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Memory-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activations show age-related differences across multiple brain regions that can be captured in summary statistics like single-value scores. Recently, we described two single-value scores reflecting deviations from prototypical whole-brain fMRI activity of young adults during novelty processing and successful encoding. Here, we investigate the brain-behavior associations of these scores with age-related neurocognitive changes in 153 healthy older adults. All scores were associated with episodic recall performance. The memory network scores, but not the novelty network scores, additionally correlated with medial temporal gray matter and a composite measure comprising pro-active inhibition, episodic memory, tonic alertness, flexibility, and working memory. Our results thus suggest that novelty-network-based fMRI scores show high brain-behavior associations with episodic memory and that encoding-network-based fMRI scores additionally capture individual differences in global cognitive function. More generally, our results suggest that single-value scores of memory-related fMRI provide a comprehensive measure of individual differences in network dysfunction that may contribute to age-related cognitive decline.

Background Individualized and reliable biomarkers are crucial for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, lack of accessibility and neurobiological correlation are the main obstacles to their clinical application. Machine learning algorithms can effectively identify personalized biomarkers based on the prominent symptoms of AD. Methods Episodic memory–related magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of 143 patients with amnesic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) were identified using a multivariate relevance vector regression algorithm. The support vector machine classification model was constructed using these MRI features and verified in 2 independent datasets (N = 994). The neurobiological basis was also investigated based on cognitive assessments, neuropathologic biomarkers of cerebrospinal fluid, and positron emission tomography images of amyloid-β plaques. Results The combination of gray matter volume and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation MRI features accurately predicted episodic memory impairment in individual patients with amnesic MCI (r = .638) when measured using an episodic memory assessment panel. The MRI features that contributed to episodic memory prediction were primarily distributed across the default mode network and limbic network. The classification model based on these features distinguished patients with AD from normal control subjects with more than 86% accuracy. Furthermore, most identified episodic memory–related regions showed significantly different amyloid-β positron emission tomography measurements among the AD, MCI, and normal control groups. Moreover, the classification outputs significantly correlated with cognitive assessment scores and cerebrospinal fluid pathological biomarkers' levels in the MCI and AD groups. Conclusions Neuroimaging features can reflect individual episodic memory function and serve as potential diagnostic biomarkers of AD.

This study newly investigated the joint contribution of metamemory and personality (traits and facets) in explaining episodic memory (EM) performance in typically aging older adults. Forty-eight participants (age range: 64–75 years) completed a self-paced word list (SPWL) recall task, a metamemory questionnaire assessing perceived control and potential improvement (PCPI) and self-efficacy and satisfaction (SESA) regarding one’s mental abilities (e.g., memory), and the Big-Five Questionnaire. Based on the SPWL encoding strategies reported, participants were then classified as effective (N = 20) or ineffective (N = 28) memory strategy users. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that a better SPWL performance was predicted by higher levels of PCPI, Scrupulousness and Dominance personality facets. Effective memory strategy users, then, showed higher SPWL performance and Dominance (Energy facet) than ineffective ones. These findings suggest that both specific metamemory processes and personality facets predict better EM performance in older adults. Moreover, personality dispositions relating to Dominance seem to characterize individuals adopting effective memory strategies to support EM performance. These results represent first evidence of the role of both metamemory and personality—facets—in explaining older adults’ EM performance, which should thus be considered when assessing or training EM in old age.

Background Deficits in relational episodic memory encoding are characteristic of schizophrenia (SZ), but whole-brain multivariate analyses of these deficits have been lacking. Open science has provided task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data investigating paired associate encoding in SZ, but it has not yet been mobilized to address this gap in the literature. Therefore, in this study, we use previously unpublished task fMRI data to conduct the first network-level investigation of impaired relational episodic encoding in SZ. Methods Using fMRI data acquired from 40 healthy control participants and 40 age- and sex-matched persons with SZ, we examined the networks involved in successful versus unsuccessful encoding of verbal paired associates using an associative semantic strategy. Results Constrained principal component analysis for fMRI revealed 3 distinct functional networks recruited during encoding: a responding network, a linguistic processing/attention network, and the default mode network. Relative to the healthy control group, the SZ group exhibited aberrant activity in all 3 networks during successful encoding; namely, hypoactivation in the linguistic processing/attention network, lower peak activation in the responding network, and weaker suppression in the default mode network. Independent of group effects, a pattern of stronger anticorrelating linguistic processing/attention–default mode network activity during successful encoding significantly predicted subsequent retrieval of paired associates. Conclusions Together with previous observations of language network hypoactivation during controlled semantic processes, these results suggest that abnormalities in networks representing language and meaning may contribute to difficulties employing deep semantic strategies during relational episodic encoding in SZ.

Cognitive reserve has shown evidence of mitigating HIV-related effects on cognition in people living with HIV (PWH). In a sample of adults residing in the Deep South, an underrepresented subgroup in the neuroAIDS literature, we assessed the association between HIV serostatus and age on processing speed, visual attention, executive function, and episodic memory and the attenuating effect of cognitive reserve. Adults (n = 138; 72 PWH; Mage = 58.7 years, SD = 7.9 years; 75% non-White race) were recruited from a university clinic and the community. Verbal abilities served as a proxy for cognitive reserve. Regressions accounting for race, alcohol usage, and depressive symptoms were conducted for each cognitive outcome. Indirect effects were tested using the PROCESS macro. Being HIV seropositive was associated with worse executive function (b = -1.04, SE = 0.38, p = .007) and episodic memory (b = -39.94, SE = 12.54, p = .002) performance. Every year of age above the mean and non-White race was associated with worse cognitive performance (ps < .05). The addition of cognitive reserve to the model attenuated the HIV serostatus associations with executive function (BC 95% CI -0.770, -0.001) along with most associations between race and cognitive outcomes. Age associations remained for all cognitive outcomes (ps < .05). Findings highlight the importance of including verbal ability proxies of cognitive reserve when assessing cognition in PWH. Highlighting modifiable cognitive processes, such as cognitive reserve, will further the development of targeted cognitive interventions in this at-risk population.

Resting-state network research is extremely influential, yet the functions of many networks remain unknown. In part, this is due to typical (e.g., univariate) analyses testing the function of individual regions and not the full set of co-activated regions that form a network. Connectivity is dynamic and the function of a region may change based on its current connections. Therefore, determining the function of a network requires assessment at the network-level. Yet popular theories implicating the default mode network (DMN) in episodic memory and social cognition, rest principally upon analyses performed at the level of individual brain regions. Here we use independent component analysis to formally test the role of the DMN in episodic and social processing at the network level. As well as an episodic retrieval task, two independent datasets were employed to assess DMN function across the breadth of social cognition; a person knowledge judgement and a theory of mind task. Each task dataset was separated into networks of co-activated regions. In each, the co-activated DMN, was identified through comparison to an a priori template and its relation to the task model assessed. This co-activated DMN did not show greater activity in episodic or social tasks than high-level baseline conditions. Thus, no evidence was found to support hypotheses that the co-activated DMN is involved in explicit episodic or social processing tasks at a network-level. The networks associated with these processes are described. Implications for prior univariate findings and the functional significance of the co-activated DMN are considered.

Perceivers spontaneously segment ongoing activity into discrete events. This segmentation is important for the moment-by-moment understanding of events, but may also be critical for how events are encoded into episodic memory. In 3 experiments, we used priming to test the possibility that perceptual event boundaries organize memory for everyday activity into episodic units. Viewers watched movies of everyday activities, such as someone washing a car, and then performed a yes-no recognition task using pictures taken from the movies. Some target pictures were preceded by a prime picture taken from 5 s previously in the movie. This produced priming, reducing response times for the target picture. Priming was greater when the prime was part of the same perceptual event as the target than when it was part of a different event, suggesting that event structure organizes episodic memory. This effect persisted when the sequence of activity was scrambled during encoding, which suggests that it reflects, in part, knowledge about event types and not just the specifics of a given episode. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

BackgroundWhile neuroimaging has provided insights into the formation of episodic memories in relation to voluntary memory recall, less is known about neural mechanisms that cause memories to occur involuntarily, for example, as intrusive memories of trauma. Here, we investigated brain activity shortly after viewing distressing events as a function of whether memories for those events later intruded involuntarily. The postencoding period is particularly important because it is a period when clinical interventions could be applied.MethodsA total of 32 healthy volunteers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while viewing distressing film clips, interspersed with 5 minutes of awake (postencoding) rest. Voluntary memories of the films were assessed using free recall and verbal and visual recognition tests after a week, while intrusive (involuntary) memories were recorded in a diary throughout that week.ResultsWhen analyzing functional magnetic resonance imaging responses related to watching the films, we replicated findings that those “hotspots” (salient moments within the films) that would later become intrusive memories elicited higher activation in parts of the brain’s salience network. Surprisingly, while the postencoding persistence of multivoxel correlation structures associated with entire film clips predicted subsequent voluntary recall, there was no evidence that they predicted subsequent intrusions.ConclusionsResults replicate findings regarding the formation of intrusive memories during encoding and extend findings regarding the consolidation of information in postencoding rest in relation to voluntary memory. While we provided a first step using a naturalistic paradigm, further research is needed to elucidate the role of postencoding neural processes in the development of intrusive memories.

The ability to remember sequences of events is fundamental to episodic memory. While rodent studies have examined sex and estrous cycle in episodic-like spatial memory tasks, little is known about these biological variables in memory for sequences of events that depend on representations of temporal context. We investigated the role of sex and estrous cycle in rats during training and testing stages of a cross-species validated sequence memory task (Jayachandran et al., 2019). Rats were trained on a two four-odor sequence memory task delivered on opposite ends of a linear track. Training occurred in six successive stages starting with learning to poke in a nose-port for ≥ 1.2 s; eventually demonstrating sequence memory by holding their nose in the port ≥ 1 s for in-sequence odors and1 s for out-of-sequence odors. Performance was analyzed across sex and estrous cycle (proestrus, estrus, metestrus, and diestrus), the latter being determined by cellular composition of a daily vaginal lavage. We found no evidence of sex differences in asymptotic sequence memory performance, similar to humans performing an analogous task (Reeders et al., 2021). Likewise, no differences in sequence memory performance were found across the estrous cycle. Some caveats are that males acquired out-of-sequence trials faster during training with a 3-odor sequence, but this apparent advantage did not carry over to the 4-odor sequence. Additionally, males had shorter poke times overall which seem consistent with a decreased overall response inhibition because they occurred regardless of sequence demands. Together, these results suggest sex and estrous cycle are not major factors in sequence memory capacities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Introduction: Diagnosing the etiology underlying dementia symptoms can be difficult because of the broad nature of shared cognitive impairments across dementia subtypes. Therefore, we sought to differentiate the cognitive profiles of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) from vascular dementia (VaD) and Lewy body dementia (LBD). Methods: PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and PsychINFO were searched for studies comparing the cognitive profile of AD to those of VaD and LBD along the domains of memory, language, and executive function. Results: Short-term and episodic memory were more severely impaired in AD than VaD and LBD. Semantic memory was more impaired in AD than LBD, but it was similarly impaired in AD and VaD. Semantic fluency was worse in AD than in VaD, and phonemic fluency was worse in AD compared to VaD and LBD. Naming was more impaired in AD compared to VaD and LBD. Executive function impairments were similar or less severe in AD relative to VaD and LBD. Discussion: Findings may be explained through neuropathological correlates of each disease. Tau proteins targeting the medial temporal lobes and synaptic loss in prefrontal cortices in AD may explain greater memory deficits in AD relative to VaD and LBD. In those with AD, the temporal lobes undergo greater atrophy than in those with VaD and LBD, possibly contributing to the greater semantic fluency impairments in AD. Greater white matter loss in frontal lobes in VaD may be a reason for a worse phonemic fluency in VaD relative to AD. Executive function impairments may be attributable to more deep white matter hyperintensities in those with VaD and more dopaminergic dysfunction of the basal ganglia in those with LBD relative to those with AD. Conclusion: Understanding the cognitive profiles that differentiate AD from VaD and LBD would aid in more efficient and accurate diagnoses of dementia etiologies. Diagnoses could be further improved by using cognitive assessment in addition to neural and physiological measures. This knowledge may help identify individuals at risk of developing dementia, helping clinicians intervene early and prevent progression to severe stages.

In this paper, we address Emotion Recognition in Conversation (ERC) where conversational data are presented in a multimodal setting. Psychological evidence shows that self and inter-speaker influence are two central factors to emotion dynamics in conversation. State-of-the-art models do not effectively synthesise these two factors. Therefore, we propose an Adapted Dynamic Memory Network (A-DMN) where self and inter-speaker influences are modelled individually and further synthesised oriented towards the current utterance. Specifically, we model the dependency of the constituent utterances in a dialogue video using a global RNN to capture inter-speaker influence. Likewise, each speaker is assigned an RNN to capture their self influence. Afterwards, an Episodic Memory Module is devised to extract contexts for self and inter-speaker influence and synthesise them to update the memory. This process repeats itself for multiple passes until a refined representation is obtained and used for final prediction. Additionally, we explore cross-modal fusion in the context of multimodal ERC, and propose a convolution-based method which proves effective in extracting local interactions and computationally efficient. Extensive experiments demonstrate that A-DMN outperforms the state-of-the-art models on benchmark datasets.

Theories of memory consolidation suggest that initially rich, vivid memories become more gist-like over time. However, it is unclear whether gist-like representations reflect a loss of detail through degradation or the blending of experiences into statistical averages, and whether the strength of these representations increases, decreases, or remains stable over time. We report three behavioral experiments that address these questions by examining distributional learning during spatial navigation. In Experiment 1, human subjects navigated a virtual maze to find hidden objects with locations varying according to spatial distributions. After 15 minutes, 1 day, 7 days, or 28 days, we tested their navigation performance and explicit memory. In Experiment 2, we created spatial distributions with no object at their mean locations, thereby disentangling learned object exemplars from statistical averages. In Experiment 3, we created only a single, bimodal distribution to avoid possible confusion between distributions and administered tests after 15 minutes or 28 days. Across all experiments, and for both navigation and explicit tests, representations of the spatial distributions were present soon after exposure, but then receded over time. These findings suggest gist-like representations do not improve over time, helping to clarify the temporal dynamics of consolidation in human learning and memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The present thesis investigated the development of episodic memory through middle and late childhood, and how individual differences in health and lifestyle impact this development. The first study (Chapter 2) explored the developmental patterns of episodic memory including individual content elements (what, where and when) and integrated what-where-when (WWW) representation on British children aged 6-12. Results suggest that episodic memory continues to develop during this period, with item, spatial, temporal and WWW memory all improving relatively linearly with age. These improvements are driven by both associative binding and strategic control abilities. The second study (Chapter 3) extended this work by additionally exploring how variation in encoding and strategy use influences memory development in a slightly older age range of 8-13. While associative and strategic retrieval abilities showed improvement with age, strategic encoding ability seemed to stay relatively stable across this period of late childhood. Regarding the effect of strategy use, older children produced and noticed more strategies than younger children, but only the younger children benefitted more from noticing the strategies. The third study (Chapter 4) extended the developmental pattern to a diverse population by replicating the experiment with a sample of Chinese children aged 8-10. Results from Chapters 3 and 4 also indicate that executive function is likely to play a critical role in memory development. The fourth study (Chapter 5) investigated the influences of health and lifestyle factors, with particular emphasis on diet and physical activity, on memory development. The fifth study (Chapter 6) went further in trying to understand how cross-cultural differences in lifestyle may contribute to different patterns of memory development. Results from Chapters 5 and 6 suggest that individual differences in diet and exercise are linked with detectable differences in memory development, and that these effects may not be mediated by executive function. Collectively, the findings of this thesis shed light on a general pattern of episodic memory development over diverse populations across different cultures, and highlight the importance of a healthy lifestyle in promoting children’s cognitive and memory development.

Selective encoding can be studied by manipulating how valuable it is for participants to remember specific stimuli, for instance by varying the monetary reward participants receive for recalling a particular stimulus in a subsequent memory test. It would be reasonable for participants to strategically attend more to high-reward items compared to low-reward items in mixed list contexts, but to attend both types of items equally in pure list contexts, where all items are of equal value. Reward-enhanced memory may be driven by automatic dopaminergic interactions between reward circuitry and the hippocampus and thus be insensitive to list context; or it may be driven by meta-cognitive strategies, and thus context-dependent. We contrasted these alternatives by manipulating list composition, and tracked selective encoding through multiple EEG measures of attention and rehearsal. Behavioural results were context-dependent, such that recall of high-reward items was increased only in mixed lists. This result and aspects of the recall dynamics confirm predictions of the eCMR (emotional Context Maintenance and Retrieval) model. The power of ssVEPs was lower for high-reward items regardless of list composition, suggesting decreased visual processing of high-reward stimuli and that ssVEPs may index the modulation of context-to-item associations predicted by eCMR. By contrast, reward modulated the amplitude of Late Positive Potential and Frontal Slow Wave only in mixed lists. Taken together the results provide evidence that reward-enhanced memory is caused by an interplay between strategic processes applied when high- and low-reward items compete for cognitive resources during encoding and context-dependent mechanisms operating during recall.

Decreased fidelity of mnemonic representations plays a critical role in age-related episodic memory deficits, yet the brain mechanisms underlying such reductions remain unclear. Using functional and structural neuroimaging, we examined how changes in two key nodes of the posterior-medial network, the hippocampus and the angular gyrus (AG), might underpin loss of memory precision in older age. Healthy young and older adults completed a memory task that involved reconstructing object features on a continuous scale. Investigation of blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) activity during retrieval revealed an age-related reduction in activity reflecting successful recovery of object features in the hippocampus, whereas trial-wise modulation of BOLD signal by graded memory precision was diminished in the AG. Gray matter volume of the AG further predicted individual differences in memory precision in older age, beyond likelihood of successful retrieval. These findings provide converging evidence for a role of functional and structural integrity of the AG in constraining the fidelity of episodic remembering in older age, yielding new insights into parietal contributions to age-related episodic memory decline.

The ability to recollect personal events in vivid multisensory detail from a first-person perspective is thought to be critical to the subjective experience of episodic memory. This PhD thesis comprises three experiments investigating these memory qualities and their parietal neural bases in different populations. The experiment presented in Chapter 2 used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in healthy younger adults and a novel associative memory task that manipulated stimulus modality to causally test whether the left angular gyrus (AnG) supports multimodal feature integration during episodic and semantic memory retrieval. Left AnG stimulation was found to selectively modulate response times in multimodal versus unimodal trials of both episodic associative recognition and semantic relatedness tasks, indicating AnG involvement in multiple forms of multimodal declarative memory retrieval. However, this stimulation effect was unexpectedly facilitatory rather than inhibitory, and no objective or subjective measures of episodic memory were modulated by AnG stimulation. The experiment in Chapter 3 investigated the parietal neuroanatomical correlates of first-person versus third-person episodic recall in normal ageing using voxel-based morphometry and a custom 3D object location memory task that manipulated visual perspective during both encoding and retrieval. Compared to healthy younger adults, older adults showed a general deficit in first-person recall of object locations, irrespective of the original encoding perspective. Third-person recall was also impaired with age to a lesser extent and only when objects were encoded from the same third-person perspective. In older adults, left AnG and precuneus grey matter volume positively correlated with the adoption of a first-person recall perspective, but not first-person recall more generally. These parietal volumes were further shown to decline with age. Finally, the experiment in Chapter 4 investigated whether individuals with self-reported mental imagery deficits (i.e., aphantasics) are impaired at first-person episodic recall. This was tested using a modified version of the task used in the previous chapter so that both object and spatial memory features, studied in first or third person, could be assessed via subjective vividness ratings and objective feature reproduction tasks. The visual perspective of spatial memory recall was additionally varied between the same and alternative studied perspectives to test whether aphantasics are impaired at manipulating visuospatial representations. Despite globally lower vividness ratings relative to controls, aphantasics unexpectedly showed no deficits in object or spatial memory in either visual perspective. Together, these results further understanding of parietal contributions to memory and suggest investigation of those with atypical imagery as a promising line of future inquiry into the factors necessary for its subjective reliving.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex chronic disease associated with reduced cognitive functioning. Patients with SLE report cognitive symptoms, but cognitive assessment is not routine in SLE and little is known about day-to-day cognitive problems and their effect on disease management. As part of a pilot exploring the use of a cognitive functioning report prototype for shared decision-making in clinical encounters (the Approaches to Positive Patient-Centered Experiences of Aging in Lupus [APPEAL] Study), we investigated the relevance of cognitive assessments performed using the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Toolbox among patients with SLE.We conducted 4 focus groups, 2 with SLE patients (n = 18) and 2 with lupus providers (physicians and nurses; n = 9), addressing cognitive issues and interest in communicating about cognition. We compared how NIH Toolbox cognitive domains (episodic memory, working memory, processing speed, attention and inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility) matched with patient- and provider-identified cognitive problems and needs.Patients identified all NIH domains with rich experiential examples; providers identified fewer domains and offered less detail. An unanticipated additional domain was prospective memory (i.e., problems with remembering future actions). Use of technologic aids (e.g., smart phone alerts) was mentioned by some patients, but not providers, and represent a potential opportunity for medical care. All participants expressed interest in discussing cognition in clinic.Cognitive assessment using the NIH Cognitive Toolbox is relevant to this population, with the possible addition of a prospective memory assessment. Cognitive problems and indications of communication gaps suggest the appropriateness of more clinical communication about cognition in the SLE population.

This paper discusses the implementation of a brain-inspired episodic memory model, which provides memory assistance and tackles the modern public issue of memory impairment embedded as an end-to-end system on the robot companion, Pepper. Based on Fusion ART (Adaptive Resonance Theory), the proposed model can observe and memorize the content of daily events in five aspects: people, activities, times, places, and objects. The model is based on the human memory pipeline, containing a working memory and a two-layer long-term memory model, which can effectively merge, cluster, and summarize past memories based on their context and relevance in a self-organizing manner. When providing memory assistance, the robot can analyze a user query and find the best matching memory cluster to generate verbal cues to stimulate recalling of the target event. Moreover, using reinforcement learning, the robot eventually learns the most effective mapping of cue types to event type through social interaction. Experiments show the feasibility of the proposed model, which can handle episodic events with elasticity and stability. Moreover, there is evidence that the robot is able to provide robust memory assistance from knowledge obtained through previous observations, with 99% confidence, intervals in the participants’ mean recall percentage of the events increases 19.63% after receiving memory assistance from the robot.

Scopolamine has been used as a pharmacologic model for cognitive impairments in dementia and Alzheimer's disease. The validity of this model seems to be limited because findings in animals do not readily translate to novel treatments in humans. Biperiden is also a cholinergic deficit model for cognitive impairments but specifically blocks muscarinic M1 receptors. The effects of scopolamine and biperiden (and pirenzepine) are compared in animal studies and related to findings in humans. It is concluded that the effects on cognitive functions are different for scopolamine and biperiden, and they should be considered as different cognitive deficit models. Scopolamine may model more advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease whereas biperiden may model the early deficits in declarative memory in aging and mild cognitive impairment.

We propose that the specificity with which associations in episodic memory can be remembered varies on a continuum. Older adults have been shown to forget highly specific information (Greene & Naveh-Benjamin, 2020b), and in Experiment 1, we provide further evidence that older adults' deficits in associative memory scale with the amount of specificity that needs to be retrieved. In Experiment 2, we address whether depleted attentional resources, simulated in young adults under divided attention at encoding, could account for older adults' associative memory specificity deficits. Participants studied face-scene pairs and later completed an associative recognition test, with test pairs that were old, highly similar or less similar to old pairs, or completely dissimilar. Participants rated their confidence in their decisions. False positive recognition responses increased with the amount of specificity needed to be retrieved. Whereas older adults' associative memory deficits scaled with how much specific information needed to be remembered, younger adults under divided attention had a more general deficit in associative memory. Confidence-accuracy analysis showed that participants were best able to calibrate their confidence when less specific information was needed to perform well. While divided attention young adults were generally prone to high-confidence errors, older adults' high-confidence errors were most apparent when highly specific information needed to be remembered. These results provide further evidence for levels of specificity in episodic memory. Access to the most specific levels is most vulnerable to forgetting, in line with a specificity principle of memory (Surprenant & Neath, 2009). Further, depleted attentional resources at encoding cannot entirely explain older adults' associative memory specificity deficits. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Most measures of naturalistic human memory instruct participants to recall personally-experienced episodes in narrative format. These narratives contain non-episodic details, such as general knowledge of the world, or personal knowledge about one’s life circumstances that are elevated with aging. As this non-episodic content is incidental to the instructions, it is difficult to interpret. We modified the widely used Autobiographical Interview (AI) to create a Semantic Autobiographical Interview (SAI) that explicitly targets personal semantic (P-SAI) and general semantic memories (G-SAI). We tested the SAI in young and older adults, alongside with the original AI. Older adults produced a higher proportion of off-task utterances (i.e., details not probed by instructions) across all sections of the interview. Specifically, older adults produced more autobiographical facts in the AI, more episodic and general semantic details in the P-SAI, and more self-knowledge in the G-SAI than did young adults. However, older adults also consistently produced more probed autobiographical facts than did young adults on the P-SAI. These findings suggest that the increased production of semantic details in ageing reflects a bias towards age differences in autobiographical recall that goes beyond episodic remembering, as reflected by an age-associated abundance of semantic details across sections of the interview, findings that are not accommodated by accounts of aging and memory emphasizing reduced cognitive control or compensation for episodic memory impairment.

Newly formed memories are spontaneously reactivated during sleep, leading to their strengthening. This reactivation process can be manipulated by reinstating learning-related stimuli during sleep, a technique termed targeted memory reactivation. Numerous studies have found that delivering cues during sleep improves memory for simple associations, in which one cue reactivates one tested memory. However, real-life memories often live in rich, complex networks of associations. In this review, we will examine recent forays into investigating how targeted sleep reactivation affects memories within complex paradigms, in which one cue can reactivate multiple tested memories. A common theme across studies is that reactivation consequences do not merely depend on whether memories reside in complex arrangements, but on how memories interact with one another during acquisition. We therefore emphasize how intricate study design details that alter the nature of learning and/or participant intentions impact the outcomes of sleep reactivation. In some cases, complex networks of memories interact harmoniously to bring about mutual memory benefits; in other cases, memories interact antagonistically and produce selective impairments in retrieval. Ultimately, although this burgeoning area of research has yet to be systematically explored, results suggest that the fate of reactivated stimuli within complex arrangements depends on how they were learned.

A cardinal feature of episodic memory is the ability to generalize knowledge across similar experiences to make inference about novel events. Here, we tested if this ability to apply generalized knowledge exists for experiences that are similar in terms of underlying concepts, prior knowledge, and if this comes at the expense of another feature of episodic memory: forming detailed recollection of events Over three experiments, healthy participants performed a modified version of the acquired equivalence test in which they learned overlapping object-scenes associations (A-X, B-X and A-Y) and then generalized the acquired knowledge to indirectly learned associations (B-Y) and novel objects (C-X and C-Y) that were from the same conceptual category (e.g. A - pencil; B - scissors) and different categories (e.g. A - watch; B - fork). In a subsequent recognition memory task, participants made old/new judgements to old (targets), similar (lures) and novel items. Across all experiments, we found that indirect associations that were rooted in conceptual similarity knowledge led to higher rates of generalisation but reduced detailed object memory. Our findings suggest that activating prior conceptual knowledge emphasizes the generalization function of episodic memory at the expense of detailed recollection. We discuss how this trade-off between generalization and recollection functions of episodic memory result from engaging different representations during learning.

IntroductionEpisodic memory (EM) exhibits an age-related decline, with overall increased impairment after the age of 65. The application of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to ameliorate cognitive decline in ageing has been extensively investigated, but its efficacy has been reported with mixed results. In this study, we aimed to assess whether age contributes to interindividual variability in tDCS efficacy.MethodsThirty-eight healthy adults between 50 and 81 years old received anodal tDCS over the left prefrontal cortex during images encoding and then performed an EM recognition task while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded.ResultsOur results showed an opposite pattern of effect between middle-aged (50–64 years) and older (65–81 years) adults. Specifically, performance in the recognition task after tDCS was enhanced in older adults and was worsened in middle-aged adults. Moreover, ERPs acquired during the recognition task showed that two EM components related to familiarity and post-retrieval monitoring, i.e., Early Frontal and Late Frontal Old-New effects, respectively, were significantly reduced in middle-aged adults after anodal tDCS.DiscussionThese results support an age-dependent effect of prefrontal tDCS on EM processes and its underlying electrophysiological substrate, with opposing modulatory trajectories along the aging lifespan.

Throughout our lives, the actions we produce are often highly familiar and repetitive (e.g., commuting to work). However, layered upon these routine actions are novel, episodic experiences. Substantial research has shown that prior knowledge can facilitate learning of conceptually related new information. But despite the central role our behavior plays in real-world experience, it remains unclear how engagement in a familiar sequence of actions influences memory for unrelated, nonmotor information coincident with those actions. To investigate this, we had healthy young adults encode novel items while simultaneously following a sequence of actions (key presses) that was either predictable and well-learned or random. Across three experiments ( N = 80 each), we found that temporal order memory, but not item memory, was significantly enhanced for novel items encoded while participants executed predictable compared with random action sequences. These results suggest that engaging in familiar behaviors during novel learning scaffolds within-event temporal memory, an essential feature of episodic experiences.

This study aims to understand the development of metacognitive ability and memory in children. Metacognition is a higher-order skill which allows users to monitor their own thoughts, actions and abilities (such as monitoring their memory ability) which in turn can help them to adapt their behaviour accordingly (Nelson & Narens, 1990). We are particularly interested in how different measures of metacognition (i.e. explicit and implicit) can inform us about children’s awareness concerning their own memory ability (i.e. what they can remember seeing in a short video clip). This dynamic relationship between metacognition and memory (often referred to as metamemory) is especially important to child eyewitness and interview procedures in the Criminal Justice System.

In this study we aim to examine the cognitive and neural processes associated with schema-incongruent (versus schema-congruent) events that prompt a feeling of surprise (versus expectedness) during encoding.

This is a follow-up study to Schreiner et al. (2022, March 26) in which we will use a slightly different manipulation of agency, present participants each event twice, and use an intentional memory test.

Events we experience in our day-to-day lives tend to be complex – in that they are made up different kinds of content – such as sensory perceptual details (e.g., color, and shape of objects around you), event details (e.g., what happened during that event), and evaluative content (e.g., inferences you made about other people and their mental states). An important component of episodic memory encoding is the selection of these different kinds of details that are relevant to one's current goals (i.e., Conway, 2001). The ability to control which features of an experience are encoded is thought to be highly beneficial. Indeed, recent theoretical frameworks suggests that episodic memory deficits in older age are due to encoding and storing too much information (Amer et al., 2022), suggesting that inability to selectively encode goal-relevant content is detrimental. In addition, previous work suggests that older adults' cluttered memory representations can lead to reductions in memory accuracy later on and make them more susceptible to false memories (Balota et al., 1999). Based on this line of work, in the current study, we examined (1) how varying encoding goals affect the content younger and older adults remember, and (2) whether focusing on the specific aspects of an event benefits episodic memory accuracy after a delay.

The aim of the current study is to examine how the belief in an episodic memory changes compared to its recollection over a time span of three weeks.

Behavioural activation (BA) is an intervention approach for depression that primarily uses activity scheduling – that is, helping people to identify enjoyable and mood-enhancing activities, plan, and complete them. BA is acceptable in people with stroke and language impairments (Thomas et al., 2013; 2019) and shows promise in alleviating low mood and depression symptoms in people with acquired brain injury (Kusec et al., 2022). Both existing literature, and present exploratory analyses detailed below, suggest that episodic memory impairments are predictive of depression in stroke survivors (Pappadis et al., 2019). Therefore, this study seeks to compare the efficacy of standard BA against BA supplemented with an episodic memory impairment management strategy. Mental imagery, the process of visually simulating events in one’s mind, is a common psychological technique that is low cost, highly scalable, and can be delivered by non-specialist practitioners (Pile et al., 2021). Here, we pre-register an experimental investigation into whether mental imagery enhances the efficacy of BA in stroke survivors regardless of severity of memory impairment. This will be investigated through a two-arm randomised controlled study comparing those receiving standard BA plus an active control and those receiving BA plus mental imagery as an episodic memory-enhancement. Finally, exploratory qualitative analysis is needed to gain person-centred insights into stroke survivors’ perceptions of the relationship between mood, memory, and activity levels, as well as practical use of mental imagery. This study will benefit stroke survivors with depression by empirically demonstrating whether BA can be augmented for stroke survivors irrespective of memory impairments.

Though the phenomenon that music has an effect on affect has been much examined, there is no agreement on which mechanisms underlie this effect. Therefore, the role of the episodic memory in affect induction by music will be investigated. A previous study gave first indications that the episodic memory mediates the affect induction that occurs through music. The effects found will now be investigated in more detail and supported by removing previous limitations. This involves manipulating episodic memory load while using the Musical Mood induction procedure.

Our ability to navigate the world relies on the memories of our past experiences, and the ability to use that information to predict what might happen in the future. However, these predictions are not always accurate, and unexpected changes in the environment can lead to uncertainty because of the discrepancies between our expectations and the reality. To better understand how periods of environmental change impact our memory performance, we conducted a fMRI study that involved a probabilistic learning task. Studies have indicated that the learning rate is increased after a change point because of prioritizing current events to update internal models (Behrens et al., 2007, McGuire et al, 2014). We aim to examine how neural correlates support these findings. 1. We hypothesize that the activity of the hippocampus should be higher after a change point compared to before a change point. 2. Activation of the hippocampus should be enhanced for remembered vs. forgotten items. 3. We also expect to find differential involvement of the hippocampal subfields in times of environmental change, with enhanced activation in the DG-CA3 subfields after a change point and increased activation in the CA1 subfield before a change point, reflecting their distinct roles in pattern separation and completion.

We initially aimed to investigate category-specific and retrospective memory enhancement due to reward not only for images but also for words and word-image pairs in a previously unexplored associative learning paradigm. However, our efforts to find reward-induced memory enhancement effects in these new paradigms were inconclusive, leading us to doubt the robustness of the reward-conditioning paradigm and overall findings of the [Patil et al. 2017] study. In our follow-up Experiment 2a (currently unpublished and preregistered on https://osf.io/fyt76), we aimed to closely replicate the effect of high-reward on category-specific and retrospective memory enhancement using the same design and stimuli as Experiment 1 in Patil et al. [2017] which tested recognition memory 24-hours after encoding. However, our experiment did not provide reliable evidence for this effect. In a further attempt to shed light on the underlying effect, and corroborate our failed replication attempt, we will now conduct another experiment with the same design as our previous Experiment 2a with higher statistical power. Again, in contrast to laboratory-based experiments in Patil et al. [2017], we will run our study online on Prolific.co. Our results so far call into question the reliability and generalisability of claims that memory can be selectively and retrospectively enhanced due to reward. We believe that our replication efforts including this planned experiment will be important for those studying adaptive episodic memory and the generalisability of behavioural tagging.

Objectives The purpose of this study was to examine laypeople's subjective understanding of their own wisdom development. To do this, autobiographical memories of wisdom-fostering life events were examined for (a) life-event characteristics, and (b) self-reflective processes believed to support growth in wisdom through life experience. Methods Midlife adults (N = 482) provided a written autobiographical memory of a wisdom-fostering life event. Memories were content analyzed by expert coders for life-event characteristics (i.e., fundamentality, emotional valence, cultural normativity, and specific event types) and self-reflective processes (i.e., narrative coherence, meaning-making, and personal growth). Participants also completed self-report and performance measures of wisdom. Results Wisdom-fostering life events tended to be fundamental to life, culturally non-normative, and emotionally negative. Participants frequently reported developing wisdom from relationship events (e.g., interpersonal conflict, divorce) and life-threatening/mortality events (e.g., death, serious illness). Wisdom was positively associated with reconstructive (i.e., narrative coherence) and analytical (i.e., meaning-making, personal growth) components of self-reflection. Self-reflective processes varied as a function of life-event characteristics. Discussion This study emphasizes the role of both persons and environments in the development of wisdom, and highlights the importance of self-reflection as a mechanism through which wisdom is constructed from life experience.

Preregistration of Secondary Data Analysis. See the attached Preregistration Form for more details including references.

This is an online study designed to investigate the effects of anhedonic/depressive symptoms and PE valence on reversal learning and episodic memory. The study is conducted as a Master's thesis in the M.Sc. Psychology in the LISCO lab of the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main. Supervisor: Dr. Francesco Pupillo

Background: Detecting the beginning of cognitive decay is crucial to guarantee good management and the possible prevention of dementia progression. The present study arises from observations collected during an educational event to promote mental and physical health in which incidental neuropsychological data gathered on 290 citizens showed the importance of routine neuropsychological examination in detecting early signs of cognitive decay, since many individuals were unaware of the decrease in their cognitive efficiency. Accordingly, the availability of a screening tool that is computerized, portable, self-administrable, and sensitive to the main neurocognitive changes testifying the progression towards pathological aging is critical. Objective: To this aim, we developed a computerized battery for the early, preclinical Diagnosis of Neurocognitive disease (DiaNe), that can be self-administered and performed autonomously by using a tablet. Methods: DiaNe includes tests expected to evaluate the main cognitive domains involved in neurodegenerative diseases (memory, attention, executive functions) with a detailed assessment of visuospatial memory in particular. Results: DiaNe is not just the translation of standard tests into telematics, rather it is a new tool that provides both accuracy and response time measurements, aimed to screen cognitive profile and monitor it over time, being able to detect changes in still normal performances that may be suggestive of an ongoing onset of neurocognitive disorders. Conclusion: Here we present an investigation of DiaNe concurrent validity showing that its results are comparable to those obtained by existing paper-and-pencil neuropsychological tests, and propose that DiaNe could be a useful, quick, and economical instrument for the monitoring of cognitive aging.

We show that the intention to remember information substantially improves recall of that information when maintained in working memory (WM), whereas it does not have the same effect on maintenance in episodic long-term memory (LTM). In eight experiments, participants processed lists of words according to a semantic orienting task in three instruction conditions: to remember, to forget, or an incidental-memory baseline with no instruction. The first two experiments showed better memory for intentional remembering compared to incidental memory for a typical test of WM, but not for a typical test of episodic LTM. The subsequent six experiments determined which of three variables distinguishing typical WM and episodic-LTM tests-delay of test, list length, and proactive interference-are responsible for this difference. The intention to remember improved free-recall performance for short lists (close to the capacity limit of WM), most strongly when tested immediately, and only in the presence of proactive interference. This result supports a functional distinction between WM and episodic LTM: Whereas episodic LTM keeps a nonselective record of experiences for future use, WM holds selectively only the information relevant for the current goal. In addition, we found a beneficial effect of intentional remembering on memory for the list position of words, which was obtained for longer lists and regardless of the delay of testing, probably reflecting episodic LTM. The instruction to forget had no effect compared to the incidental baseline, questioning the assumption of a targeted forgetting process on memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Children born to mothers infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) during pregnancy experience increased risk of neurocognitive impairment. In Botswana, HIV infection is common among youth, but standardized cognitive screening is limited. The Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery (PennCNB), a tool that streamlines evaluation of neurocognitive functioning, was culturally adapted for use among youth in this high-burden, low-resource setting. The present study examined the structural validity of the culturally adapted PennCNB. A cohort of 7-17-year-old children living with HIV (HIV +) and HIV-exposed-uninfected (HEU) children were enrolled from the Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Centre of Excellence in Gaborone, Botswana. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were performed on speed, accuracy, and efficiency measures for 13 PennCNB tests. Fit of the confirmatory factor analysis was acceptable, which supports the design of the battery measuring four neurocognitive domains: Executive functioning, episodic memory, complex cognition, and sensorimotor/processing speed. However, the model revealed high interfactor correlation. Exploratory factor analysis suggested that tests assessing executive functioning and sensorimotor/processing speed clustered together rather than forming differentiable factors. Overall, this research provides valuable insight into the structural validity of a neurocognitive battery adapted for use in a non-Western setting, suggesting that the PennCNB could serve as a useful tool for the assessment of neurocognitive function in Botswana and, potentially, other resource-limited settings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Abstract. There are considerable individual differences in remembering past episodes. The current study aimed to examine the link between episodic memory reliving and the Five-Factor Model personality traits. Altogether 422 participants (67% women) described an autobiographical episode and rated the vividness and clarity of that recollection. Next, they assessed their general tendencies of autobiographical recollections, which resulted in two autobiographical episodic memory scores (AEMS) for each participant – episodic and general. Participants also filled in the Estonian version of the International Personality Item Pool NEO questionnaire. Findings from partial correlation analysis (controlling for age and gender) revealed distinguishable patterns of associations for the episodic and general-level reports of memory reliving: the episodic AEMS was positively associated with E4: Activity Level and E1: Friendliness, whereas the general AEMS was negatively correlated with N4: Self-Consciousness, and positively with E1: Friendliness, E6: Cheerfulness, O1: Imagination, O5: Intellect, C2: Orderliness, and C3: Dutifulness (all significant at p < .005). The associations between the general (but not the episodic) AEMS and personality facets were significantly correlated with the average social desirability ratings of the respective facets. We conclude that greater social adaptation together with the motivation of positive self-perception are plausible explanations of the links between personality traits and reporting the quality of reliving personal memories.

Episodic memory is supported by hippocampal interactions with a distributed network. Aging is associated with memory decline and network de-differentiation. However, the role of de-differentiation in memory decline has not been directly tested. We reasoned that hippocampal network-targeted stimulation could test these theories, as age-related changes in the network response to stimulation would indicate network reorganization, and corresponding changes in memory would suggest that this reorganization is functional. We compared effects of stimulation on fMRI connectivity and memory in younger versus older adults. Theta-burst network-targeted stimulation of left lateral parietal cortex selectively increased hippocampal network connectivity and modulated memory in younger adults. In contrast, stimulation in older adults increased connectivity throughout the brain, without network selectivity, and did not influence memory. These findings provide evidence that network responses to stimulation are de-differentiated in aging and suggest that age-related de-differentiation is relevant for memory. This manuscript is part of the Special Issue entitled "Cognitive Neuroscience of Healthy and Pathological Aging" edited by Drs. M. N. Rajah, S. Belleville, and R. Cabeza. This article is part of the Virtual Special Issue titled COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE OF HEALTHY AND PATHOLOGICAL AGING. The full issue can be found on ScienceDirect at https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/neurobiology-of-aging/special-issue/105379XPWJP.

This paper reviews evidence demonstrating a bidirectional relationship between memory and eating in humans and rodents. In humans, amnesia is associated with impaired processing of hunger and satiety cues, disrupted memory of recent meals, and overconsumption. In healthy participants, meal-related memory limits subsequent ingestive behavior and obesity is associated with impaired memory and disturbances in the hippocampus. Evidence from rodents suggests that dorsal hippocampal neural activity contributes to the ability of meal-related memory to control future intake, that endocrine and neuropeptide systems act in the ventral hippocampus to provide cues regarding energy status and regulate learned aspects of eating, and that consumption of hypercaloric diets and obesity disrupt these processes. Collectively, this evidence indicates that diet-induced obesity may be caused and/or maintained, at least in part, by a vicious cycle wherein excess intake disrupts hippocampal functioning, which further increases intake. This perspective may advance our understanding of how the brain controls eating, the neural mechanisms that contribute to eating-related disorders, and identify how to treat diet-induced obesity.

Aging is associated with episodic memory decline and changes in functional brain connectivity. Understanding whether and how biological sex influences age- and memory performance-related functional connectivity has important theoretical and clinical implications for our understanding of brain and cognitive aging. Yet, little is known about the effect of sex on neurocognitive aging. Here, we scanned 161 healthy adults between 19-76 yrs of age in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of face-location spatial context memory. Adults were scanned while performing easy and difficult versions of the task at both encoding and retrieval. We used multivariate whole-brain partial least squares (PLS) connectivity to test the hypothesis that there are sex differences in age- and episodic memory performance-related functional connectivity. We examined how individual differences in age and retrieval accuracy correlated with task-related connectivity. We then repeated this analysis after disaggregating the data by self-reported sex. We found that increased encoding and retrieval-related connectivity within the dorsal attention network (DAN), and between DAN and frontoparietal network (FPN) and visual networks, was positively correlated to retrieval accuracy and negatively correlated with age in both sexes. We also observed sex differences in age- and performance-related functional connectivity: i) greater between-network integration was apparent at both levels of task difficulty in women only, and ii) increased DAN-DMN connectivity with age was observed in men and was correlated with poorer memory performance. Therefore, the neural correlates of age-related episodic memory decline differ in women and men and has important theoretical and clinical implications for the cognitive neuroscience of memory, aging and dementia prevention.

Coding serial order of information is a fundamental ability of our cognitive system, and still, little is known about its neural substrate. This study examined the neural substrates involved in the retrieval of information that is serially stored in verbal working memory task using a sensitive multivariate analysis approach. We compared neural activity for memorized items stemming from the beginning versus the end of a memory list assessing the degree of neural pattern discordance between order positions (beginning vs. end). The present results confirmed and refined the role of the intraparietal sulcus in the processing of serial order information in working memory. An important finding is that the hippocampus showed sensitivity to serial order information. Our results indicate that the representation of serial order information relies on a broader set of neural areas and highlight the role of the intraparietal sulcus and the hippocampus, in addition to the supramarginal gyrus and the SMA. The contribution of different neural regions might reflect the involvement of distinct levels of serial order coding (i.e., spatial, attentional, temporal) that support the representation of serial order information.

Importance Cognitive and visual impairments in Parkinson’s Disease Psychosis (PDP) raise the question of whether a specific profile of impaired cognition and visual function is linked to vulnerability to visual hallucinations (VHs). Previous studies have limited sample sizes and only included a sub-sample of tests. This is the first meta-analysis quantifying visuo-cognitive impairments in PDP patients across a spectrum of tests and taking into account potential confounding factors such as levodopa medication, illness duration and general cognitive ability. Objective Compare visual processing and cognitive performance between PD patients with and without VHs (PDVH and PDnoVH). Methods Four databases (PubMed, PsychINFO, Scopus, WebOfScience) were searched for studies on visual and/or cognitive performance of PDnoVH and PDVH published up to 02/2020. For each task, means and SDs were extracted and standardized-mean-differences (SMDs) between-groups calculated. Effect-sizes (Hedges’ g) were calculated for all comparisons and synthesized in random-effects meta-analyses with robust-variance-estimation (accounting for multiple correlated measures within each study per cognitive/visual domain). Publication bias was assessed with funnel plots and Egger intercept. Results N=99 studies including 2508 PDVH patients (mean age 68.4 years) and 5318 PDnoVH (mean age 66.4 years) were included in the seven meta-analyses. PDVH patients performed worse than PDnoVH across all measures of cognition and visual processing, with the greatest between-group effect-sizes in executive functions, attention, episodic memory and visual processing. Study characteristics were not significantly associated with between-group differences in the domains investigated. Age-differences were significantly associated with performance differences in general cognition, working memory and executive functions. Conclusion Models of PDVH need to incorporate a wider range of cognitive and processing domains than currently included. There is a need for studies disentangling the temporal relationship between cognitive/visual deficits and VHs as early identification of risk before the onset of VHs could mitigate later outcomes such as progression to dementia.

The aim of this study was to establish normative data for the Spanish version of the California Verbal Learning Test, the Test de Aprendizaje Verbal España-Complutense (TAVEC). Through different subtests, the TAVEC allows verbal learning and episodic memory to be evaluated, an assessment that was carried out on a sample of 382 cognitive healthy Spanish individuals aged 60-90 years old. Unlike the participant's educational level, their age and sex significantly influenced performance in the TAVEC. We provide tables that allow the scaled scores obtained with this test to be adjusted for age and other tables with the relevant adjustments for sex. The normative data obtained in this study will help more precisely interpret the performance of older Spanish adults in the TAVEC, enhancing the utility of this neuropsychological test to evaluate verbal learning and episodic memory in clinical settings and in relation to healthy aging. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Hızlı seri görsel sunum, dikkat kırpması, ve ikili görev bozulmaları olgularından elde edilen kanıtlar insanoğlunun kısa-süreli konsolidasyon sürecinde anlamlı bir sınırlılığı olduğunu öne sürmektedir. Kısa-süreli konsolidasyon, görsel temsillerin daha kalıcı bellek biçimlerine transfer edilmesidir. Yapılmış çalışmalar hedef uyaranlardan sonra gösterilen maskelerin bilgilerin konsolidasyonunu yarıda kestiğini göstermesine rağmen, bilgilerin anısal bellek için konsolidasyonunda dikkatin rolü hakkında yeterli kanıt yoktur. Dikkatin ve hedef uyaran ile maske arasındaki uyaran başlangıcı senkronizasyonsuzluğunun (UBS) anısal belleğe etkisini incelemek için üç deney yapılmıştır. Maskeler hedef uyaranlardan sonra değişen UBS'lerde sunulmuştur. Bölünmüş dikkat koşulundaki katılımcılar maskelerin sunumundan sonra dikkat gerektiren ikincil bir iş yaparken tam dikkat koşulundaki katılımcılara böyle bir görev verilmemiştir. Sonuçlar göstermiştir ki; hedef uyaranlar ile maskeler arasındaki UBS'yi düşürmek bölünmüş dikkatte bellek performansını düşürürken tam dikkatte performansı etkilememiştir. Bu bulgular kısa-süreli konsolidasyon sürecinde dikkatin gerekliliğini desteklemektedir., Pieces of evidence from rapid serial visual presentation, attentional blink, and dual-task interference phenomena propose that human beings have a significant limitation on the short-term consolidation process. Short-term consolidation is transferring perceptual representations to a more durable form of memory. Although previous research has shown that masks presented after targets interrupt the consolidation process of information, there is not enough evidence for the role of attention in consolidation for episodic memory. Three experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of attention and stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between targets and masks on episodic memory. Masks were presented after targets with varying SOAs. The participants in the divided attention condition performed the attention-demanding secondary task after the presentation of the masks, whereas participants in the full attention condition were not requested to perform the secondary task after the presentation of masks. The results showed that reducing SOA between targets and masks caused an impairment in memory performance for divided attention but not for full attention, providing evidence for the necessity of attention for the short-term consolidation process.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia have a strong clinical, genetic, and pathological connection but association of ALS with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is seldom reported. We report a series of 5 cases of AD associated with ALS. Our patients presented with cognitive deterioration with episodic memory impairment meeting criteria for AD. ALS occurred subsequently in all cases and its phenotype was not homogenous. Amyloid process was confirmed in four cases with cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers. One case underwent postmortem exam, demonstrating hallmarks lesions of both diseases. This series highlights that ALS-AD phenotype could be a specific underexplored entity.