Impact of Semantic Relatedness on Associative Memory: An ERP Study

Encoding and retrieval processes in memory for pairs of pictures are thought to be influenced by inter-item similarity and by features of individual items. Using Event-Related Potentials (ERP), we aimed to identify how these processes impact on both the early mid-frontal FN400 and the Late Positive Component (LPC) potentials during associative retrieval of pictures. Twenty young adults undertook a sham task, using an incidental encoding of semantically related and unrelated pairs of drawings. At test, we conducted a recognition task in which participants were asked to identify target identical pairs of pictures, which could be semantically related or unrelated, among new and rearranged pairs. We observed semantic (related and unrelated pairs) and condition effects (old, rearranged and new pairs) on the early mid-frontal potential. First, a lower amplitude was shown for identical and rearranged semantically related pairs, which might reflect a retrieval process driven by semantic cues. Second, among semantically unrelated pairs, we found a larger negativity for identical pairs, compared to rearranged and new ones, suggesting additional retrieval processing that focuses on associative information. We also observed an LPC old/new effect with a mid-parietal and a right occipito-parietal topography for semantically related and unrelated old pairs, demonstrating a recollection phenomenon irrespective of the degree of association. These findings suggest that associative recognition using visual stimuli begins at early stages of retrieval, and differs according to the degree of semantic relatedness among items. However, either strategy may ultimately lead to recollection processes

Rhythms dysregulation: A new perspective for understanding PTSD?

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Le développement cognitif et cérébral de la mémoire : de l’enfance à l’âge adulte

International audienceCognitive and brain development are closely linked from infancy to adulthood. The purpose of this article is to review the current state of knowledge on behavioral and brain substrates of memory development. First, we will review cognitive development of different memory systems, from procedural to autobiographical memory. We will discuss how the development of other cognitive functions (language, attention, executive functions and metamemory) participates in memory development. Second, we will describe how structural and functional changes in two core brain regions of memory, i.e. the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, impact the protracted development of memory throughout childhood.Le développement cognitif repose en grande partie sur des phénomènes de maturation cérébrale. Cet article propose une revue des connaissances actuelles sur le neurodéveloppement de la mémoire. Nous décrirons tout d’abord le développement de la mémoire selon une approche multisystémique, de la mémoire procédurale à la mémoire autobiographique. Nous discuterons notamment comment la mise en place progressive d’autres fonctions cognitives, comme le langage, l’attention, les fonctions exécutives (inhibition, mise à jour et flexibilité), ou encore la métamémoire, participe au développement mnésique. Dans une seconde partie, nous présenterons comment les modifications structurales et fonctionnelles de deux régions cérébrales essentielles à la mémoire, l’hippocampe et le cortex préfrontal, sous-tendent le développement progressif de la mémoire tout au long de l’enfance et l’adolescence

Les sciences des réseaux appliquées à l’étude du Trouble de Stress Post-Traumatique

The brain is a highly complex system whose functioning is critical for our interaction with the world. Neural elements, from single cells to brain systems, constantly fluctuate in their dynamics, accompanying the plethora of possible exchanges between our environment and ourselves. However, sometimes things go awry. An unfortunate example is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a debilitating clinical condition that can appear after exposure to a threatening life event. In this work, using complexity as a framework, we aim to introduce the dynamic brain network model of PTSD. We hope this model will allow the generation of novel specific hypotheses concerning brain organization and dynamics in PTSD research. We first introduce how the network framework complements the localizationist approach centered in specific brain regions or subsets of brain regions, with a whole brain approach considering brain regions’ dynamic relationships. Then, we review key concepts in network neuroscience, focusing on the importance of the network topology and dynamics to understand the organizational principles of the brain, that is, functional segregation and integration. In the third part, we apply this knowledge to describe the possible trajectories conducting a brain system to present PTSD alterations. Accordingly, we introduce the Dynamic Brain Network Model (DBNM) of PTSD, a concrete framework built on the network approach and resilience theory to study the transition of a brain network from state 1 ( e.g. , before the traumatic event) to state 2 ( e.g. , after the traumatic event). To conclude, we provide a summary of metrics for quantifying elements on the DBNM and its potential use in computational models of PTSD.Cet article expose la manière dont les sciences des réseaux peuvent contribuer à la compréhension du Trouble de Stress Post-Traumatique (TSPT). Nous soulignons l’intérêt de concevoir le cerveau comme un système complexe et dynamique pour affiner la description et la prédiction des réponses cérébrales après exposition à un évènement traumatique. À partir des modèles de résilience au stress et sous le prisme des sciences des réseaux, nous proposons une ligne temporelle du TSPT, partant des facteurs de résilience intrinsèques au réseau, présents avant l’évènement traumatique, jusqu’à la réponse cérébrale ayant lieu après l’évènement traumatique. Dans ce cadre, il est essentiel de considérer la topologie du cerveau et les dynamiques cérébrales dans des processus permettant d’utiliser ces facteurs de résilience. Ainsi, nous proposons un cadre concret, autorisant la formulation d’hypothèses explicites sur des aspects potentiellement critiques de l’organisation et des dynamiques des réseaux cérébraux impliqués dans le TSPT

How children suffering severe amnesic syndrome acquire new concepts?

International audienceRecent studies revealed that children with developmental amnesia acquired new semantic information. However, they failed to investigate the growth of such knowledge during childhood, and they did not bring evidence concerning the putative role of residual episodic memory in semantic acquisition. This prospective study sought to clarify this issue by assessing both semantic and episodic memory in two amnesic children (RH and KF) with different neuropsychological profiles. We thus applied errorless semantic learning and vanishing cues methods, together with assessments of episodic memory using original recognition tasks within the same protocol. Results demonstrated learning and long-lasting maintenance of multicomponent concepts (comprising labels, categories and features) in both amnesic children. Importantly, episodic memory assessments revealed differential residual abilities in these children, which may account for their respective profiles of semantic acquisition. Thus, RH, who demonstrated residual episodic abilities, acquired normally. However, the learning of KF, who had a massive impairment of episodic memory, remained slower than her controls. In conclusion, even though an episodic impairment may slacken new semantic learning, our research provides new evidence for the de novo acquisition of semantic concepts in childhood amnesic syndrome and strengthens the idea that semantic learning can occur without any recruitment of episodic memory

Exploring the roles of the executive and short-term feature-binding functions in retrieval of retrograde autobiographical memories in severe traumatic brain injury

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Autobiographical memory, autonoetic consciousness, and self-perspective in aging.

International audienceIn this study, the authors examined the effects of aging on autobiographical memory in 180 participants by means of a new method designed to assess across 5 lifetime periods the nature of memories-that is, specificity and spontaneity--and the phenomenal experience of remembering--that is, self-perspective and autonoetic consciousness--via the field/observer and remember/know paradigms respectively. Age-related differences were found for the specificity and spontaneity of memories and the phenomenal experience of remembering. There was an increase in observer and know responses with age, but a decrease in field and remember responses and in the ability to justify them by recalling sensory-perceptive, affective, or spatiotemporal specific details. This pattern confirms the existence of a semantic-episodic dissociation in autobiographical memory in aging. Moreover, the data support the view that older participants can subjectively "travel back in time" to relive personal events in the most distant past better than those in the recent past

The multiscale topological organization of the functional brain network in adolescent PTSD

International audienceThe experience of an extremely aversive event can produce enduring deleterious behavioral, and neural consequences, among which posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a representative example. Although adolescence is a period of great exposure to potentially traumatic events, the effects of trauma during adolescence remain understudied in clinical neuroscience. In this exploratory work, we aim to study the whole-cortex functional organization of 14 adolescents with PTSD using a data-driven method tailored to our population of interest. To do so, we built on the network neuroscience framework and specifically on multilayer (multisubject) community analysis to study the functional connectivity of the brain. We show, across different topological scales (the number of communities composing the cortex), a hyper-colocalization between regions belonging to occipital and pericentral regions and hypo-colocalization in middle temporal, posterior–anterior medial, and frontal cortices in the adolescent PTSD group compared to a nontrauma exposed group of adolescents. These preliminary results raise the question of an altered large-scale cortical organization in adolescent PTSD, opening an interesting line of research for future investigations