article, we describe our imagery rescripting procedure. We consider the importance of updating negative imagery in social phobia, the theoretical basis for imagery rescripting, directions for future research, and how to conduct imagery rescripting, including potential problems and their solutions. PMID:22298942

A new intuitionism: Meaning, memory, and development in Fuzzy-Trace Theory

PubMed Central

Reyna, Valerie F.

2014-01-01

Combining meaning, memory, and development, the perennially popular topic of intuition can be approached in a new way. Fuzzy-trace theory integrates these topics by distinguishing between meaning-based gist representations, which support fuzzy (yet advanced) intuition, and superficial verbatim representations of information, which support precise analysis. Here, I review the counterintuitive findings that led to the development of the theory and its most recent extensions to the neuroscience of risky decision making. These findings include memory interference (worse verbatim memory is associated with better reasoning); nonnumerical framing (framing effects increase when numbers are deleted from decision problems); developmental decreases in gray matter and increases in brain connectivity; developmental reversals in memory, judgment, and decision making (heuristics and biases based on gist increase from childhood to adulthood, challenging conceptions of rationality); and selective attention effects that provide critical tests comparing fuzzy-trace theory, expected utility theory, and its variants (e.g., prospect theory). Surprising implications for judgment and decision making in real life are also discussed, notably, that adaptive decision making relies mainly on gist-based intuition in law, medicine, and public health. PMID:25530822

Theory of Mind Development in Adolescence and Early Adulthood: The Growing Complexity of Recursive Thinking Ability

PubMed Central

Valle, Annalisa; Massaro, Davide; Castelli, Ilaria; Marchetti, Antonella

2015-01-01

This study explores the development of theory of mind, operationalized as recursive thinking ability, from adolescence to early adulthood (N = 110; young adolescents = 47; adolescents = 43; young adults = 20). The construct of theory of mind has been operationalized in two different ways: as the ability to recognize the correct mental state of a character, and as the ability to attribute the correct mental state in order to predict the character’s behaviour. The Imposing Memory Task, with five recursive thinking levels, and a third-order false-belief task with three recursive thinking levels (devised for this study) have been used. The relationship among working memory, executive functions, and linguistic skills are also analysed. Results show that subjects exhibit less understanding of elevated recursive thinking levels (third, fourth, and fifth) compared to the first and second levels. Working memory is correlated with total recursive thinking, whereas performance on the linguistic comprehension task is related to third level recursive thinking in both theory of mind tasks. An effect of age on third-order false-belief task performance was also found. A key finding of the present study is that the third-order false-belief task shows significant age differences in the application of recursive thinking that involves the prediction of others’ behaviour. In contrast, such an age effect is not observed in the Imposing Memory Task. These results may support the extension of the investigation of the third order false belief after childhood. PMID:27247645

The cognitive and neural expression of semantic memory impairment in mild cognitive impairment and early Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Joubert, Sven; Brambati, Simona M; Ansado, Jennyfer; Barbeau, Emmanuel J; Felician, Olivier; Didic, Mira; Lacombe, Jacinthe; Goldstein, Rachel; Chayer, Céline; Kergoat, Marie-Jeanne

2010-03-01

Semantic deficits in Alzheimer's disease have been widely documented, but little is known about the integrity of semantic memory in the prodromal stage of the illness. The aims of the present study were to: (i) investigate naming abilities and semantic memory in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), early Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared to healthy older subjects; (ii) investigate the association between naming and semantic knowledge in aMCI and AD; (iii) examine if the semantic impairment was present in different modalities; and (iv) study the relationship between semantic performance and grey matter volume using voxel-based morphometry. Results indicate that both naming and semantic knowledge of objects and famous people were impaired in aMCI and early AD groups, when compared to healthy age- and education-matched controls. Item-by-item analyses showed that anomia in aMCI and early AD was significantly associated with underlying semantic knowledge of famous people but not with semantic knowledge of objects. Moreover, semantic knowledge of the same concepts was impaired in both the visual and the verbal modalities. Finally, voxel-based morphometry analyses revealed that semantic impairment in aMCI and AD was associated with cortical atrophy in the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) region as well as in the inferior prefrontal cortex (IPC), some of the key regions of the semantic cognition network. These findings suggest that the semantic impairment in aMCI may result from a breakdown of semantic knowledge of famous people and objects, combined with difficulties in the selection, manipulation and retrieval of this knowledge. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Corporate Memory and Spacecraft Course Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1999-01-01

The Florida Space Grant Consortium (FSGC) entered into a cooperative agreement with NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to manage two programs, (1) Corporate Memory and (2) Spacecraft Course Development. The FSGC, with its central office at the University of Florida, administered these programs. In conjunction with KSC, the FGSC was responsible for the release of the Request for Proposals (RFP's) and its distribution to all its affiliates. FSGC received the applications, forwarded them to KSC for evaluations, and awarded grants to the institutions chosen by KSC.

Development and characterization of a ferroelectric non-volatile memory for flexible electronics