The Role of Visual Association Cortex in Associative Memory Formation across Development

Associative learning underlies the formation of new episodic memories. Associative memory improves across development, and this age-related improvement is supported by the development of the hippocampus and pFC. Recent work, however, additionally suggests a role for visual association cortex in the formation of associative memories. This study investigated the role of category-preferential visual processing regions in associative memory across development using a paired associate learning task in a sample of 56 youths (age 6–19 years). Participants were asked to bind an emotional face with an object while undergoing fMRI scanning. Outside the scanner, participants completed a memory test. We first investigated age-related changes in neural recruitment and found linear age-related increases in activation in lateral occipital cortex and fusiform gyrus, which are involved in visual processing of objects and faces, respectively. Furthermore, greater activation in these visual processing regions was associated with better subsequent memory for pairs over and above the effect of age and of hippocampal and pFC activation on performance. Recruitment of these visual processing regions mediated the association between age and memory performance, over and above the effects of hippocampal activation. Taken together, these findings extend the existing literature to suggest that greater recruitment of category-preferential visual processing regions during encoding of associative memories is a neural mechanism explaining improved memory across development.

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The role of the stomatopod lateral protocerebrum in visual processing and associative memory

10.14264/d90a026 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Hong Vo

Keyword(s):

Associative Memory ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Lateral Protocerebrum

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Age-related emotional bias in associative memory consolidation: The role of sleep

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory ◽

10.1016/j.nlm.2020.107204 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 171 ◽

pp. 107204 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sheng-Yin Huan ◽

Kun-Peng Liu ◽

Xu Lei ◽

Jing Yu

Keyword(s):

Associative Memory ◽

Memory Consolidation ◽

Age Related ◽

Emotional Bias

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Age-related changes in overcoming proactive interference in associative memory: The role of PFC-mediated executive control processes at retrieval

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.02.017 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 132 ◽

pp. 116-128 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Michael R. Dulas ◽

Audrey Duarte

Keyword(s):

Proactive Interference ◽

Associative Memory ◽

Executive Control ◽

Control Processes ◽

Age Related ◽

Age Related Changes

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I know your face but can’t remember your name: Age-related differences in the FNAME-12NL

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology ◽

10.1093/arclin/acaa107 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

S Enriquez-Geppert ◽

J F Flores-Vázquez ◽

M Lietz ◽

M Garcia-Pimenta ◽

P Andrés

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Associative Memory ◽

Recognition Performance ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Age Groups ◽

Systematic Investigation ◽

Age Effects ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Age Related ◽

Effects Of Aging

Abstract Objective The Face-Name Associative Memory test (FNAME) has recently received attention as a test for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. So far, however, there has been no systematic investigation of the effects of aging. Here, we aimed to assess the extent to which the FNAME performance is modulated by normal ageing. Method In a first step, we adapted the FNAME material to the Dutch population. In a second step, younger (n = 29) and older adults (n = 29) were compared on recall and recognition performance. Results Significant age effects on name recall were observed after the first exposure of new face-name pairs: younger adults remembered eight, whereas older adults remembered a mean of four out of twelve names. Although both age groups increased the number of recalled names with repeated face-name exposure, older adults did not catch up with the performance of the younger adults, and the age-effects remained stable. Despite of that, both age groups maintained their performance after a 30-min delay. Considering recognition, no age differences were demonstrated, and both age groups succeeded in the recognition of previously shown faces and names when presented along with distractors. Conclusions This study presents for the first time the results of different age groups regarding cross-modal associative memory performance on the FNAME. The recall age effects support the hypothesis of age-related differences in associative memory. To use the FNAME as an early cognitive biomarker, further subscales are suggested to increase sensitivity and specificity in the clinical context.

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The effects of stereotype threat on the associative memory deficit of older adults

10.32469/10355/57737 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Matthew S. Brubaker

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Stereotype Threat ◽

Associative Memory ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Memory Deficit ◽

Item Memory ◽

University Of Missouri ◽

Age Related ◽

Associative Deficit ◽

Negative Effect

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] One of the suggestions made in the literature regarding older adults' episodic memory decline is that it is caused by their reduced ability to bind together components of an episode and retrieve the binding (termed an associative deficit). The purpose of the current research is to assess whether the age-related associative memory deficit is at least partially mediated by stereotype threat, which has been shown to negatively affect performance on a wide variety of cognitive tasks, including memory performance of older adults. To date the effects of stereotype threat on older adults' memory performance have only been shown using tests of item memory, and between subject manipulations. The question assessed in the current research is whether older adults' associative memory will be affected by stereotype threat more than item memory, rendering it one potential factor underlying the associative deficit. To answer this question, three experiments were conducted, which used an item-associative recognition memory paradigm while manipulating stereotype threat both within and between subjects. The first two experiments attempted to establish the baseline effect by directly comparing item and associative memory in younger and older adults under induced stereotype threat, reduced stereotype threat, and no stereotype threat (i.e. control) conditions. While a baseline age-related associative deficit was not shown in the control condition, inducing stereotype threat did have a significant negative effect on older adults' associative memory performance without affecting item memory performance -- suggesting that stereotype threat does increase the age-related associative deficit. The third experiment further assessed the stage of processing -- encoding, retrieval, or both -- during which the effect of stereotype threat on older adults' memory occurs. Results showed that when stereotype threat was induced only at retrieval, memory performance was in line with performance with the reduced stereotype threat and control conditions, suggesting that this effect of stereotype threat occurs primarily during encoding of the information.

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Functional Interactions between Prefrontal and Visual Association Cortex Contribute to Top-Down Modulation of Visual Processing

Cerebral Cortex ◽

10.1093/cercor/bhm113 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 17 (suppl 1) ◽

pp. i125-i135 ◽

Cited By ~ 156

Author(s):

A. Gazzaley ◽

J. Rissman ◽

J. Cooney ◽

A. Rutman ◽

T. Seibert ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Visual Processing ◽

Association Cortex ◽

Top Down ◽

Functional Interactions ◽

Visual Association Cortex

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Effects of Aging and Divided Attention on Recognition Memory Processes for Single and Associative Information

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/04.10.22.pr0.108.2.405-419 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 108 (2) ◽

pp. 405-419 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Hikari Kinjo

Keyword(s):

Associative Memory ◽

Divided Attention ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Age Groups ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Female College Students ◽

Age Related ◽

Single Feature ◽

Relative Deficiency ◽

Effects Of Aging

In the divided attention paradigm to test age-related associative memory deficits, whether the effects of divided attention occur at encoding or retrieval has not been clarified, and the effect on retention has not been studied. This study explored whether and how much divided attention at either encoding, retention, or retrieval diminished accuracy in recognizing a single feature (object or location) and associated features (object + location) by 23 elderly people (13 women; M age = 70.6 yr., SD = 2.8) recruited from a neighborhood community circle, and 29 female college students ( M age = 20.8 yr., SD = 1.1). The results showed a significant decline in memory performance for both age groups due to divided attention in location and associative memory at retention, suggesting that the retention process demands attentional resources. Overall, regardless of their relative deficiency in associative memory, older adults showed an effect of divided attention comparable to that of younger adults in a recognition task.

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A DISCRETE FULLY RECURRENT NETWORK OF MAX PRODUCT UNITS FOR ASSOCIATIVE MEMORY AND CLASSIFICATION

International Journal of Neural Systems ◽

10.1142/s0129065702001138 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 12 (03n04) ◽

pp. 247-262 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

ROELOF K. BROUWER

Keyword(s):

Fixed Points ◽

Associative Memory ◽

Recurrent Network ◽

Connection Matrix ◽

Recurrent Networks ◽

Associative Memories ◽

Product Operation ◽

Linear Threshold ◽

Fully Connected

This paper defines the truncated normalized max product operation for the transformation ofstates of a network and provides a method for solving a set of equations based on this operation. The operation serves as the transformation for the set of fully connected units in a recurrent network that otherwise might consist of linear threshold units. Component values of the state vector and ouputs of the units take on the values in the set {0, 0.1, …, 0.9, 1}. The result is a much larger state space given a particular number of units and size of connection matrix than for a network based on threshold units. Since the operation defined here can form the basis of transformations in a recurrent network with a finite number of states, fixed points or cycles are possible and the network based on this operation for transformations can be used as an associative memory or pattern classifier with fixed points taking on the role of prototypes. Discrete fully recurrent networks have proven themselves to be very useful as associative memories and as classifiers. However they are often based on units that have binary states. The effect of this is that the data to be processed consisting of vectors in ℜn have to be converted to vectors in {0, 1}m with m much larger than n since binary encoding based on positional notation is not feasible. This implies a large increase in the number of components. The effect can be lessened by allowing more states for each unit in our network. The network proposed demonstrates those properties that are desirable in an associative memory very well as the simulations show.

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