scholarly journals Sensory–perceptual episodic memory and its context: autobiographical memory

2001 ◽  
Vol 356 (1413) ◽  
pp. 1375-1384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin A. Conway
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Recent Experience ◽  
Perceptual Knowledge ◽  
Recollective Experience ◽  
Episodic Memories ◽  
Retention Intervals ◽  
Memory Knowledge

Episodic memory is reconceived as a memory system that retains highly detailed sensory perceptual knowledge of recent experience over retention intervals measured in minutes and hours. Episodic knowledge has yet to be integrated with the autobiographical memory knowledge base and so takes as its context or referent the immediate past of the experiencing self (or the ‘I’). When recalled it can be accessed independently of content and is recollectively experienced. Autobiographical memory, in contrast, retains knowledge over retention intervals measured in weeks, months, years, decades and across the life span. Autobiographical knowledge represents the experienced self (or the ‘me’), is always accessed by its content and, when accessed, does not necessarily give rise to recollective experience. Instead, recollective experience occurs when autobiographical knowledge retains access to associated episodic memories. In this reworking of the ‘episodic memory’ concept autobiographical memory provides the instantiating context for sensory–perceptual episodic memory.

scholarly journals Development and Decline of the Hippocampal Long-Axis Specialization and Differentiation During Encoding and Retrieval of Episodic Memories

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 3398-3414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Espen Langnes ◽  
Didac Vidal-Piñeiro ◽  
Markus H Sneve ◽  
Inge K Amlien ◽  
Kristine B Walhovd ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Task Engagement ◽  
Age Effects ◽  
Associative Memories ◽  
Related Activity ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Successful Retrieval ◽  
Development And Aging ◽  
Episodic Memories

Abstract Change in hippocampal function is a major factor in life span development and decline of episodic memory. Evidence indicates a long-axis specialization where anterior hippocampus is more engaged during encoding than during retrieval, and posterior more engaged during retrieval than during encoding. We tested the life span trajectory of hippocampal long-axis episodic memory-related activity and functional connectivity (FC) in 496 participants (6.8–80.8 years) encoding and retrieving associative memories. We found evidence for a long-axis encoding–retrieval specialization that declined linearly during development and aging, eventually vanishing in the older adults. This was mainly driven by age effects on retrieval, which was associated with gradually lower activity from childhood to adulthood, followed by positive age relationships until 70 years. This pattern of age effects characterized task engagement regardless of memory success or failure. Especially for retrieval, children engaged posterior hippocampus more than anterior, while anterior was relatively more activated already in teenagers. Significant intrahippocampal connectivity was found during task, which declined with age. The results suggest that hippocampal long-axis differentiation and communication during episodic memory tasks develop rapidly during childhood, are different in older compared with younger adults, and that the age effects are related to task engagement, not the successful retrieval of episodic memories specifically.

Sociocultural memory development research drives new directions in gadgetry science

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Penny Van Bergen ◽  
John Sutton
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Memory Development ◽  
Development Research ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Cross Cultural Research

Abstract Sociocultural developmental psychology can drive new directions in gadgetry science. We use autobiographical memory, a compound capacity incorporating episodic memory, as a case study. Autobiographical memory emerges late in development, supported by interactions with parents. Intervention research highlights the causal influence of these interactions, whereas cross-cultural research demonstrates culturally determined diversity. Different patterns of inheritance are discussed.

scholarly journals Bi-Temporal Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation during Slow-Wave Sleep Boosts Slow-Wave Density but Not Memory Consolidation

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 410
Author(s):  
Simon Ruch ◽  
Kristoffer Fehér ◽  
Stephanie Homan ◽  
Yosuke Morishima ◽  
Sarah Maria Mueller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Slow Wave ◽  
Direct Current ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Slow Wave Sleep ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Sleep Parameters ◽  
Episodic Memories

Slow-wave sleep (SWS) has been shown to promote long-term consolidation of episodic memories in hippocampo–neocortical networks. Previous research has aimed to modulate cortical sleep slow-waves and spindles to facilitate episodic memory consolidation. Here, we instead aimed to modulate hippocampal activity during slow-wave sleep using transcranial direct current stimulation in 18 healthy humans. A pair-associate episodic memory task was used to evaluate sleep-dependent memory consolidation with face–occupation stimuli. Pre- and post-nap retrieval was assessed as a measure of memory performance. Anodal stimulation with 2 mA was applied bilaterally over the lateral temporal cortex, motivated by its particularly extensive connections to the hippocampus. The participants slept in a magnetic resonance (MR)-simulator during the recordings to test the feasibility for a future MR-study. We used a sham-controlled, double-blind, counterbalanced randomized, within-subject crossover design. We show that stimulation vs. sham significantly increased slow-wave density and the temporal coupling of fast spindles and slow-waves. While retention of episodic memories across sleep was not affected across the entire sample of participants, it was impaired in participants with below-average pre-sleep memory performance. Hence, bi-temporal anodal direct current stimulation applied during sleep enhanced sleep parameters that are typically involved in memory consolidation, but it failed to improve memory consolidation and even tended to impair consolidation in poor learners. These findings suggest that artificially enhancing memory-related sleep parameters to improve memory consolidation can actually backfire in those participants who are in most need of memory improvement.

scholarly journals Influence of Dietary Nutrient Intake on Episodic Memory Across the Adult Life Span

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selene Cansino ◽  
Frine Torres-Trejo ◽  
Cinthya Estrada-Manilla ◽  
Adriana Flores-Mendoza ◽  
Gerardo Ramírez-Pérez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Saturated Fatty Acids ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Daily Consumption ◽  
Adult Life Span

The aim of the study was to identify nutrients that have the ability to impact brain functioning and, as a consequence, influence episodic memory. In particular, we examined recollection, the ability to recall details of previous experiences, which is the episodic memory process most affected as age advances. A sample of 1,550 healthy participants between 21 and 80 years old participated in the study. Nutritional intake was examined through a food frequency questionnaire and software developed to determine the daily consumption of 64 nutrients based on food intake during the last year. Recollection was measured through a computerized source memory paradigm. First, we identified which nutrients influence recollection across the entire adult life span. Then, moderator analyses were conducted by dividing the sample into young (21–40 years old), middle-aged (41–60 years old) and older (61–80 years old) adults to establish in which life stage nutrients influence episodic memory. Across the adult life span, recollection accuracy was shown to benefit from the intake of sodium, heme, vitamin E, niacin, vitamin B6, cholesterol, alcohol, fat, protein, and palmitic, stearic, palmitoleic, oleic, gadoleic, alpha-linoleic and linoleic acid. The effects of energy, maltose, lactose, calcium and several saturated fatty acids on recollection were modulated by age; in older adults, the consumption of these nutrients negatively influenced episodic memory performance, and in middle-aged adults, only lactose had negative effects. Several brain mechanisms that support episodic memory were influenced by specific nutrients, demonstrating the ability of food to enhance or deteriorate episodic memory.

scholarly journals Autobiographically Significant Concepts: More Episodic than Semantic in Nature? An Electrophysiological Investigation of Overlapping Types of Memory

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Renoult ◽  
Patrick S. R. Davidson ◽  
Erika Schmitz ◽  
Lillian Park ◽  
Kenneth Campbell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Positive Component ◽  
Late Positive Component ◽  
Episodic Information ◽  
Semantic Concepts ◽  
N400 Component ◽  
Episodic Memories ◽  
Highly Correlated

A common assertion is that semantic memory emerges from episodic memory, shedding the distinctive contexts associated with episodes over time and/or repeated instances. Some semantic concepts, however, may retain their episodic origins or acquire episodic information during life experiences. The current study examined this hypothesis by investigating the ERP correlates of autobiographically significant (AS) concepts, that is, semantic concepts that are associated with vivid episodic memories. We inferred the contribution of semantic and episodic memory to AS concepts using the amplitudes of the N400 and late positive component, respectively. We compared famous names that easily brought to mind episodic memories (high AS names) against equally famous names that did not bring such recollections to mind (low AS names) on a semantic task (fame judgment) and an episodic task (recognition memory). Compared with low AS names, high AS names were associated with increased amplitude of the late positive component in both tasks. Moreover, in the recognition task, this effect of AS was highly correlated with recognition confidence. In contrast, the N400 component did not differentiate the high versus low AS names but, instead, was related to the amount of general knowledge participants had regarding each name. These results suggest that semantic concepts high in AS, such as famous names, have an episodic component and are associated with similar brain processes to those that are engaged by episodic memory. Studying AS concepts may provide unique insights into how episodic and semantic memory interact.

scholarly journals Mediators of episodic memory decay across the adult life span

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Selene Cansino ◽  
Frine Torres-Trejo ◽  
Cinthya Estrada-Manilla ◽  
Evelia Hernández-Ramos ◽  
Joyce Graciela Martínez-Galindo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Adult Life Span ◽  
Memory Decay

scholarly journals Coding of episodic memory in the human hippocampus

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (5) ◽  
pp. 1093-1098 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Wixted ◽  
Stephen D. Goldinger ◽  
Larry R. Squire ◽  
Joel R. Kuhn ◽  
Megan H. Papesh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Single Neuron ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Neuron Activity ◽  
Distributed Coding ◽  
Repeated Word ◽  
Human Hippocampus ◽  
Left Hippocampus ◽  
Episodic Memories

Neurocomputational models have long posited that episodic memories in the human hippocampus are represented by sparse, stimulus-specific neural codes. A concomitant proposal is that when sparse-distributed neural assemblies become active, they suppress the activity of competing neurons (neural sharpening). We investigated episodic memory coding in the hippocampus and amygdala by measuring single-neuron responses from 20 epilepsy patients (12 female) undergoing intracranial monitoring while they completed a continuous recognition memory task. In the left hippocampus, the distribution of single-neuron activity indicated that only a small fraction of neurons exhibited strong responding to a given repeated word and that each repeated word elicited strong responding in a different small fraction of neurons. This finding reflects sparse distributed coding. The remaining large fraction of neurons exhibited a concurrent reduction in firing rates relative to novel words. The observed pattern accords with longstanding predictions that have previously received scant support from single-cell recordings from human hippocampus.

scholarly journals Intrinsic motivation and episodic memories for robot exploration of high-dimensional sensory spaces

2020 ◽  
pp. 105971232092291
Author(s):  
Guido Schillaci ◽  
Antonio Pico Villalpando ◽  
Verena V Hafner ◽  
Peter Hanappe ◽  
David Colliaux ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Intrinsic Motivation ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Deep Neural Networks ◽  
Image Sensor ◽  
Forward Kinematics ◽  
High Dimensional ◽  
Episodic Memories ◽  
Low Dimensional

This work presents an architecture that generates curiosity-driven goal-directed exploration behaviours for an image sensor of a microfarming robot. A combination of deep neural networks for offline unsupervised learning of low-dimensional features from images and of online learning of shallow neural networks representing the inverse and forward kinematics of the system have been used. The artificial curiosity system assigns interest values to a set of pre-defined goals and drives the exploration towards those that are expected to maximise the learning progress. We propose the integration of an episodic memory in intrinsic motivation systems to face catastrophic forgetting issues, typically experienced when performing online updates of artificial neural networks. Our results show that adopting an episodic memory system not only prevents the computational models from quickly forgetting knowledge that has been previously acquired but also provides new avenues for modulating the balance between plasticity and stability of the models.

scholarly journals Modelling Autobiographical Memory Loss across Life Span

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 1368-1375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Di Wang ◽  
Ah-Hwee Tan ◽  
Chunyan Miao ◽  
Ahmed A. Moustafa
Keyword(s):  
Life Span ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Recall Performance ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Memory Loss ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Memory Recall

Neurocomputational modelling of long-term memory is a core topic in computational cognitive neuroscience, which is essential towards self-regulating brain-like AI systems. In this paper, we study how people generally lose their memories and emulate various memory loss phenomena using a neurocomputational autobiographical memory model. Specifically, based on prior neurocognitive and neuropsychology studies, we identify three neural processes, namely overload, decay and inhibition, which lead to memory loss in memory formation, storage and retrieval, respectively. For model validation, we collect a memory dataset comprising more than one thousand life events and emulate the three key memory loss processes with model parameters learnt from memory recall behavioural patterns found in human subjects of different age groups. The emulation results show high correlation with human memory recall performance across their life span, even with another population not being used for learning. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first research work on quantitative evaluations of autobiographical memory loss using a neurocomputational model.

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