Superior parietal cortex and the attention to delayed intention: An rTMS study.

This study aimed to investigate whether the superior parietal cortex is causally involved in PM and, if so, what is its functional role. We applied repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to the left and right superior parietal cortex, and we evaluated the TMS effects on two different PM tasks that required to direct the attention towards either the external stimuli (\u2018Monitoring-load\u2019 task) or the intention in memory (\u2018Retrospective-load\u2019 task). rTMS of left parietal cortex produced a facilitation of PM performance in both tasks. This was coupled by slower responses to the ongoing activity, for left and right parietal stimulation, but selectively in the \u2018Retrospective-load\u2019 condition. The present results suggest that superior parietal cortex is causally involved in biasing top-down attentional resources between the external, ongoing stimuli and the internal, PM intentions. The possible physiological mechanisms underlying the TMS-related improvement in PM performance are discussed

Unifying prospective and retrospective interval-time estimation: a fading-gaussian activation-based model of interval-timing

Hass and Hermann (2012) have shown that only variance-based processes will lead to the scalar growth of error that is characteristic of human time judgments. Secondly, a major meta-review of over one hundred studies (Block et al., 2010) reveals a striking interaction between the way in which temporal judgments are queried and cognitive load on participants’ judgments of interval duration. For retrospective time judgments, estimates under high cognitive load are longer than under low cognitive load. For prospective judgments, the reverse pattern holds, with increased cognitive load leading to shorter estimates. We describe GAMIT, a Gaussian spreading-activation model, in which the sampling rate of an activation trace is differentially affected by cognitive load. The model unifies prospective and retrospective time estimation, normally considered separately, by relating them to the same underlying process. The scalar property of time estimation arises naturally from the model dynamics and the model shows the appropriate interaction between mode of query and cognitive load

SAVASA project @ TRECVID 2012: interactive surveillance event detection

In this paper we describe our participation in the interactive surveillance event detection task at TRECVid 2012. The system we developed was comprised of individual classifiers brought together behind a simple video search interface that enabled users to select relevant segments based on down~sampled animated gifs. Two types of user -- `experts' and `end users' -- performed the evaluations. Due to time constraints we focussed on three events -- ObjectPut, PersonRuns and Pointing -- and two of the five available cameras (1 and 3). Results from the interactive runs as well as discussion of the performance of the underlying retrospective classifiers are presented

Future thinking instructions improve prospective memory performance in adolescents

Funding This work was supported by the German Research Foundation [DFG grants SFB 940/1]. Acknowledgements We would like to thank Lia Kvavilashvili for her helpful comments on this study during the International Conference on Prospective Memory (ICPM4) in Naples, Italy, 2014. We thank Daniel P. Sheppard for proofreading the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Prospective memory impairments in Alzheimer's Disease and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia: Clinical and neural correlates

BACKGROUND: Prospective memory (PM) refers to a future-oriented form of memory in which the individual must remember to execute an intended action either at a future point in time (Time-based) or in response to a specific event (Event-based). Lapses in PM are commonly exhibited in neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), however, the neurocognitive mechanisms driving these deficits remain unknown. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical and neural correlates of Time- and Event-based PM disruption in AD and the behavioral-variant FTD (bvFTD). METHODS: Twelve AD, 12 bvFTD, and 12 healthy older Control participants completed a modified version of the Cambridge Prospective Memory test, which examines Time- and Event-based aspects of PM. All participants completed a standard neuropsychological assessment and underwent whole-brain structural MRI. RESULTS: AD and bvFTD patients displayed striking impairments across Time- and Event-based PM relative to Controls, however, Time-based PM was disproportionately affected in the AD group. Episodic memory dysfunction and hippocampal atrophy was found to correlate strongly with PM integrity in both patient groups, however, dissociable neural substrates were also evident for PM performance across dementia syndromes. CONCLUSION: Our study reveals the multifaceted nature of PM dysfunction in neurodegenerative disorders, and suggests common and dissociable neurocognitive mechanisms, which subtend these deficits in each patient group. Future studies of PM disturbance in dementia syndromes will be crucial for the development of successful interventions to improve functional independence in the patient's daily life

Twin Memory

In this article, I examine a new concept of “Twin Memory’ which has emerged in memory classification research of conscious and unconscious memory representations. It is to analyse the presence of twin memory among the various memory systems, and also to provide a platform for the twin memory “anatomy” in the field of cognitive science, neuropsychology and neuroscience

Prospective Memory in Older Adults : Where We Are Now and What Is Next

M. Kliegel acknowledges financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).Peer reviewedPostprin