Component Neural Systems for the Creation of Emotional Memories during Free Viewing of a Complex, Real-World Event

To investigate the neural systems that contribute to the formation of complex, self-relevant emotional memories, dedicated fans of rival college basketball teams watched a competitive game while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). During a subsequent recognition memory task, participants were shown video clips depicting plays of the game, stemming either from previously-viewed game segments (targets) or from non-viewed portions of the same game (foils). After an old–new judgment, participants provided emotional valence and intensity ratings of the clips. A data driven approach was first used to decompose the fMRI signal acquired during free viewing of the game into spatially independent components. Correlations were then calculated between the identified components and post-scanning emotion ratings for successfully encoded targets. Two components were correlated with intensity ratings, including temporal lobe regions implicated in memory and emotional functions, such as the hippocampus and amygdala, as well as a midline fronto-cingulo-parietal network implicated in social cognition and self-relevant processing. These data were supported by a general linear model analysis, which revealed additional valence effects in fronto-striatal-insular regions when plays were divided into positive and negative events according to the fan's perspective. Overall, these findings contribute to our understanding of how emotional factors impact distributed neural systems to successfully encode dynamic, personally-relevant event sequences

Front Aging Neurosci

We studied the influence of emotions on autobiographical memory (AbM) in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), characteristically triggering atrophy in the hippocampus and the amygdala, two crucial structures sustaining memory and emotional processing. Our first aim was to analyze the influence of emotion on AbM in AD patients, on both the proportion and the specificity of emotional memories. Additionally, we sought to determine the relationship of emotional AbM to amygdalar-hippocampal volumes. Eighteen prodromal to mild AD patients and 18 age-matched healthy controls were included. We obtained 30 autobiographical memories per participant using the modified Crovitz test (MCT). Analyses were performed on global scores, rates and specificity scores of the emotional vs. neutral categories of memories. Amygdalar-hippocampal volumes were extracted from 3D T1-weighted MRI scans and tested for correlations with behavioral data. Overall, AD patients displayed a deficit in emotional AbMs as they elicited less emotional memories than the controls, however, the specificity of those memories was preserved. The deficit likely implied retrieval or storage as it was extended in time and without reminiscence bump effect. Global scores and rates of emotional memories, but not the specificity scores, were correlated to right amygdalar and hippocampal volumes, indicating that atrophy in these structures has a central role in the deficit observed. Conversely, emotional memories were more specific than neutral memories in both groups, reflecting an enhancement effect of emotion that could be supported by other brain regions that are spared during the early stages of the disease

The impact of culture on neuropsychological performance: A global social cognition study across 12 countries

AbstractBackgroundDecades of researches aiming to unveil truths about human neuropsychology may have instead unveil facts appropriate to only a fraction of the world's population: those living in western educated rich democratic nations (Muthukrishna et al., 2020 Psych Sci). So far, most studies were conducted as if education and cultural assumptions on which neuropsychology is based were universals and applied everywhere in the world. The importance given to sociological or cultural factors is thus still relatively ignored. With the growth of international clinical studies on dementia, we believe that documenting the potential inter‐cultural differences at stake in a common neuropsychological assessment is an essential topic. This study thus aimed to explore these potential variations in two classical tasks used in neuropsychology that are composing the mini‐SEA (Bertoux et al., 2012 JNNP), i.e. a reduced version of the well‐known Ekman faces (FER), where one has to recognize facial emotions, and a modified version of the Faux Pas test (mFP), where one has to detect and explain social faux.MethodThe data of 573 control participants were collected through the Social Cognition & FTLD Network, an international consortium investigating social cognitive changes in dementia covering 3 continents (18 research centres in 12 countries). Impact of demographic factors and the effect of countries on performance (mini‐SEA, FER, mFP) were explored through linear mixed‐effects models.ResultAge, education and gender were found to significantly impact the performance of the mini‐SEA subtests. Significant and important variations across the countries were also retrieved, with England having the highest performance for all scores. When controlling for demographical factors, differences within countries explained between 14% (mFP) and 24% (FER) of the variance at the mini‐SEA. These variations were not explained by any economical or sociological metrics.ConclusionImportant variations of performance were observed across the 12 countries of the consortium, showing how cultural differences may critically impact neuropsychological performance in international studies

Does Culture Shape Our Understanding of Others’ Thoughts and Emotions? An Investigation Across 12 Countries

Q2Q2Measures of social cognition have now become central in neuropsychology, being essential for early and differential diagnoses, follow-up, and rehabilitation in a wide range of conditions. With the scientific world becoming increasingly interconnected, international neuropsychological and medical collaborations are burgeoning to tackle the global challenges that are mental health conditions. These initiatives commonly merge data across a diversity of populations and countries, while ignoring their specificity. Objective: In this context, we aimed to estimate the influence of participants’ nationality on social cognition evaluation. This issue is of particular importance as most cognitive tasks are developed in highly specific contexts, not representative of that encountered by the world’s population. Method: Through a large international study across 18 sites, neuropsychologists assessed core aspects of social cognition in 587 participants from 12 countries using traditional and widely used tasks. Results: Age, gender, and education were found to impact measures of mentalizing and emotion recognition. After controlling for these factors, differences between countries accounted for more than 20% of the variance on both measures. Importantly, it was possible to isolate participants’ nationality from potential translation issues, which classically constitute a major limitation. Conclusions: Overall, these findings highlight the need for important methodological shifts to better represent social cognition in both fundamental research and clinical practice, especially within emerging international networks and consortia.https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9422-3579https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6529-7077Revista Internacional - IndexadaA2N

FMRI's contribution to the unterstanding of the neural bases of autobiographical memory and planning for the future

Sur la base de deux axes théoriques complémentaires, ce travail s'intéresse aux soubassements neuroanatomiques de la mémoire autobiographique et de la projection dans l'avenir.Notre première expérience en IRMf (10 sujets), qui implique la remémoration de souvenirs personnels passés, confirme l'activation de réseaux neuraux largement distribués. Nos analyses par régions d'intérêt (ROI) indiquent un flux temporel antéro-postérieur des activations sous-tendant des étapes distinctes de la remémoration. Enfin, la procédure auto-rythmée nous permet d'estimer à environ six secondes la dynamique de construction du souvenir. Notre seconde expérience en IRMf (10 sujets), en étendant l'implication du réseau neural sous-tendant l'évocation de souvenirs à celle de projets, fournit les corrélats neurofonctionnels du voyage mental dans le temps. Nos analyses ROI suggèrent toutefois une augmentation de l'activité préfrontale antéro-médiane et temporale médiane en fonction de l'implication du sujet. Notre troisième expérience en IRMf (12 sujets) compare l'évocation de projets réels et fictifs. Les résultats confirment l'implication du processus hippocampique d'indexage des traces mnésiques passées dans l'évocation de projets. Ils suggèrent également l'existence d'un continuum en termes de contribution préfrontale antéro-médiane, en fonction de l'implication et de la cohérence personnelles du sujet. Notre dernier volet en IRMf, l'étude des déficits sélectifs de mémoire autobiographique, inclut deux patients d'étiologies différentes. Les données obtenues confirment le potentiel de ce type d'études, pourtant limité à ce jour, dans notre compréhension de l'organisation des soubassements neuronatomiques de la mémoire autobiographique.Nos résultats contribuent, en termes de corrélats neurofonctionnels, aux modèles de mémoire autobiographique les plus influents actuellement et lancent les prémisses de l'étude des structures cérébrales sous-tendant l'implication de soi.Based on Conway and Pleydell-Pearce (2000) and Tulving (2001)'s theories, this work focused on the neural bases of autobiographical memory (AbM) and planning for the future.Our first fMRI experiment (10 subjects) aims at investigating the temporal distribution of the effortful AbM construction. Our results (i) confirmed the activation of largely distributed cerebral networks; (ii) and indicated, using ROI analysis, an antero-posterior temporal flow of activation sustaining different stages of AbM retrieval. Finally, the self-paced procedure allowed us to estimate at 6.5 seconds the dynamics of construction of personal memories. Our second fMRI experiment (10 subjects) enabled us to extend the involvement of the AbM cerebral network to planning for the future and therefore provided the neural correlates of the mental time travel. ROI analysis suggested, however, an increasing antero-medial prefrontal and medial temporal cortices' activity depending on the involvement of the self. Our third fMRI experiment (12 subjects) aims at comparing evocations of real versus fictitious projects. Our results confirmed the involvement of the hippocampus in the binding process of past memory traces during real projects evocation. They also suggested a continuum in the antero-medial prefrontal cortex contribution according to self- coherence and the involvement of the self. Our last fMRI area of research concerned the study of highly selective AbM deficits and included, to date, two aetiologically different patients. The data obtained confirmed the potential of this still limited field of research in our understanding of the neural bases of autobiographical memory and its organisation.Our results contribute to the two most influent theoretical views of current AbM research, and provide the basis of the study of the cerebral structures sustaining the self-implication

FMRI's contribution to the unterstanding of the neural bases of autobiographical memory and planning for the future

Sur la base de deux axes théoriques complémentaires, ce travail s'intéresse aux soubassements neuroanatomiques de la mémoire autobiographique et de la projection dans l'avenir.Notre première expérience en IRMf (10 sujets), qui implique la remémoration deBased on Conway and Pleydell-Pearce (2000) and Tulving (2001)'s theories, this work focused on the neural bases of autobiographical memory (AbM) and planning for the future.Our first fMRI experiment (10 subjects) aims at investigating the temporal distri

Apport de l'IRMf dans la compréhension des bases neuroanatomiques de la mémoire autobiographique et de la projection dans l'avenir

Sur la base de deux axes théoriques complémentaires, ce travail s'intéresse aux soubassements neuroanatomiques de la mémoire autobiographique et de la projection dans l'avenir.Notre première expérience en IRMf (10 sujets), qui implique la remémoration de souvenirs personnels passés, confirme l'activation de réseaux neuraux largement distribués. Nos analyses par régions d'intérêt (ROI) indiquent un flux temporel antéro-postérieur des activations sous-tendant des étapes distinctes de la remémoration. Enfin, la procédure auto-rythmée nous permet d'estimer à environ six secondes la dynamique de construction du souvenir. Notre seconde expérience en IRMf (10 sujets), en étendant l'implication du réseau neural sous-tendant l'évocation de souvenirs à celle de projets, fournit les corrélats neurofonctionnels du voyage mental dans le temps. Nos analyses ROI suggèrent toutefois une augmentation de l'activité préfrontale antéro-médiane et temporale médiane en fonction de l'implication du sujet. Notre troisième expérience en IRMf (12 sujets) compare l'évocation de projets réels et fictifs. Les résultats confirment l'implication du processus hippocampique d'indexage des traces mnésiques passées dans l'évocation de projets. Ils suggèrent également l'existence d'un continuum en termes de contribution préfrontale antéro-médiane, en fonction de l'implication et de la cohérence personnelles du sujet. Notre dernier volet en IRMf, l'étude des déficits sélectifs de mémoire autobiographique, inclut deux patients d'étiologies différentes. Les données obtenues confirment le potentiel de ce type d'études, pourtant limité à ce jour, dans notre compréhension de l'organisation des soubassements neuronatomiques de la mémoire autobiographique.Nos résultats contribuent, en termes de corrélats neurofonctionnels, aux modèles de mémoire autobiographique les plus influents actuellement et lancent les prémisses de l'étude des structures cérébrales sous-tendant l'implication de soi.Based on Conway and Pleydell-Pearce (2000) and Tulving (2001)'s theories, this work focused on the neural bases of autobiographical memory (AbM) and planning for the future.Our first fMRI experiment (10 subjects) aims at investigating the temporal distribution of the effortful AbM construction. Our results (i) confirmed the activation of largely distributed cerebral networks; (ii) and indicated, using ROI analysis, an antero-posterior temporal flow of activation sustaining different stages of AbM retrieval. Finally, the self-paced procedure allowed us to estimate at 6.5 seconds the dynamics of construction of personal memories. Our second fMRI experiment (10 subjects) enabled us to extend the involvement of the AbM cerebral network to planning for the future and therefore provided the neural correlates of the mental time travel. ROI analysis suggested, however, an increasing antero-medial prefrontal and medial temporal cortices' activity depending on the involvement of the self. Our third fMRI experiment (12 subjects) aims at comparing evocations of real versus fictitious projects. Our results confirmed the involvement of the hippocampus in the binding process of past memory traces during real projects evocation. They also suggested a continuum in the antero-medial prefrontal cortex contribution according to self- coherence and the involvement of the self. Our last fMRI area of research concerned the study of highly selective AbM deficits and included, to date, two aetiologically different patients. The data obtained confirmed the potential of this still limited field of research in our understanding of the neural bases of autobiographical memory and its organisation.Our results contribute to the two most influent theoretical views of current AbM research, and provide the basis of the study of the cerebral structures sustaining the self-implication.STRASBOURG-Sc. et Techniques (674822102) / SudocSudocFranceF

Psychogenic Memory Deficits Associated with Functional Cerebral Changes: An fMRI Study

We studied a case of psychogenic amnesia by means of a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment involving the retrieval of autobiographical memories. The 38-year-old patient was unable to access most of her autobiographical memories from her childhood up to 16 years of age. Compared with the forgotten period, evocation of the normally retrieved memories elicited increased activity in medial temporal and dorso-lateral frontal regions. Evocation of the preserved scattered recollections was associated with bilaterally distributed temporo-parieto-occipital loci of activations. These functional changes seem to support the idea of common mechanisms involved in both organic and psychogenic amnesias