An historical perspective on Endel Tulving's episodic-semantic dichotomy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Renoult ◽  
Michael Rugg
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Declarative Memory ◽  
Essential Feature ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Crucial Aspect ◽  
Memory Functioning ◽  
And Function

The distinction between episodic and semantic memory, proposed by Endel Tulving in 1972, remains a key concept in contemporary Cognitive Neuroscience. Here we review how this dichotomy evolved in Tulving`s writings over the years. Crucially, from 1972 onward, he argued that the two forms of memory were inter-dependent and that their interaction was an essential feature of normal episodic memory function. Moreover, later elaborations of the theory clearly proposed that these interactions were at the basis of normal declarative memory functioning. A later but crucial aspect of Tulving’s contribution was his stress on the importance of subjective experience, which, according to him, “should be the ultimate object of interest, the central aspect of remembering that is to be explained and understood”. We relate these and his numerous other ideas to current perspectives about the organization and function of human memory.

scholarly journals Mice with cleavage-resistant N-cadherin exhibit synapse anomaly in the hippocampus and outperformance in spatial learning tasks

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Asada-Utsugi ◽  
K. Uemura ◽  
M. Kubota ◽  
Y. Noda ◽  
Y. Tashiro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Memory Function ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Excitatory Synapses ◽  
Missense Mutations ◽  
Glutamatergic Synapses ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Nmdar Activation ◽  
And Function

AbstractN-cadherin is a homophilic cell adhesion molecule that stabilizes excitatory synapses, by connecting pre- and post-synaptic termini. Upon NMDA receptor (NMDAR) activation by glutamate, membrane-proximal domains of N-cadherin are cleaved serially by a-disintegrin-and-metalloprotease 10 (ADAM10) and then presenilin 1(PS1, catalytic subunit of the γ-secretase complex). To assess the physiological significance of the initial N-cadherin cleavage, we engineer the mouse genome to create a knock-in allele with tandem missense mutations in the mouse N-cadherin/Cadherin-2 gene (Cdh2R714G, I715D, or GD) that confers resistance on proteolysis by ADAM10 (GD mice). GD mice showed a better performance in the radial maze test, with significantly less revisiting errors after intervals of 30 and 300 s than WT, and a tendency for enhanced freezing in fear conditioning. Interestingly, GD mice reveal higher complexity in the tufts of thorny excrescence in the CA3 region of the hippocampus. Fine morphometry with serial section transmission electron microscopy (ssTEM) and three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction reveals significantly higher synaptic density, significantly smaller PSD area, and normal dendritic spine volume in GD mice. This knock-in mouse has provided in vivo evidence that ADAM10-mediated cleavage is a critical step in N-cadherin shedding and degradation and involved in the structure and function of glutamatergic synapses, which affect the memory function.

Memory and insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM): Effects of childhood onset and severe hypoglycemia

1997 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 509-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
TAMARA HERSHEY ◽  
SUZANNE CRAFT ◽  
NEIL BHARGAVA ◽  
NEIL H. WHITE
Keyword(s):  
Diabetes Mellitus ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Declarative Memory ◽  
Severe Hypoglycemia ◽  
Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus ◽  
Insulin Dependent Diabetes ◽  
Dependent Diabetes Mellitus ◽  
Childhood Onset ◽  
Memory Functioning ◽  
Insulin Dependent

Previous studies of the neuropsychological consequences of insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) have had mixed and often contradictory results, possibly due to the heterogeneity of the samples and neuropsychological measures, and a lack of specific hypotheses. In order to address this problem, we focused on the effect of severe hypoglycemia on memory functioning in a relatively homogeneous sample of childhood-onset IDDM patients. Given the deleterious effects of hypoglycemia on medial temporal lobe structures (e.g., hippocampus) and the relationship between medial temporal damage and declarative memory functioning, we hypothesized that those patients who had experienced severe hypoglycemia would demonstrate impaired declarative memory and spared nondeclarative memory functioning. Results of the study were generally consistent with this hypothesis, although some impact of hypoglycemia was observed on perceptual priming ability. (JINS, 1997, 3, 509–520.)

scholarly journals Cognitive Network Neuroscience

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
pp. 1471-1491 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Medaglia ◽  
Mary-Ellen Lynall ◽  
Danielle S. Bassett
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Network Science ◽  
Structural Connectivity ◽  
Cognitive Network ◽  
Network Characteristics ◽  
Time Dynamics ◽  
Neuroimaging Data ◽  
Control Learning ◽  
And Function ◽  
Network Neuroscience

Network science provides theoretical, computational, and empirical tools that can be used to understand the structure and function of the human brain in novel ways using simple concepts and mathematical representations. Network neuroscience is a rapidly growing field that is providing considerable insight into human structural connectivity, functional connectivity while at rest, changes in functional networks over time (dynamics), and how these properties differ in clinical populations. In addition, a number of studies have begun to quantify network characteristics in a variety of cognitive processes and provide a context for understanding cognition from a network perspective. In this review, we outline the contributions of network science to cognitive neuroscience. We describe the methodology of network science as applied to the particular case of neuroimaging data and review its uses in investigating a range of cognitive functions including sensory processing, language, emotion, attention, cognitive control, learning, and memory. In conclusion, we discuss current frontiers and the specific challenges that must be overcome to integrate these complementary disciplines of network science and cognitive neuroscience. Increased communication between cognitive neuroscientists and network scientists could lead to significant discoveries under an emerging scientific intersection known as cognitive network neuroscience.

scholarly journals Towards a more inclusive and equitable developmental cognitive neuroscience

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jazlyn Nketia ◽  
Dima Amso ◽  
Natalie Hiromi Brito
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Developmental Science ◽  
Science Theory ◽  
Brain Structure And Function ◽  
Scientific Potential ◽  
And Function

Brain and cognitive development is a burgeoning area of scientific inquiry, with tremendous potential to better the lives of children. Large scale longitudinal neuroimaging studies offer opportunities for significant scientific advances in our understanding of developing brain structure and function. The proposed manuscript will focus on the scientific potential of the HEALthy Brain and Cognitive Development (HBCD) Study, highlighting what questions these data can and what they cannot answer about child development. Specifically, we caution against the misuse of these data for advancing de-contextualized and scientifically questionable narratives about the development of children from marginalized communities. We will focus on building and organizing a framework for interpreting HBCD data through the lens of sampling, cultural context, measurement, and developmental science theory. Our goal is to thoughtfully offer the scientific community opportunities to use the large scale and collaborative nature of HBCD to collectively revise practices in developmental science that to-date have not carefully considered their own role in perpetuating narratives that support systemic injustice.

scholarly journals False Memories in Native and Foreign Languages

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Dolgoarshinnaia ◽  
Beatriz Martin-Luengo
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Source Monitoring ◽  
False Memories ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Memory Errors ◽  
Monitoring Task ◽  
Memory Functioning ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Processing Information ◽  
Memory Monitoring

Human memory is prone to memory errors and distortion. Evidence from studies on cognitive functions in bilinguals indicates that they might be prone to different types of memory errors compared to monolinguals; however, the effect of language in false memories is still understudied. Source monitoring processes required for proper memory functioning, presumably, rely on inhibitory control, which is also heavily utilized by bilinguals. Moreover, it is suggested that thinking in a second language leads to more systematic and deliberate reasoning. All these results lead to expect that bilinguals are more analytical when processing information in their second language overcoming some memory errors depending on the language of information. To test this hypothesis, we run a classical misinformation experiment with an explicit source monitoring task with a sample of Russian–English bilinguals. The language of the misinformation presentation did not affect the degree of the misinformation effect between the Russian and English languages. Source monitoring demonstrated an overall higher accuracy for attributions to the English source over the Russian source. Furthermore, analysis on incorrect source attributions showed that when participants misattributed the sources of false information (English or Russian narrative), they favored the Russian source over the not presented condition. Taken together, these results imply that high proficiency in the second language does not affect misinformation and that information processing and memory monitoring in bilinguals can differ depending on the language of the information, which seems to lead to some memory errors and not others.

Cognition and States of Consciousness: The Necessity for Empirical Study of Ordinary and Nonordinary Consciousness for Contemporary Cognitive Psychology

1985 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry T. Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Cognitive Activity ◽  
Altered States ◽  
Altered State ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
And Function ◽  
Symbolic Processes ◽  
Natural Series ◽  
Self Reference

Recent criticisms of the place and function of “consciousness” in “cognitive science” are considered and rejected. Contrary to current orthodoxy subjective experience during abstract cognitive activity, especially when placed in its natural series with phenomenal accounts of so-called “altered states of consciousness,” can provide unique and crucial evidence concerning just that core of “semantics” which eludes the automatized “syntax” of computer simulation. The “noetic” aspect of extreme altered states can be placed in relation to introspective descriptions of “insight.” Various altered state features—synaesthesias, geometric/mandala imagery, reorganizations of “perceptual” dimensions and enhanced “self-reference”—can be taken as direct “exteriorizations” of abstract symbolic processes as discussed by Neisser, Geschwind, Mead, and Arnheim. A genuine cognitive psychology cannot continue to ignore the qualitative-experiential bases of symbolization. More specifically, the sense that insight just comes to us as if from “outside,” its preliminary microgenetic processes masked, does not show the failure of introspective phenomenology but rather offers a unique and positive clue to the imaginal dialogic structure of higher mental processes. Thinking, as one phase of imaginal “conversation,” must be “sent” from the phenomenal “other” to an attenuated, receptive phenomenal “self.” A reconsideration of the Würzburg controversy, adding closely related altered state phenomena to the transitional series between “impalpable awareness” and specific imagery, suggests that the normally masked processes underlying the “felt meaning” or “insight” state are most directly exteriorized as what Klüver termed “complex” or geometric-dynamic synaesthesias. Finally, a reinterpretation of classical introspectionism's “sensation” shows the “mechanism” by which the metaphorical/synaesthetic processes of cognition are generated. Titchener's “sensation” plays the crucial role in metaphor it so conspicuously lacked in functional perception.

scholarly journals Enhanced brain activity associated with memory access in highly superior autobiographical memory

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (30) ◽  
pp. 7795-7800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerio Santangelo ◽  
Clarissa Cavallina ◽  
Paola Colucci ◽  
Alessia Santori ◽  
Simone Macrì ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Functional Coupling ◽  
Temporoparietal Junction ◽  
Memory Impairments ◽  
Efficient Access ◽  
Sensory Cortices ◽  
Past Experiences

Brain systems underlying human memory function have been classically investigated studying patients with selective memory impairments. The discovery of rare individuals who have highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM) provides, instead, an opportunity to investigate the brain systems underlying enhanced memory. Here, we carried out an fMRI investigation of a group of subjects identified as having HSAM. During fMRI scanning, eight subjects with HSAM and 21 control subjects were asked to retrieve autobiographical memories (AMs) as well as non-AMs (e.g., examples of animals). Subjects were instructed to signal the “access” to an AM by a key press and to continue “reliving” it immediately after. Compared with controls, individuals with HSAM provided a richer AM recollection and were faster in accessing AMs. The access to AMs was associated with enhanced prefrontal/hippocampal functional connectivity. AM access also induced increased activity in the left temporoparietal junction and enhanced functional coupling with sensory cortices in subjects with HSAM compared with controls. In contrast, subjects with HSAM did not differ from controls in functional activity during the reliving phase. These findings, based on fMRI assessment, provide evidence of interaction of brain systems engaged in memory retrieval and suggest that enhanced activity of these systems is selectively involved in enabling more efficient access to past experiences in HSAM.

Portraits of the Nigerian Soldier in Isidore Okpewho’s The Last Duty and Festus Iyayi’s Heroes

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402110469
Author(s):  
Edwin Onwuka
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Essential Feature ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Social Experience ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Literary Representation ◽  
Literary Aesthetics ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Human Condition

An essential feature of Nigerian literatures is their capacity to exploit history and social experience to bring to light the human condition in society without compromising literary aesthetics. Thus, Nigerian novels often appear to be more educative than entertaining by their ability to illuminate social realities far more effectively than historical or sociological texts. This is evident in the representations of soldiers in Nigerian novels which are highly influenced by historical and social circumstances. This paper carries out a comparative and descriptive analysis of portrayals of Nigerian soldiers in Isidore Okpewho’s The Last Duty and Festus Iyayi’s Heroes from a new historical perspective. Most studies on the military in Nigerian novels often focus on their actions in war situations and their disruptive and undemocratic activities in politics. However, these studies frequently explore the military as a group with little attention to the texts as expositions on character types in the Nigerian military. This study therefore contributes to criticism on the nexus between literary representation, history, and society. It further highlights historical and social contexts of military explorations in Nigerian novels and their impacts on the perception of the Nigerian soldier in society. These are aimed at showing that depictions of the military in Nigerian novels go beyond their capacities for disruptions and destructions in society; they represent artistic probing of the nature and character of persons in the Nigerian military.

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