scholarly journals The congruence effect is impaired in healthy aging: a relationship to event-related potentials and theta-alpha oscillations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pau A. Packard ◽  
Tineke K. Steiger ◽  
Lluis Fuentemilla ◽  
Nico Bunzeck
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Congruence Effect ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Alpha Oscillations ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Related Potentials

AbstractLong-term memory can improve when incoming information is congruent with known semantic information. This so-called congruence effect has widely been shown in younger adults but age-related changes and neural mechanisms remain unclear. Here, congruence improved recognition memory in younger and older adults (i.e. congruency effect), but – importantly – this effect decreased with age. Electroencephalography data show that, in both groups, congruence led to widespread differences in event-related potentials (ERPs) and alpha-beta oscillations (8-30 Hz), known to support semantic processing. Importantly, these ERP differences predicted increases in memory performance, especially for congruent items. Finally, age-related differences in memory were accompanied by a positive ERP and later decrease in theta-alpha (5-13 Hz) during encoding, which were greater in the younger group. Together, although semantic congruence generally increases long-term memory, the effect is less pronounced in the elderly. At the neural level, theta-alpha oscillations, previously linked to memory and attentional processes, provide a mechanistic explanation for such an age-related effect.

scholarly journals Semantic Congruence Drives Long-Term Memory and Similarly Affects Neural Retrieval Dynamics in Young and Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo J. Alejandro ◽  
Pau A. Packard ◽  
Tineke K. Steiger ◽  
Lluis Fuentemilla ◽  
Nico Bunzeck
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Semantic Congruence

Learning novel information can be promoted if it is congruent with already stored knowledge. This so-called semantic congruence effect has been broadly studied in healthy young adults with a focus on neural encoding mechanisms. However, the impacts on retrieval, and possible impairments during healthy aging, which is typically associated with changes in declarative long-term memory, remain unclear. To investigate these issues, we used a previously established paradigm in healthy young and older humans with a focus on the neural activity at a final retrieval stage as measured with electroencephalography (EEG). In both age groups, semantic congruence at encoding enhanced subsequent long-term recognition memory of words. Compatible with this observation, semantic congruence led to differences in event-related potentials (ERPs) at retrieval, and this effect was not modulated by age. Specifically, congruence modulated old/new ERPs at a fronto-central (Fz) and left parietal (P3) electrode in a late (400–600 ms) time window, which has previously been associated with recognition memory processes. Importantly, ERPs to old items also correlated with the positive effect of semantic congruence on long-term memory independent of age. Together, our findings suggest that semantic congruence drives subsequent recognition memory across the lifespan through changes in neural retrieval processes.

scholarly journals Propofol and Midazolam Inhibit Conscious Memory Processes Very Soon after Encoding: An Event-related Potential Study of Familiarity and Recollection in Volunteers

2009 ◽  
Vol 110 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Veselis ◽  
Kane O. Pryor ◽  
Ruth A. Reinsel ◽  
Yuelin Li ◽  
Meghana Mehta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Memory Function ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Memory Retention ◽  
Drug Infusion ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Related Potentials

Background Intravenous drugs active via gamma-aminobutyric acid receptors to produce memory impairment during conscious sedation. Memory function was assessed using event-related potentials (ERPs) while drug was present. Methods The continuous recognition task measured recognition of photographs from working (6 s) and long-term (27 s) memory while ERPs were recorded from Cz (familiarity recognition) and Pz electrodes (recollection recognition). Volunteer participants received sequential doses of one of placebo (n = 11), 0.45 and 0.9 microg/ml propofol (n = 10), 20 and 40 ng/ml midazolam (n = 12), 1.5 and 3 microg/ml thiopental (n = 11), or 0.25 and 0.4 ng/ml dexmedetomidine (n = 11). End-of-day yes/no recognition 225 min after the end of drug infusion tested memory retention of pictures encoded on the continuous recognition tasks. Results Active drugs increased reaction times and impaired memory on the continuous recognition task equally, except for a greater effect of midazolam (P < 0.04). Forgetting from continuous recognition tasks to end of day was similar for all drugs (P = 0.40), greater than placebo (P < 0.001). Propofol and midazolam decreased the area between first presentation (new) and recognized (old, 27 s later) ERP waveforms from long-term memory for familiarity (P = 0.03) and possibly for recollection processes (P = 0.12). Propofol shifted ERP amplitudes to smaller voltages (P < 0.002). Dexmedetomidine may have impaired familiarity more than recollection processes (P = 0.10). Thiopental had no effect on ERPs. Conclusion Propofol and midazolam impaired recognition ERPs from long-term memory but not working memory. ERP measures of memory revealed different pathways to end-of-day memory loss as early as 27 s after encoding.

scholarly journals Behavioral and neural evidence of enhanced long-term memory for untrustworthy faces

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Weymar ◽  
Carlos Ventura-Bort ◽  
Julia Wendt ◽  
Alexander Lischke
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Potential Harm ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Fast Access

AbstractIn daily life, we automatically form impressions of other individuals on basis of subtle facial features that convey trustworthiness. Because these face-based judgements influence current and future social interactions, we investigated how perceived trustworthiness of faces affects long-term memory using event-related potentials (ERPs). In the current study, participants incidentally viewed 60 neutral faces differing in trustworthiness, and one week later, performed a surprise recognition memory task, in which the same old faces were presented intermixed with novel ones. We found that after one week untrustworthy faces were better recognized than trustworthy faces and that untrustworthy faces prompted early (350–550 ms) enhanced frontal ERP old/new differences (larger positivity for correctly remembered old faces, compared to novel ones) during recognition. Our findings point toward an enhanced long-lasting, likely familiarity-based, memory for untrustworthy faces. Even when trust judgments about a person do not necessarily need to be accurate, a fast access to memories predicting potential harm may be important to guide social behaviour in daily life.

scholarly journals A Multivariate Assessment of Age-Related Cognitive Impairment in Octodon degus

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela S. Rivera ◽  
Carolina B. Lindsay ◽  
Carolina A. Oliva ◽  
Francisco Bozinovic ◽  
Nibaldo C. Inestrosa
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Natural Aging ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Barnes Maze ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Age Dependent

Aging is a progressive functional decline characterized by a gradual deterioration in physiological function and behavior. The most important age-related change in cognitive function is decline in cognitive performance (i.e., the processing or transformation of information to make decisions that includes speed of processing, working memory, and learning). The purpose of this study is to outline the changes in age-related cognitive performance (i.e., short-term recognition memory and long-term learning and memory) in long-lived Octodon degus. The strong similarity between degus and humans in social, metabolic, biochemical, and cognitive aspects makes it a unique animal model for exploring the mechanisms underlying the behavioral and cognitive deficits related to natural aging. In this study, we examined young adult female degus (12- and 24-months-old) and aged female degus (38-, 56-, and 75-months-old) that were exposed to a battery of cognitive-behavioral tests. Multivariate analyses of data from the Social Interaction test or Novel Object/Local Recognition (to measure short-term recognition memory), and the Barnes maze test (to measure long-term learning and memory) revealed a consistent pattern. Young animals formed a separate group of aged degus for both short- and long-term memories. The association between the first component of the principal component analysis (PCA) from short-term memory with the first component of the PCA from long-term memory showed a significant negative correlation. This suggests age-dependent differences in both memories, with the aged degus having higher values of long-term memory ability but poor short-term recognition memory, whereas in the young degus an opposite pattern was found. Approximately 5% of the young and 80% of the aged degus showed an impaired short-term recognition memory; whereas for long-term memory about 32% of the young degus and 57% of the aged degus showed decreased performance on the Barnes maze test. Throughout this study, we outlined age-dependent cognitive performance decline during natural aging in degus. Moreover, we also demonstrated that the use of a multivariate approach let us explore and visualize complex behavioral variables, and identified specific behavioral patterns that allowed us to make powerful conclusions that will facilitate further the study on the biology of aging. In addition, this study could help predict the onset of the aging process based on behavioral performance.

scholarly journals Dissociating refreshing and elaboration and their impacts on memory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lea M. Bartsch ◽  
Vanessa M. Loaiza ◽  
Lutz Jäncke ◽  
Klaus Oberauer ◽  
Jarrod A. Lewis-Peacock
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Fmri Data ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
List Type ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Age Related

AbstractMaintenance of information in working memory (WM) is assumed to rely on refreshing and elaboration, but clear mechanistic descriptions of these cognitive processes are lacking, and it is unclear whether they are simply two labels for the same process. This fMRI study investigated the extent to which refreshing, elaboration, and repeating of items in WM are distinct neural processes with dissociable behavioral outcomes in WM and long-term memory (LTM). Multivariate pattern analyses of fMRI data revealed differentiable neural signatures for these processes, which we also replicated in an independent sample of older adults. In some cases, the degree of neural separation within an individual predicted their memory performance. Elaboration improved LTM, but not WM, and this benefit increased as its neural signature became more distinct from repetition. Refreshing had no impact on LTM, but did improve WM, although the neural discrimination of this process was not predictive of the degree of improvement. These results demonstrate that refreshing and elaboration are separate processes that differently contribute to memory performance.HighlightsRepeated reading, refreshing, and elaboration are differentiable in brain activation patterns in both young and older adults.Elaboration selectively improved long-term memory for young adults, and the size of the benefit was related to the neural separability of elaboration from other processes.Older adults implemented a sub-optimal form of elaboration, and this may be a factor contributing to age-related deficits in long-term memory.Ethics statementThe study was approved by the ethical review board of the canton of Zurich (BASEC-No. 2017-00190) and all subjects gave informed written consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.Data and code availability statementAll behavioral data and analysis scripts can be assessed on the Open Science Framework (osf.io/p2h8b/). The fMRI data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, LMB. The fMRI data are not publicly available due to restrictions of the Swiss Ethics Committees on research involving humans regarding data containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

Remembering Over the Short and Long Term

2020 ◽  
pp. 282-310
Author(s):  
Patricia A. Reuter-Lorenz ◽  
Alexandru D. Iordan
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Strategic Processing ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Neuroscience Research ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
Time Courses

This chapter reviews evidence from behavioural and cognitive neuroscience research that supports a unitary view of memory whereby working memory and long-term memory phenomena arise from representations and processes that are largely shared when remembering over the short or long term. Using ‘false working memories’ as a case study, it highlights several paradoxes that cannot be explained by a multisystem view of memory in which working memory and long-term memory are structurally distinct. Instead, it is posited that behavioural memory effects over the short and long term relating to semantic processing, modality/domain-specificity, dual-task interference, strategic processing, and so on arise from the differences in activational states and availability of different representational features (e.g. sensory/perceptual, associative, action-based) that vary in their time courses and activity, attentional priority, and susceptibility to interference. Cognitive neuroscience evidence primarily from brain imaging methodologies that support this view is reviewed.

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