scholarly journals Material-specific Neural Correlates of Recollection: Objects, Words, and Faces

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 1405-1418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Galli ◽  
Leun J. Otten

It is unclear how neural correlates of episodic memory retrieval differ depending on the type of material that is retrieved. Here, we used a source memory task to compare electrical brain activity for the recollection of three types of stimulus material. At study, healthy adults judged how well visually presented objects, words, and faces fitted with paired auditorily presented names of locations. At test, only visual stimuli were presented. The task was to decide whether an item had been presented earlier and, if so, what location had been paired with the item. Stimulus types were intermixed across trials in Experiment 1 and presented in separate study–test lists in Experiment 2. A graded pattern of memory performance was observed across objects, words, and faces in both experiments. Between 300 and 500 msec, event-related potentials for recollected objects and faces showed a more frontal scalp distribution compared to words in both experiments. Later in the recording epoch, all three stimulus materials elicited recollection effects over left posterior scalp sites. However, these effects extended more anteriorly for objects and faces when stimulus categories were blocked. These findings demonstrate that the neural correlates of recollection are material specific, the crucial difference being between pictorial and verbal material. Faces do not appear to have a special status. The sensitivity of recollection effects to the kind of experimental design suggests that, in addition to type of stimulus material, higher-level control processes affect the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying episodic retrieval.

1998 ◽  
Vol 353 (1377) ◽  
pp. 1861-1878 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
D. L. Schacter ◽  
R. L. Buckner ◽  
W. Koutstaal

Neuroimaging techniques that allow the assessment of memory performance in healthy human volunteers while simultaneously obtaining measurements of brain activity in vivo may offer new information on the neural correlates of particular forms of memory retrieval and their association with consciousness and intention. We consider evidence from studies with positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging indicating that priming, a form of implicit retrieval, is associated with decreased activity in various cortical regions. We also consider evidence concerning the question of whether two components of explicit retrieval—intentional or effortful search and successful conscious recollection— are preferentially associated with increased activity in prefrontal and medial temporal regions, respectively. Last, we consider recent efforts to probe the relation between the phenomenological character of remembering and neural activity. In this instance we broaden our scope to include studies employing event–related potentials and consider evidence concerning the neural correlates of qualitatively different forms of memory, including memory that is specifically associated with a sense of self, and the recollection of particular temporal or perceptual features that might contribute to a rich and vivid experience of the past.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicja Anna Binkowska ◽  
Natalia Jakubowska ◽  
Maciej Gaca ◽  
Natalia Galant ◽  
Agnieszka Piotrowska-Cyplik ◽  
...  

Background While research has consistently identified an association between long-term cannabis use and memory impairments, few studies have examined this relationship in a polydrug context (i.e., when combining cannabis with other substances).Aims: In this preliminary study, we used event-related potentials to examine the recognition process in a visual episodic memory task in cannabis users (CU) and cannabis polydrug users (PU). We hypothesized that CU and PU will have both–behavioral and psychophysiological–indicators of memory processes affected, compared to matched non-using controls with the PU expressing more severe changes.Methods 29 non-using controls (CG), 24 CU and 27 PU were enrolled into the study. All participants completed a visual learning recognition task while brain electrical activity was recorded. Event-related potentials were calculated for familiar (old) and new images from a signal recorded during a subsequent recognition test. We used receiver operating characteristic curves for behavioral data analysis.Results The groups did not differ in memory performance based on receiver operating characteristic method in accuracy and discriminability indicators nor mean reaction times for old/new images. The frontal old/new effect expected from prior research was observed for all participants, while a parietal old/new effect was not observed. While, the significant differences in the late parietal component (LPC) amplitude was observed between CG and PU but not between CG and CU nor CU and PU. Linear regression analysis was used to examine the mean amplitude of the LPC component as a predictor of memory performance accuracy indicator. LPC amplitude predicts recognition accuracy only in the CG.Conclusion The results showed alterations in recognition memory processing in CU and PU groups compared to CG, which were not manifested on the behavioral level, and were the most prominent in cannabis polydrug users. We interpret it as a manifestation of the cumulative effect of multiple drug usage in the PU group.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1267-1267 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Mucci ◽  
S. Galderisi ◽  
A. Vignapiano ◽  
D. Russo ◽  
P. Romano ◽  
...  

IntroductionClinical studies on cognitive effects of second generation antipsychotics produced disappointing findings probably due to the heterogeneity of the clinical populations under investigation, as well as to poor sensitivity of neurocognitive indices. Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) provide a functional measure of electrical brain activity time-locked to discrete stages of information processing. They have been widely used as putative biological markers of cognitive abnormalities in schizophrenia and represent useful indices in the investigation of the cognitive effects of psychotropic drugs.ObjectivesThe present study investigated the effect of risperidone, haloperidol and placebo on N1 and P3 in male healthy subjects.MethodsERPs were recorded during a three-tone oddball task in which target, standard and rare-nontarget tones were randomly presented. Subjects had to press a button when hearing a target tone. Amplitude and topography of the ERP component maps at peak latencies were compared across conditions. If a significant drug effect was obtained, changes in the cortical sources of the corresponding ERP component were analyzed using Low-Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (LORETA).ResultsThe amplitude of N1 for attended stimuli and of P3 for rare-nontargets (P3a) was significantly increased only by risperidone. No significant change was observed in overall topographic features and in LORETA cortical sources of the same components. No significant drug effect was demonstrated for the latency of all the investigated components and for P3b amplitude.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that risperidone has a favorable effect on early attention processes and automatic attention allocation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lâle Battal Merlet ◽  
Alain Blanchet ◽  
Hazlin Lockman ◽  
Milena Kostova

The objective of this electrophysiological study was to investigate the processing of semantic coherence during encoding in relation to episodic memory processes promoted at test, in schizophrenia patients, by using the N400 paradigm. Eighteen schizophrenia patients and 15 healthy participants undertook a recognition memory task. The stimuli consisted of pairs of words either semantically related or unrelated to a given category name (context). During encoding, both groups exhibited an N400 external semantic coherence effect. Healthy controls also showed an N400 internal semantic coherence effect, but this effect was not present in patients. At test, related stimuli were accompanied by an FN400 old/new effect in both groups and by a parietal old/new effect in the control group alone. In the patient group, external semantic coherence effect was associated with FN400, while, in the control group, it was correlated to the parietal old/new effect. Our results indicate that schizophrenia patients can process the contextual information at encoding to enhance familiarity process for related stimuli at test. Therefore, cognitive rehabilitation therapies targeting the implementation of semantic encoding strategies can mobilize familiarity which in turn can overcome the recollection deficit, promoting successful episodic memory performance in schizophrenia patients.


2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 1776-1789 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leun J. Otten ◽  
Josefin Sveen ◽  
Angela H. Quayle

Research into the neural underpinnings of memory formation has focused on the encoding of familiar verbal information. Here, we address how the brain supports the encoding of novel information that does not have meaning. Electrical brain activity was recorded from the scalps of healthy young adults while they performed an incidental encoding task (syllable judgments) on separate series of words and “nonwords” (nonsense letter strings that are orthographically legal and pronounceable). Memory for the items was then probed with a recognition memory test. For words as well as nonwords, event-related potentials differed depending on whether an item would subsequently be remembered or forgotten. However, the polarity and timing of the effect varied across item type. For words, subsequently remembered items showed the usually observed positive-going, frontally distributed modulation from around 600 msec after word onset. For nonwords, by contrast, a negative-going, spatially widespread modulation predicted encoding success from 1000 msec onward. Nonwords also showed a modulation shortly after item onset. These findings imply that the brain supports the encoding of familiar and unfamiliar letter strings in qualitatively different ways, including the engagement of distinct neural activity at different points in time. The processing of semantic attributes plays an important role in the encoding of words and the associated positive frontal modulation.


2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 430-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurel J. Trainor ◽  
Kelly L. McDonald ◽  
Claude Alain

Most work on how pitch is encoded in the auditory cortex has focused on tonotopic (absolute) pitch maps. However, melodic information is thought to be encoded in the brain in two different “relative pitch” forms, a domain-general contour code (up/down pattern of pitch changes) and a music-specific interval code (exact pitch distances between notes). Event-related potentials were analyzed in nonmusicians from both passive and active oddball tasks where either the contour or the interval of melody—final notes was occasionally altered. The occasional deviant notes generated a right frontal positivity peaking around 350 msec and a central parietal P3b peaking around 580 msec that were present only when participants focused their attention on the auditory stimuli. Both types of melodic information were encoded automatically in the absence of absolute pitch cues, as indexed by a mismatch negativity wave recorded during the passive conditions. The results indicate that even in the absence of musical training, the brain is set up to automatically encode music-specific melodic information, even when absolute pitch information is not available.


2017 ◽  
Vol 74 (7) ◽  
pp. 1101-1110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaclyn H Ford ◽  
Elizabeth A Kensinger

Abstract Objectives Although research has identified age-by-emotion interactions in memory performance and in neural recruitment during retrieval, it remains unclear which retrieval processes are affected. The temporal resolution of event-related potentials (ERPs) provides a way to examine different component processes that operate during retrieval. Methods In the present study, younger and older adults encoded neutral and emotional images paired with neutral titles. ERPs were assessed during a recognition memory task in which participants viewed neutral titles and indicated whether each had been presented during encoding. Results An age-related posterior-to-anterior shift began in a time window typically associated with recollection-related processes (500–800 ms) while an age-by-emotion interaction occurred only during a later measurement window (800–1,200 ms). Discussion These findings suggest an effect of age on mechanisms supporting retrieval of episodic content, prior to post-retrieval processing. The potential relations to different types of detail retrieval are discussed. Further, the later age-by-emotion interactions suggest that age influences the effect of emotion on post-retrieval processes, specifically.


2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey Duarte ◽  
Charan Ranganath ◽  
Celina Trujillo ◽  
Robert T. Knight

Numerous behavioral studies have suggested that normal aging has deleterious effects on episodic memory and that recollection is disproportionately impaired relative to familiarity-based recognition. However, there is a wide degree of variability in memory performance within the aging population and this generalization may not apply to all elderly adults. Here we investigated these issues by using event-related potentials (ERPs) to measure the effects of aging on the neural correlates of recollection and familiarity in older adults with recognition memory performance that was equivalent to (old-high) or lower than (old-low) that of young adults. Results showed that, behaviorally, old-high subjects exhibited intact recollection but reduced familiarity, whereas old-low subjects had impairments in both recollection and familiarity, relative to the young. Consistent with behavioral results, old-high subjects exhibited ERP correlates of recollection that were topographically similar to those observed in young subjects. However, unlike the young adults, old-high subjects did not demonstrate any neural correlates of familiarity-based recognition. In contrast to the old-high group, the old-low group exhibited neural correlates of recollection that were topographically distinct from those of the young. Our results suggest that the effects of aging on the underlying brain processes related to recollection and familiarity are dependent on individual memory performance and highlight the importance of examining performance variability in normal aging.


Author(s):  
Francesco Panico ◽  
Stefania De Marco ◽  
Laura Sagliano ◽  
Francesca D’Olimpio ◽  
Dario Grossi ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Corsi Block-Tapping test (CBT) is a measure of spatial working memory (WM) in clinical practice, requiring an examinee to reproduce sequences of cubes tapped by an examiner. CBT implies complementary behaviors in the examiners and the examinees, as they have to attend a precise turn taking. Previous studies demonstrated that the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) is activated during CBT, but scarce evidence is available on the neural correlates of CBT in the real setting. We assessed PFC activity in dyads of examiner–examinee participants while completing the real version of CBT, during conditions of increasing and exceeding workload. This procedure allowed to investigate whether brain activity in the dyads is coordinated. Results in the examinees showed that PFC activity was higher when the workload approached or reached participants’ spatial WM span, and lower during workload conditions that were largely below or above their span. Interestingly, findings in the examiners paralleled the ones in the examinees, as examiners’ brain activity increased and decreased in a similar way as the examinees’ one. In the examiners, higher left-hemisphere activity was observed suggesting the likely activation of non-spatial WM processes. Data support a bell-shaped relationship between cognitive load and brain activity, and provide original insights on the cognitive processes activated in the examiner during CBT.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saugat Bhattacharyya ◽  
Davide Valeriani ◽  
Caterina Cinel ◽  
Luca Citi ◽  
Riccardo Poli

AbstractIn this paper we present, and test in two realistic environments, collaborative Brain-Computer Interfaces (cBCIs) that can significantly increase both the speed and the accuracy of perceptual group decision-making. The key distinguishing features of this work are: (1) our cBCIs combine behavioural, physiological and neural data in such a way as to be able to provide a group decision at any time after the quickest team member casts their vote, but the quality of a cBCI-assisted decision improves monotonically the longer the group decision can wait; (2) we apply our cBCIs to two realistic scenarios of military relevance (patrolling a dark corridor and manning an outpost at night where users need to identify any unidentified characters that appear) in which decisions are based on information conveyed through video feeds; and (3) our cBCIs exploit Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) elicited in brain activity by the appearance of potential threats but, uniquely, the appearance time is estimated automatically by the system (rather than being unrealistically provided to it). As a result of these elements, in the two test environments, groups assisted by our cBCIs make both more accurate and faster decisions than when individual decisions are integrated in more traditional manners.


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