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Emerging evidence suggests that autobiographical memory (ABM) is altered in Huntington's disease (HD). While these impairments are typically attributed to frontostriatal dysfunction, the neural substrates of ABM impairment in HD remain unexplored. To this end, we assessed ABM in 30 participants with genetically confirmed HD (18 premanifest, 12 manifest) and 24 age‐matched healthy controls. Participants completed the Autobiographical Interview to assess free and probed ABM recall and underwent structural brain imaging. Whole‐brain voxel‐based morphometry (VBM) was used to explore voxel‐wise associations between ABM performance and grey matter intensity (False Discovery Rate corrected at q = 0.05). Relative to controls, HD participants displayed significantly less detailed ABM retrieval across free and probed recall conditions, irrespective of disease stage. Recall performance did not differ significantly between manifest and premanifest HD groups. VBM analyses indicated that poorer ABM performance was associated with atrophy of a distributed cortico‐subcortical network. Key regions implicated irrespective of ABM condition included the bilateral occipital cortex, left precuneus, right parahippocampal gyrus and right caudate nucleus. In addition, probed ABM recall was associated with the superior and inferior frontal gyri, frontal pole, right hippocampus, nucleus accumbens, paracingulate gyrus and cerebellum. Overall, our findings indicate that ABM impairments in HD reflect the progressive degeneration of a distributed cortico‐subcortical brain network comprising medial temporal, frontal, striatal and posterior parietal cortices. Our findings advance our understanding of the neurocognitive profile of HD, providing an important foundation for future interventions to support memory function in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRE) has been used in the treatment of combat‐related PTSD since the late 1990s and was recently adapted to treat PTSD due to military sexual trauma (MST). With content specifically tailored to MST‐related contexts, we present the case study of a military veteran who participated in the open clinical trial examining the feasibility of VRE in the treatment of MST‐related PTSD (Loucks et al. 2019). We illustrate VRE's use in activating the trauma memory to facilitate therapeutic emotional processing across sessions and overall symptom reduction. The case study includes common challenges that may occur during VRE and relevant recommendations. The discussion will include lessons learned from the case study and the open clinical trial, recommendations for the flexible application of VRE, and the ongoing developments in the latest version of the VRE system, informed by feedback acquired from the clinicians and patients who experienced it in the initial clinical trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the earliest moments in their lives, infants begin to build memories about their past and accumulate knowledge about the world. In this article, we focus on the distinction between memory for specific events and memory for general information, and the ongoing debate about which type of memory provides the foundation for the development of the other. Some researchers argue that specific memory developmentally precedes general memory, whereas others support the opposite position. Our literature review suggests that the latter position is inconsistent with many empirical findings and theoretical principles of memory captured by computational models capable of accounting for these findings. We propose that just good enough mnemonic acuity could be a starting point for memory development, and that it can support both specific and generalized memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each collective trauma holds its own particularities and forms of horror. When the violence is exerted by the government responsible for the care of the population it is termed state terrorism. The traumatic experience and its subsequent negation create a profound dissociation between two narratives: the explicit, which conceals the true facts, and the implicit, which remains unconscious and unbridgeable. In the gap between the two, life becomes suspended. From a Jungian perspective, this can be understood as the interruption of the process of translation and integration (terms that I will explore in some depth) from implicit sensory phenomena to an explicit representational narrative. This profoundly affects the development of the ego‐self axis. In turn, it creates a special challenge for analytic technique that calls for new ways of listening to, and meeting the patient in, that non‐verbal, unrepresented territory. Drawing upon clinical material, an embodied perspective of Jungian clinical work is offered to show how the inclusion of the body of patient and analyst enables access to the non‐represented, though implicitly encoded, traumatic affective memories stored in the somatic unconscious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite bilateral hippocampal damage dating to the perinatal or early childhood period and severely impaired episodic memory, patients with developmental amnesia continue to exhibit well‐developed semantic memory across the developmental trajectory. Detailed information on the extent and focality of brain damage in these patients is needed to hypothesize about the neural substrate that supports their remarkable capacity for encoding and retrieval of semantic memory. In particular, we need to assess whether the residual hippocampal tissue is involved in this preservation, or whether the surrounding cortical areas reorganize to rescue aspects of these critical cognitive memory processes after early injury. We used voxel‐based morphometry (VBM) analysis, automatic (FreeSurfer) and manual segmentation to characterize structural changes in the brain of an exceptionally large cohort of 23 patients with developmental amnesia in comparison with 32 control subjects. Both the VBM and the FreeSurfer analyses revealed severe structural alterations in the hippocampus and thalamus of patients with developmental amnesia. Milder damage was found in the amygdala, caudate, and parahippocampal gyrus. Manual segmentation demonstrated differences in the degree of atrophy of the hippocampal subregions in patients. The level of atrophy in CA‐DG subregions and subicular complex was more than 40%, while the atrophy of the uncus was moderate (−24%). Anatomo‐functional correlations were observed between the volumes of residual hippocampal subregions in patients and selective aspects of their cognitive performance, viz, intelligence, working memory, and verbal and visuospatial recall. Our findings suggest that in patients with developmental amnesia, cognitive processing is compromised as a function of the extent of atrophy in hippocampal subregions. More severe hippocampal damage may be more likely to promote structural and/or functional reorganization in areas connected to the hippocampus. In this hypothesis, different levels of hippocampal function may be rescued following this variable reorganization. Our findings document not only the extent, but also the limits of circuit reorganization occurring in the young brain after early bilateral hippocampal damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is a key component of the brain's memory systems, with anatomical connections to the hippocampus, anterior thalamus, and entorhinal cortex. This circuit has been implicated in episodic memory and many of these structures have been shown to encode temporal information, which is critical for episodic memory. For example, hippocampal time cells reliably fire during specific segments of time during a delay period. Although RSC lesions are known to disrupt temporal memory, time cells have not been observed there. In this study, we reanalyzed archival RSC neuronal firing data during the intertrial delay period from two previous experiments involving different behavioral tasks, a blocked alternation task and a cued T‐maze task. For the blocked alternation task, rats were required to approach the east or west arm of a plus maze for reward during different blocks of trials. Because the reward locations were not cued, the rat had to remember the goal location for each trial. In the cued T‐maze task, the reward location was explicitly cued with a light and the rats simply had to approach the light for reward, so there was no requirement to hold a memory during the intertrial delay. Time cells were prevalent in the blocked alternation task, and most time cells clearly differentiated the east and west trials. We also found that RSC neurons could exhibit off‐response time fields, periods of reliably inhibited firing. Time cells were also observed in the cued T‐maze, but they were less prevalent and they did not differentiate left and right trials as well as in the blocked alternation task, suggesting that RSC time cells are sensitive to the memory demands of the task. These results suggest that temporal coding is a prominent feature of RSC firing patterns, consistent with an RSC role in episodic memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been hypothesized that differential processing occurs along the longitudinal (anterior–posterior) axis of the hippocampus. One hypothesis is that spatial memory (during both encoding and retrieval) is associated with the posterior hippocampus. An alternative hypothesis is that memory encoding (either spatial or nonspatial) is associated with the anterior hippocampus and memory retrieval is associated with the posterior hippocampus. Of importance, during spatial memory encoding, the spatial–posterior hypothesis predicts posterior hippocampal involvement, whereas the encoding–retrieval hypothesis predicts anterior hippocampal involvement. To distinguish between these hypotheses, we conducted a coordinate‐based fMRI activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta‐analysis of 26 studies (with a total of 435 participants) that reported hippocampal activity during spatial memory encoding and/or spatial memory retrieval. Both spatial memory encoding and spatial memory retrieval produced extensive activity along the longitudinal axis of the hippocampus as well as the entorhinal cortex, the perirhinal cortex, and the parahippocampal cortex. Critically, the contrast of spatial memory encoding and spatial memory retrieval produced activations in both the anterior hippocampus and the posterior hippocampus. That spatial memory encoding produced activity in both the anterior and posterior hippocampus can be taken to reject strict forms of the spatial–posterior hypothesis, which stipulates that all forms of spatial memory produce activity in the posterior hippocampus, and the encoding–retrieval hypothesis, which stipulates that all forms of encoding versus retrieval produce activity in only the anterior hippocampus. Our results indicate that spatial memory encoding can involve the anterior hippocampus and the posterior hippocampus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the concept of bodily communication in psychotherapy, specifically focusing on the ways in which the body can be used as a mode of communication in therapy. The author explores various examples, such as the use of smell, physical actions, and eating disorders, to express psychological distress. The article also addresses the challenges and complexities of working with bodily communication, including the initial disgust that therapists may experience. The author highlights the importance of recognizing and understanding the embodied experiences of patients, particularly those who are marginalized or have little voice. Overall, the article emphasizes the need for therapists to engage with the embodied patient and consider the connections between the body and mind in therapy. [Extracted from the article]

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Different cortical systems to the hippocampus were activated using fMRI during different types of episodic memory task. For object with scene location episodic memory, the activations were high in cortical systems involved in spatial processing, including the ventromedial visual and medial parahippocampal system. These activations for the medial parahippocampal system were higher in the right hemisphere. The activations in the face and object processing ventrolateral visual cortical stream regions FFC, PIT, V8 and TE2p were higher in the object‐location in scene task than the reward‐location task, and were higher in the right hemisphere. For reward‐location in scene episodic memory, activations were also high in the ventromedial visual cortical spatial stream to the hippocampus, but were also selectively high in storage in key reward cortical regions (ventromedial prefrontal 10r, 10v, 10d; pregenual anterior cingulate d32, p24, p32, s32; and medial orbitofrontal cortex reward‐related pOFC, 11l, OFC). For word‐pair episodic memory, activations were lower in the ventromedial visual and medial parahippocampal spatial cortical stream, and were higher in language‐related regions in Broca's area (44, 45, 47l), and were higher in the left hemisphere for these regions and for the many highly connected inferior frontal gyrus regions in the left hemisphere. Further, effective connectivity analyses during the episodic memory tasks showed that the direction of connectivity for these systems was from early visual cortical regions V2–V4 to the ventromedial visual cortical regions VMV1–3 and VVC for spatial scene processing; was from the pregenual anterior cingulate and orbitofrontal cortex reward systems to the hippocampal system; and was from the FFC/V8/PIT system to TE2p in the visual inferior temporal visual cortex, which has connectivity to lateral parahippocampal TF, which in turn has forward effective connectivity to the hippocampus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates surrounding the origin of recovered memories of child abuse have traditionally focused on two conflicting arguments, namely that these memories are either false memories or instances of repressed memories (i.e., reflecting the idea that people can unconsciously block traumatic autobiographical experiences and eventually regain access). While scientific evidence for the first is clearly established, the second is the subject of a controversy in the academic, clinical, and legal fields. This controversy rages on today. In this introductory article to our topic "Beyond Repressed Memory: Current Alternative Solutions to the Controversy," we present alternative and more parsimonious explanations for repressed memories that we sorted into three categories: cognitive, motivational, and biological factors. Our aim is to provide a timely overview to help clinical and legal professionals, academics, and the general public to move beyond the idea that traumatic memories can be unconsciously repressed. There is an ongoing debate about the origin of recovered memories, traditionally viewed as either false or repressed memories. While false memories are scientifically supported, repressed memories remain controversial. We propose alternative explanations categorized into cognitive, motivational and biological factors to explain recovered memory cases.A [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dissociative amnesia is a diagnosis category that implies a proposed mechanism (often called dissociation) by which amnesia is caused by psychogenic means, such as trauma, and that amnesia is reversible later. Dissociative amnesia is listed in some of the most influential diagnostic manuals. Authors have noted the similarities in definition to repressed memories. Dissociative amnesia is a disputed category and phenomenon, and here I discuss the plausibility that this cognitive mechanism evolved. I discuss some general conditions by which cognitive functions will evolve, that is, the relatively continuous adaptive pressure by which a cognitive ability would clearly be adaptive if variation produced it. I discuss how adaptive gene mutations typically spread from one individual to the whole species. The article also discusses a few hypothetical scenarios and several types of trauma, to examine the likely adaptive benefits of blocking out memories of trauma, or not. I conclude that it is unlikely that dissociative amnesia evolved, and invite further development of these ideas and scenarios by others. Dissociative amnesia is a presumed memory phenomenon involving the storage of traumatic experiences, followed by a period of no conscious awareness, with later recall possible. It is also a diagnostic category in the influential Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This current paper questions whether this extraordinary type of memory mechanism could have evolved in humans, by examining several different scenarios. The article is unable to identify a plausible consistent advantage that would have led to dissociative amnesia genes to spread throughout a population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self‐reported lost memory of child sexual abuse (CSA) can be mistaken for "repressed memory." Based on our longitudinal studies of memory and disclosure in child maltreatment victims who are now adults, we discuss findings relevant to "repressed memory cases." We examined relations between self‐report of temporarily lost memory of CSA (subjective forgetting) and memory accuracy for maltreatment‐related experiences (objective memory). Across two studies involving separate samples, we find evidence for memory suppression rather than repression: (1) Most adults who claimed temporary lost memory of CSA reported memory suppression and clarified that they could have remembered the event if asked; (2) subjective forgetting was positively associated with accurate objective memory for maltreatment‐related experiences. Subjective forgetting was also related to increased adult trauma symptoms and related to childhood non‐disclosure of CSA. Moreover, trauma‐related psychopathology mediated the relation between non‐disclosure and subjective forgetting. Implications for psychological theory and repressed memory cases are discussed. Self‐reported forgetting of child sexual abuse (CSA) may be misattributed to repressed memory. Using evidence from two longitudinal studies with separate maltreatment samples, we identify memory suppression as a more viable explanation than repression for CSA memory that has been reportedly lost and then retrieved. Important relations between self‐reported lost memory of CSA, accuracy of abuse‐related memory, childhood non‐disclosure of CSA, and adult trauma symptoms emerged, with significant legal implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that stress has immediate and long‐term effects on attention and memory. Rather than disrupting memory formation and consolidation, acute stress has been shown to shift attention processes resulting in a tradeoff between prioritized and nonprioritized information. Both arousal and stress result in cognitive and neurobiological shifts that often support memory formation. When an acute stressor occurs, it can distort immediate attentional focus, increasing processing for high‐priority features while reducing processing for extraneous features. The downstream cognitive consequences for this shift in attention are better memory for some features and poorer memory for others when compared to conditions of low stress. However, individual differences (e.g., sex, age, basal stress response, and stress reactivity) all impact the relationship between the acute stress response and memory. Although acute stress generally benefits memory formation, we suggest that forgetting and later recovery of stressful memories can better be understood by examining factors that influence the subjective experience of stress and stress reactivity. In this review, we consider research on the acute stress response as it impacts memory formation and consolidation. Given the likelihood that experiences of childhood trauma occur in the context of the acute stress response, this review is relevant when considering phenomena such as repressed and recovered memories. This review may help researchers and clinicians consider how disruption, forgetting, and later remembering of childhood trauma may occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The controversy over alleged repressed and recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) was among the most contentious ever to embroil psychology and psychiatry. Adapting paradigms from cognitive psychology, my research group tested hypotheses pertinent to repressed memory and false memory interpretations of recovered memories. We tested adults who: (1) report recovering memories of CSA after not having thought about their abuse for years; (2) report never having forgotten their CSA; (3) believe they harbor "repressed" memories of CSA; and (4) deny having been sexually abused. We tested hypotheses about mechanisms that might figure in the inability to recall memories of one's abuse and those that might render one susceptible to developing false memories of abuse. The purpose of this article is to summarize this work. Finally, I draw on the work of Lionel Penrose to speculate about why the popularity of the concept of repressed memories of trauma—or its synonym, dissociative amnesia for trauma—may be rising today. Experimental cognitive psychology research has failed to support claims that people possess the capacity to repress memories of trauma. Lionel Penrose's viral model of "fads" may explain the persistence (or resurgence) in belief in repression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early childhood events are rarely remembered in adulthood. In fact, memory for these early experiences declines during childhood itself. This holds regardless of whether these memories of autobiographical experiences are traumatic or mundane, everyday experiences. Indeed, what people tend to remember from their childhoods involves relatively innocuous experiences, ones often devoid of emotion. In this article, I provide an overview of the types of memories adults recall from their childhoods and the ages at which these memories are believed to have been formed. Along the way, I provide a brief exegesis of the neurobiological and cognitive underpinnings of early memory development. I will show that changes and growth in neural interconnectivity as well as the development of various cognitive structures (e.g., the inception of the cognitive self) help propel the emergence of a mature autobiographical memory system, one that can and does serve as a reconstructive base for remembering events that occur in later childhood and adulthood. During the course of this review, I detail the nature of early memories, their fragility, and the adaptive consequences of forgetting and supplanting these memories with newer, more age‐appropriate experiences throughout childhood. In this article, I provide an overview of the types of memories adults recall from their childhoods and the ages at which these memories are believed to have been formed. I detail the fragility of early memories and the adaptive consequences of forgetting and supplanting these memories with newer, more age‐appropriate experiences throughout childhood. This includes a brief exegesis of the neurobiological and cognitive underpinnings of early memory development where I show that changes and growth in neural interconnectivity as well as the development of various cognitive structures (e.g., the inception of the cognitive self) help propel the emergence of a mature autobiographical memory system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dorsal region of the hippocampus (dHC) mediates many of the mnemonic functions traditionally associated with the hippocampus proper, such as spatial and episodic memory, whereas ventral hippocampus (vHC) has been extensively implicated in emotional memory and motivational processes. By contrast, the functions of the intermediate hippocampus (iHC) are far less understood. In this study, we aimed to investigate the mnemonic functions of iHC by reversibly inactivating iHC prior to testing memory in behavioral tasks dependent on the integrity of dHC, iHC, or vHC, namely, rapid place water maze, inhibitory avoidance, spontaneous alternation, and temporal ordering of odors. Given our previous findings showing that dHC and vHC are involved in mnemonic control of ingestive behavior, we also assessed the effects of iHC inactivation on sucrose intake. The results showed that pharmacological inhibition of iHC impairs rapid place water maze memory, which has been previously shown to be dependent on iHC but not dHC or vHC. iHC inactivation does not impact memory dependent on dHC (spontaneous alternation), vHC (temporal odor memory), or either dHC or vHC (inhibitory avoidance), and only modestly affects sucrose intake. These findings provide support for the involvement of iHC in mnemonic functions that are distinct from dHC and vHC and highlight the need to further advance our understanding of the functions of this hippocampal region that has been relatively understudied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the hippocampus has been implicated in both the temporal organization of memories and association of scene elements, some theoretical accounts posit that the role of the hippocampus in episodic memory is largely atemporal. In this study, we set out to explore this discrepancy by identifying hippocampal activity patterns related to scene construction while participants performed a temporal order memory task. Participants in the fMRI scanner were shown a sequence of photographs, each consisting of a central object and a contextual background scene. On each retrieval trial, participants were shown a pair of the original photographs (FULL), objects from the scenes without the background (OBJ), or background contexts without the main foreground object (BACK). In the temporal order judgment (TOJ) task, participants judged the temporal order of the pair of scenes; in the Viewing trials, two identical scenes were shown without any task. First, we found that the anterior hippocampus—particularly the CA1 and subiculum—showed similar patterns of activation between the BACK and OBJ conditions, suggesting that scene construction occurred spontaneously during both TOJ and Viewing. Furthermore, neural markers of scene construction in the anterior hippocampus did not apply to incorrect trials, showing that successful temporal memory retrieval was functionally linked to scene construction. In the cortex, time‐processing areas, such as the supplementary motor area and the precuneus, and scene‐processing areas, such as the parahippocampal cortex, were activated and functionally connected with the hippocampus. Together, these results support the view that the hippocampus is concurrently involved in scene construction and temporal organization of memory and propose a model of hippocampal episodic memory that takes both processes into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies suggest that breathing entrains neural oscillations and thereby improves visual detection and memory performance during nasal inhalation. However, the evidence for this association is mixed, with some studies finding no, minor, or opposite effects. Here, we tested whether nasal breathing phase influences memory of repeated images presented in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. The RSVP task is ideal for studying the effects of respiratory‐entrained oscillations on visual memory because it engages critical aspects of sensory encoding that depend on oscillatory activity, such as fast processing of natural images, repetition detection, memory encoding, and retrieval. It also enables the presentation of a large number of stimuli during each phase of the breathing cycle. In two separate experiments (n = 72 and n = 142, respectively) where participants were explicitly asked to breathe through their nose, we found that nasal breathing phase at target presentation did not significantly affect memory performance. An exploratory analysis in the first experiment suggested a potential benefit for targets appearing approximately 1 s after inhalation. However, this finding was not replicated in the pre‐registered second experiment with a larger sample. Thus, in two large sample experiments, we found no measurable impact of breathing phase on memory performance in the RSVP task. These results suggest that the natural breathing cycle does not have a significant impact on memory for repeated images and raise doubts about the idea that visual memory is broadly affected by the breathing phase. Using a task that engages oscillatory activity‐dependent visual memory (fast processing of natural images), we find that the natural breathing cycle does not have a significant impact on recognition memory for repeated images. Our results question the notion that visual memory is broadly affected by breathing phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: The role of information processing speed (IPS) on relationships between episodic memory (EM) and central remodeling features in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) was investigated. METHODS: Neuropsychological evaluations and multimodal magnetic resonance imaging were performed on 48 patients diagnosed with aMCI and 50 healthy controls (HC). Moderation models explored the moderating effect of IPS on associations between EM and imaging features at single‐region, connectivity, and network levels. RESULTS: IPS significantly enhanced the positive correlations between recall and cortical thickness of left inferior temporal gyrus. IPS also notably amplified negative correlations between recognition and functional connectivity (FC) of left inferior parietal lobe and right occipital, as well as between recall/recognition and nodal clustering coefficient of left anterior cingulate cortex. DISCUSSION: IPS functioned as a moderator of associations between recall and neuroimaging metrics at the "single region‐connectivity‐network" level, providing new insights for cognitive rehabilitation in aMCI patients. Highlights: aMCI patients exhibited brain functional and structural remodeling alterations.IPS moderated relations between episodic memory and brain remodeling metrics.Therapy targeted at IPS can be considered for improving episodic memory in aMCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non‐pharmacological interventions include physical activity, biofield energy therapy, reiki, Tai chi, and therapeutic touch. However, no reports analyzed the effectiveness of biofield therapy on cognition and motor function performance in adult subjects. The study aimed to investigate the impact of remote biofield energy healing therapy on cognition and motor functioning in adults with self‐perceived neuropsychological impairments. This was a randomized double‐blind clinical trial that involved 114 participants with self‐perceived neuropsychological impairments. The participants were divided into three groups (control, sham control, and biofield intervention). Cognitive and motor function scores were assessed using the NIH Toolbox at baseline (day 0), day 90, and day 180. The biofield treatment group showed significant improvements in language function (p < 0.0001), working memory (p < 0.0001), and episodic memory (p < 0.0001) scores. Other cognitive functions also improved, although not statistically significant. The biofield intervention group also demonstrated significant enhancements (p < 0.05 to p < 0.0001) in locomotion, standing balance, dexterity, grip strength, and muscle endurance. No adverse effects were reported. The results suggest that remote biofield energy therapy is a safe, noninvasive intervention that improves cognitive and motor functions in adults. Further research is needed to understand its clinical benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tests whether developments in self‐knowledge and autobiographical memory across early to late childhood are related. Self‐descriptions and autobiographical memory reports were collected from 379 three‐ to eleven‐year‐old predominantly white Scottish children, Mage = 90.3 months, SD = 31.1, 54% female. Episodic memory was measured in an enactment task involving recall and source monitoring of performed and witnessed actions. The volume and complexity of self‐knowledge and autobiographical memory reports increased with age, as did source monitoring ability and recall bias for own actions. Regression analyses and structural equation modeling confirmed a close association between these developments. These results inform our theoretical understanding of the development of the self‐memory system in childhood, which may contribute to the gradual offset of childhood amnesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with sleep deficits, but it is not clear why some report sleep disturbances and others do not. The objective of this study was to assess the associations between axonal injury, sleep, and memory in chronic and acute TBI. Methods: Data were acquired from two independent datasets which included 156 older adult veterans (69.8 years) from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) with prior moderate‐to‐severe TBIs and 90 (69.2 years) controls and 374 (39.6 years) from Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in TBI (TRACK‐TBI) with a recent mild TBI (mTBI) and 87 controls (39.6 years), all who completed an MRI, memory assessment, and sleep questionnaire. Results: Older adults with a prior TBI had a significant association between axonal injury and sleep disturbances [β = 9.52, 95% CI (4.1, 14.9), p = 0.01]. Axonal injury predicted changes in memory over 1‐year in TBI [β = −8.72, 95% CI (−18, −2.7), p = 0.03]. We externally validated those findings in TRACK‐TBI where axonal injury within 2 weeks after mTBI was significantly associated with higher sleep disturbances in the TBI group at 2 weeks[β = −7.2, 95% CI (−14, −0.50), p = 0.04], 6 months [β = −16, 95% CI (−24, −7.6), p ≤ 0.01], and 12 months post‐injury [β = −11, 95% CI (−19, −0.85), p = 0.03]. These associations were not significant in controls. Interpretations: Axonal injury, specifically to the left anterior internal capsule is robustly associated with sleep disturbances in multiple TBI populations. Early assessment of axonal injury following mTBI could identify those at risk for persistent sleep disturbances following injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Anterior temporal lobe resection (ATLR) effectively controls seizures in medically refractory temporal lobe epilepsy but risks significant episodic memory decline. Beyond 1 year postoperatively, the influence of preoperative clinical factors on episodic memory and long‐term network plasticity remain underexplored. Ten years post‐ATLR, we aimed to determine biomarkers of successful memory network reorganization and establish presurgical features' lasting impact on memory function. Methods: Twenty‐five ATLR patients (12 left‐sided) and 10 healthy controls underwent a memory‐encoding functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm alongside neuropsychometry 10 years postsurgery. Generalized psychophysiological interaction analyses modeled network functional connectivity of words/faces remembered, seeding from the medial temporal lobes (MTLs). Differences in successful memory connectivity were assessed between controls and left/right ATLR. Multivariate regressions and mixed‐effect models probed preoperative phenotypes' effects on long‐term memory outcomes. Results: Ten years post‐ATLR, lower baseline functioning (verbal and performance intelligence quotient) and a focal memory impairment preoperatively predicted worse long‐term memory outcomes. Poorer verbal memory was significantly associated with longer epilepsy duration and earlier onset age. Relative to controls, successful word and face encoding involved increased functional connectivity from both or remnant MTL seeds and contralesional parahippocampus/hippocampus after left/right ATLR. Irrespective of surgical laterality, successful memory encoding correlated with increased MTL‐seeded connectivity to frontal (bilateral insula, right anterior cingulate), right parahippocampal, and bilateral fusiform gyri. Ten years postsurgery, better memory performance was correlated with contralateral frontal plasticity, which was disrupted with longer epilepsy duration. Significance: Our findings underscore the enduring nature of functional network reorganizations to provide long‐term cognitive support. Ten years post‐ATLR, successful memory formation featured stronger connections near resected areas and contralateral regions. Preoperative network disruption possibly influenced effectiveness of postoperative plasticity. These findings are crucial for enhancing long‐term memory prediction and strategies for lasting memory rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite increased attention on treatment and prevention for suicidal adolescents, we know little about potential intervention targets. Episodic future thinking—the ability to imagine detailed, personal, and future‐oriented events—is a modifiable cognitive process that has been linked with suicidal ideation (SI) in adolescents. However, until now its modifiability has only been tested in adults. Method: Adolescents (N = 176, ages 15–19; 71% SI) completed performance‐based measures of episodic future thinking (i.e., Experimental Recombination Paradigm) and memory immediately before and after an Episodic Specificity Induction (ESI). Results: Adolescents produced a greater number of future episodic details after (vs. before) the ESI but showed no change in non‐episodic details (e.g., semantic information). Patterns of change in episodic future thinking were not moderated by SI history. Adolescents overall did not demonstrate change in past episodic detail counts after the ESI. However, there were select moderating effects of SI history on this effect. Conclusion: Results show that episodic future thinking can change immediately following an episodic specificity induction among adolescents, regardless of whether they have previously experienced SI. This demonstration of within‐person change constitutes a foundational first step in examining malleability of episodic future thinking in adolescents and offers preliminary evidence of a cognitive mechanism that may be leveraged in service of reducing adolescents' SI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Traumatic memories (TM) are a core feature of stress‐related disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Treatment is often difficult, and specific pharmacological interventions are lacking. We present a novel non‐pharmacological intervention called motor interference therapy (MIT) as a promising alternative for these symptoms. Aims: To determine the feasibility of MIT, a brief, audio‐delivered, and non‐pharmacological intervention that uses cognitive and motor tasks to treat TM. Methods: We designed a randomized, double‐blind trial. Twenty‐eight participants from an outpatient clinic with at least one TM were included to receive either MIT or progressive muscle relaxation (PMR). Spanish versions of the PTSD symptom severity scale (EGS), visual analog scale for TM (TM–VAS), and quality of life (EQ–VAS) were applied prior to intervention, 1 week, and 1 month following intervention. Results: Mean scores on all measures improved from baseline to posttest for both groups. MIT participants showed significantly more positive scores at 1 week and 1 month (TM–VAS baseline: 9.8 ± 0.4; immediate: 6.0 ± 2.0; 1 week: 3.8 ± 3.1 [d = 1.57]; 1 month 2.9 ± 2.8 [d = 1.93]) than PMR participants on measures of distress due to TM, trauma re‐experiencing, anxiety, and a composite measure of PTSD. Conclusion: MIT is a simple, effective, and easy‐to‐use tool for treating TM and other stress‐related symptoms. It requires relatively few resources and could be adapted to many contexts. The results provide proof‐of‐principle support for conducting future research with larger cohorts and controls to improve clinical effectiveness and research on brief interventions. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03627078 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models of word meaning that exploit patterns of word usage across large text corpora to capture semantic relations, like the topic model and word2vec, condense word‐by‐context co‐occurrence statistics to induce representations that organize words along semantically relevant dimensions (e.g., synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, etc.). However, their reliance on latent representations leaves them vulnerable to interference, makes them slow learners, and commits to a dual‐systems account of episodic and semantic memory. We show how it is possible to construct the meaning of words online during retrieval to avoid these limitations. We implement a spreading activation account of word meaning in an associative net, a one‐layer highly recurrent network of associations, called a Dynamic‐Eigen‐Net, that we developed to address the limitations of earlier variants of associative nets when scaling up to deal with unstructured input domains like natural language text. We show that spreading activation using a one‐hot coded Dynamic‐Eigen‐Net outperforms the topic model and reaches similar levels of performance as word2vec when predicting human free associations and word similarity ratings. Latent Semantic Analysis vectors reached similar levels of performance when constructed by applying dimensionality reduction to the Shifted Positive Pointwise Mutual Information but showed poorer predictability for free associations when using an entropy‐based normalization. An analysis of the rate at which the Dynamic‐Eigen‐Net reaches asymptotic performance shows that it learns faster than word2vec. We argue in favor of the Dynamic‐Eigen‐Net as a fast learner, with a single‐store, that is not subject to catastrophic interference. We present it as an alternative to instance models when delegating the induction of latent relationships to process assumptions instead of assumptions about representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Hearing and vision impairments are associated with cognitive decline and dementia risk. Explanations for this include age‐related processes impacting on sensory and cognitive function (common cause), or sensory impairments having a direct or indirect impact on cognition via social engagement, depression and physical activity (cascade). We tested whether associations between hearing, vision and episodic memory were mediated by allostatic load, social engagement, depression and physical activity. Methods: We used structural equation modelling with cross‐sectional data from the USA (n = 4746, aged 50–101), England (n = 4907, aged 50–89) and Ireland (4292, aged 50–80) to model factors related to the common cause (indexed by allostatic load) and the cascade hypothesis with respect to cognitive ability (episodic memory). Results: Poorer hearing/vision was associated with lower social engagement, depression and sedentary lifestyle. Poor vision was not related to allostatic load, and poor hearing was associated with allostatic load in only one data set, contributing to a common‐cause hypothesis. Lower social engagement, depression and a sedentary lifestyle were associated with poorer episodic memory, contributing to the cascade hypothesis. Using effect estimates to calculate the proportion of the total effects mediated by the combined mediator variables, up to two fifths of the relationship between hearing and vision with episodic memory can be explained by the mediators. Conclusions: The association between hearing, vision and episodic memory is mediated by allostatic load, social engagement, depression, and physical activity. The finding that social engagement, depression, and physical activity mediate the association between sensory abilities and cognitive function supported the cascade hypotheses. Interventions to improve healthy lifestyle, reduce depression and foster social engagement of older people with sensory impairments are likely to be beneficial in preventing cognitive decline and dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Videoconference psychotherapy (VCP) is a crucial component of many health care systems, allowing for remote delivery of services. However, little is known about the mechanisms of change within VCP. Previous research has suggested that self‐disclosure may be greater in VCP than face‐to‐face modalities and was investigated in the current study. Design: Young adults aged 18–25 years (N = 57) were randomly allocated to face‐to‐face or VCP interview conditions, with measures completed pre‐ and post‐interview. Methods: Participants completed an autobiographical memory task, requiring them to describe specific memories in response to positive and negative valence cue words. Measures included self‐reported self‐disclosure, blind observer‐rated self‐disclosure, memory specificity, and mean number of words per response. Results: No significant differences were found between conditions with regard to self‐reported self‐disclosure, capacity to recall specific memories, or words uttered per response. However, observer‐rated depth of self‐disclosure was significantly higher for participants in the face‐to‐face than VCP condition. Self‐disclosure and memory specificity were also significantly greater for negative than positive valence cue words, regardless of condition. Conclusions: The findings indicate that whilst participants may be able to draw on memories with equal ease regardless of interview modality, in VCP, emotional processing of these memories may require increased support and guidance from the therapist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theta and gamma oscillations have been linked to episodic memory processes in various studies. Both oscillations seem to be vital for processes guided by the medial temporal lobe, such as the retrieval of information from memory. While theta oscillations increase with successful memory, it is unclear what the unique contribution of theta is to various subcomponents of memory. On the other hand, memory‐related gamma oscillations have been mainly reported in the hippocampus, leaving the role of neocortical gamma in memory underexplored. In this study, we investigated how unique variability in memory accuracy and memory confidence contributes to fluctuations in theta and gamma power. To this end, we recorded EEG from 54 participants while they performed a source memory task. From this task we obtained their item memory accuracy, source memory accuracy, item memory confidence, and source memory confidence. These behavioral measures were put in a trial‐by‐trial linear mixed effects model to uncover their unique contribution to the oscillatory power in frontal and parietal regions. Our results are in line with the involvement of theta oscillations in both memory accuracy and confidence, but seem to indicate a main role for theta oscillations in memory‐related confidence. In addition, we found that gamma oscillations play various roles in memory processing, dependent on brain region. Utilizing a trial‐by‐trial model‐based approach, we explored the specific contribution of brain oscillations to episodic memory retrieval. Our results support the notion that theta oscillations have a greater involvement in memory confidence than accuracy. In addition, neocortical gamma oscillations play a role in memory accuracy and confidence. This indicates that the primary role of theta is memory‐related decision making and that gamma plays a role in memory processing, even when looking beyond the hippocampus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been demonstrated that both part‐set cues and social interaction can produce detrimental effects on memory. Specifically, part‐set cues lead to part‐set cueing impairment, while social interaction can result in collaborative inhibition. However, there is less evidence on whether these factors have isolated or comparable impacts on memory. Additionally, it is still unknown whether the effects behave similarly on item memory and source memory, whether the effects are comparable between ongoing and post‐social collaboration, and whether stimulus features influence their respective roles. To address these issues, we conducted the current experiment where participants were exposed to gender stereotype‐consistent or ‐inconsistent words, categorized as positive, neutral, or negative. The words were read out by either a male or a female. Two recall sessions were conducted: Recall 1 was carried out either individually or collaboratively, whereas Recall 2 was always collaborative. Some participants performed Recall 1 under the part‐set cued condition while others were under the no‐cued condition. Both item memory and source memory were assessed in both recall sessions. The results have three implications. First, during the ongoing collaborative session, two effects were observed on item memory: part‐set cueing impairment and collaborative inhibition. Further, the contributions elicited by part‐set cues and social collaboration are isolated. The part‐set cueing impairment was influenced by both emotional valence and stereotypical consistency. Second, post‐collaboration analysis indicated that both the utilization of part‐set cues and collaboration itself enhanced item memory, resulting in the part‐set cueing enhancement and post‐collaborative memory benefit. Additionally, there was evidence indicating that the mechanisms prompted by these two factors intertwined when emotional valence and stereotypical consistency were considered. Third, in both ongoing and post‐collaboration scenarios, the detrimental and beneficial effects on item memory and source memory exhibited different patterns, thereby supporting the dual‐process models. These findings enhance our comprehension of the insolation and the interplay between part‐set cues and collaboration in memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review essay discusses two books on memory cultures during the Great War centenary. The first book explores personal and familial aspects of remembering the war, while the second book focuses on the public realm and the intersection of various disciplines. Both books offer different perspectives on memory formation and transmission, and how the practices and politics of remembering the war have evolved. The article also highlights the role of family and community in the process of commemoration and discusses various commemorative practices and exhibitions related to the 100th anniversary of World War I. It emphasizes the importance of engaging and immersive experiences in commemoration and concludes by emphasizing the need for ethical and contemplative forms of remembering that reflect present experiences. [Extracted from the article]

A large body of evidence suggests that individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) have significant difficulties with prospective memory (PM), the memory for future intentions. However, the processes underlying this cognitive deficit remain unclear. This study aimed to gather further evidence regarding PM functions in TBI and clarify the role of neuropsychological deficits, metamemory, and mood disorders. We used a laboratory‐based clinical measure, the Virtual Week, to examine PM function in 18 patients with TBI and 18 healthy control subjects. Measures of attention, processing speed, executive functions, episodic memory, and self‐report questionnaires were also administered. In line with prior literature, our findings indicate that individuals with TBI had a consistent deficit compared to controls across all PM tasks. In previous studies, TBI patients had more severe impairment on time‐based tasks; nevertheless, our results show that across all participants event‐based tasks were easier to perform compared to time‐based only when the retrospective memory demand was high. The patients were not only impaired on the prospective component of PM but also failed to recognise the content of their task (the retrospective component). Interestingly, the TBI group did not report higher levels of everyday memory problems, anxiety and depression compared to the control group. These measures also failed to correlate with PM and recognition memory performance. This study found that besides the neuropsychological deficits, a global impairment in PM functioning is present in individuals with TBI across various task types, tasks low and high in retrospective demands, and event versus time‐based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estrogens produced in peripheral tissues and locally in the brain are potent neuromodulators. The function of the hippocampus, a brain region essential for episodic memory and spatial navigation, relies on the activity of ensembles of excitatory neurons whose activity is temporally and spatially coordinated by a wide diversity of inhibitory neurons (INs) types. Over the last years, we have accumulated evidence that indicates that estrogens regulate the function of hippocampal INs through different mechanisms, including transcriptional regulation and rapid nongenomic signaling. Here, we argue that the well‐documented influence of estrogens on episodic memory may be related to the actions of local and peripheral estrogens on the heterogenous populations of hippocampal INs. We discuss how physiological changes in peripheral sex hormone levels throughout lifespan may interact with local brain sources to regulate IN function at different stages of life, from early hippocampal development to the aging brain. We conclude that considering INs as mediators of sex hormone actions in the hippocampus across the healthy life span will benefit our understanding of sex‐biased neurodevelopmental disorders and physiological aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dementia is assumed to alter mental capacity, which may necessitate legal guardianship. However, only limited research exists on how dementia affects mental capacity, and most studies have focused solely on a medical perspective and concentrate on memory functions. The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate physicians' and legal experts' perceptions on a broad range of cognitive and neuropsychiatric domains potentially affecting mental capacity and the need for guardianship in people with dementia. Methods: Physicians (N = 30) and legal experts (N = 20) participated in semi‐structured individual interviews. The data were analyzed by using content analysis and further semi‐quantified according to the cognitive and neuropsychiatric domains. Results: Physicians considered neuropsychiatric symptoms and executive dysfunction to be the most important deficits in the legal context, while legal experts highlighted episodic memory impairment and dyscalculia. Perceptions regarding the importance of several cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms varied between and within the professional groups. Conclusions: Physicians and legal experts diverged in their perceptions of cognitive and neuropsychiatric domains affecting mental capacity and the need for guardianship. The evaluation and influence of medical evidence among legal experts heavily rely on subjective opinions. Given the substantial potential impact on patients' equal access to their rights, developing standardized guidelines is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Cross‐sectional definitions of successful cognitive aging have been widely utilized, but longitudinal measurements can identify people who do not decline. We performed this study to contrast maintenance with declining trajectories, including clinical conversion. Methods: We included baseline cognitively unimpaired Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative participants with 3 or more cognitive testing sessions (n = 539, follow‐up 6.1 ± 3.5 years) and calculated slopes of an episodic memory composite (MEM) to classify them into two groups: maintainers (slope ≥ 0) and decliners (slope < 0). Within decliners, we examined a subgroup of individuals who became clinically impaired during follow‐up. These groups were compared on baseline characteristics and cognitive performance, as well as both cross‐sectional and longitudinal Alzheimer disease (AD) biomarker measures (beta‐amyloid [Aβ], tau, and hippocampal volume). Results: Forty‐one percent (n = 221) of the cohort were MEM maintainers, and 33% (n = 105) of decliners converted to clinical impairment during follow‐up. Compared to those with superior baseline scores, maintainers had lower education and were more likely to be male. Maintainers and decliners did not differ on baseline MEM scores, but maintainers did have higher non‐MEM cognitive scores. Maintainers had lower baseline global Aβ, lower tau pathology, and larger hippocampal volumes than decliners, even after removing converters. There were no differences in rates of change of any AD biomarkers between any cognitive trajectory groups except for a higher rate of hippocampal atrophy in clinical converters compared to maintainers. Interpretation: Using longitudinal data to define cognitive trajectory groups reduces education and sex bias and reveals the prognostic importance of early onset of accumulation of AD pathology. ANN NEUROL 2024;96:378–389 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We sought to describe fluid cognition and its correlates among individuals with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods: Participants (n = 199) were recruited from a population‐based cohort for a single study visit (October 2019 to May 2022). Fluid cognition was measured via the National Institutes of Health Toolbox Fluid Cognition Battery (including episodic memory, working memory, attention and inhibitory control, processing speed, and cognitive flexibility domains) and expressed as age‐corrected standard scores (mean 100, SD 15). Potential impairment was defined as a standard score >1.5 SD below the mean. Descriptive statistics were calculated and associations of various participant characteristics with the potential fluid cognition impairment were assessed with multivariable logistic regression. Results: Participants' mean age was 46.1 years; most were female (87.4%), Black (86.4%), and non‐Hispanic (95.0%). The mean overall fluid cognition score was 87.2; of the individual domains, the participants' mean score was lowest on attention and inhibitory control (82.0). Working status (odds ratio [OR] 0.30, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.14–0.64) and higher self‐reported physical functioning (OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.28–0.75) and physical performance (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.59–0.87) were associated with lower odds of fluid cognition impairment; lower educational attainment was associated with higher odds (OR 3.82, 95% CI 1.67–8.75). Self‐reported forgetfulness, neuropsychiatric damage, and depressive symptoms were not statistically significantly associated with potential impairment. Conclusion: Fluid cognition and, particularly, attention and inhibitory control were low in those with SLE relative to the general US population. Working status, higher physical functioning and performance, and higher educational attainment were associated with lower prevalence of potential impairment. Future work is needed to develop and implement interventions to help support cognition in individuals with SLE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context Methods Findings Conclusions Policy Points Education‐cognition research overlooks the role of education quality in shaping cognitive function at midlife and older ages, even though quality may be more responsive to federal and state investment in public schooling than attainment. For older US adults who attended school during the early to mid‐20th century, the quality of US education improved considerably as federal and state investment increased. Ensuring access to high‐quality primary and secondary education may protect against poor cognitive function at midlife and older ages, particularly among Black Americans and persons who complete less education. It may also play an important role in reducing health inequities. Education‐cognition research overlooks the role of education quality in shaping cognitive function at midlife and older ages, even though quality may be more responsive to federal and state investment in public schooling than attainment. For older US adults who attended school during the early to mid‐20th century, the quality of US education improved considerably as federal and state investment increased. Ensuring access to high‐quality primary and secondary education may protect against poor cognitive function at midlife and older ages, particularly among Black Americans and persons who complete less education. It may also play an important role in reducing health inequities. Although educational attainment is consistently associated with better cognitive function among older adults, we know little about how education quality is related to cognitive function. This is a key gap in the literature given that the quality of US education improved considerably during the early to mid‐20th century as state and federal investment increased. We posit that growing up in states with higher‐quality education systems may protect against poor cognitive function, particularly among Black adults and adults who completed fewer years of school.We used prospective data on cognitive function from the Health and Retirement Study linked to historical data on state investment in public schools, restricting our sample to non‐Hispanic White and Black adults born between 1914 and 1959 (19,096 White adults and 4,625 Black adults). Using race‐stratified linear mixed models, we considered if state‐level education quality was associated with level and decline in cognitive function and if these patterns differed by years of schooling and race.Residing in states with higher‐resourced education systems during childhood was associated with better cognitive function, particularly among those who completed less than 12 years of schooling, regardless of race. For White adults, higher‐resourced state education systems were associated with higher scores of total cognitive function and episodic memory, but there were diminishing returns as resources increased to very high levels. For Black adults, the relationship between state education resources and cognitive function varied by age with positive associations in midlife and generally null or negative associations at the oldest ages.Federal and state investment in public schools may provide students with opportunities to develop important cognitive resources during schooling that translate into better cognitive function in later life, especially among marginalized populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work has identified a critical role for the hippocampus in reward‐sensitive behaviors, including motivated memory, reinforcement learning, and decision‐making. Animal histology and human functional neuroimaging have shown that brain regions involved in reward processing and motivation are more interconnected with the ventral/anterior hippocampus. However, direct evidence examining gradients of structural connectivity between reward regions and the hippocampus in humans is lacking. The present study used diffusion MRI (dMRI) and probabilistic tractography to quantify the structural connectivity of the hippocampus with key reward processing regions in vivo. Using a large sample of subjects (N = 628) from the human connectome dMRI data release, we found that connectivity profiles with the hippocampus varied widely between different regions of the reward circuit. While the dopaminergic midbrain (ventral tegmental area) showed stronger connectivity with the anterior versus posterior hippocampus, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex showed stronger connectivity with the posterior hippocampus. The limbic (ventral) striatum demonstrated a more homogeneous connectivity profile along the hippocampal long axis. This is the first study to generate a probabilistic atlas of the hippocampal structural connectivity with reward‐related networks, which is essential to investigating how these circuits contribute to normative adaptive behavior and maladaptive behaviors in psychiatric illness. These findings describe nuanced structural connectivity that sets the foundation to better understand how the hippocampus influences reward‐guided behavior in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memory enables generalization to new situations, and memory specificity that preserves individual episodes. This study investigated generalization, memory specificity, and their overnight fate in 141 4‐ to 8‐year‐olds (computerized memory game; 71 females, tested 2020–2021 in Germany). The results replicated age effects in generalization and memory specificity, and a contingency of generalization on object conceptual properties and interobject semantic proximity. Age effects were stronger in generalization than in memory specificity, and generalization was more closely linked to the explicit regularity knowledge in older than in younger children. After an overnight delay, older children retained more generalized and specific memories and showed greater gains but only in generalization. These findings reveal distinct age differences in generalization and memory specificity across childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We aimed to investigate whether each type of sleep disturbances (i.e., pRBD, EDS, and insomnia) is specifically associated with faster decline in global cognition and different cognitive domains among de novo PD patients. We also assessed the influence of sleep disturbances on core AD CSF biomarkers alterations and conversion to dementia. Methods: Prospectively longitudinal data were obtained from the PPMI cohort. Sleep disturbances and cognition ability were assessed by questionnaires at baseline and follow‐up visits. Generalized linear mixed models were utilized to assess the effect of sleep disturbances on cognitive decline and core AD CSF biomarkers change. The associations between sleep disturbances and conversion to dementia were analyzed using Cox regression analysis. Results: Baseline pRBD was associated with faster decline in global cognition and all cognitive domains, including verbal episodic memory, visuospatial ability, executive function, language, and processing speed. EDS was associated with faster decline in three cognitive domains, including verbal episodic memory, executive function/working memory, and processing speed. Insomnia was associated with faster decline in global cognition and verbal episodic memory. Meanwhile, pRBD and EDS were associated with longitudinal decrease of CSF Aβ42. Baseline pRBD increased the risk of conversion to dementia. The risk of dementia in PD patients with multiple sleep disturbances also increased compared with those without sleep disturbance. Interpretation: Sleep disturbances (i.e., pRBD, EDS, and insomnia) were associated with cognitive decline in early PD. EDS and pRBD were associated with decrease of CSF Aβ42. Moreover, pRBD was associated with conversion to dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alterations in higher‐order social cognition are well documented in individuals with severe alcohol use disorder (SAUD). However, the basic mechanisms underpinning them are not well understood. This knowledge gap hampers the development of targeted therapeutic interventions. Here, we investigated whether individuals with SAUD show abnormalities in social episodic memory processes, which may represent relevant candidate mechanisms for alterations in social cognition. Methods: Recently detoxified patients with SAUD and matched healthy controls (HCs) completed two experimental tasks. We first used a Social Recognition Task in 40 SAUD patients and 40 HCs to measure the participants' ability to implicitly memorize the facial identity and emotion of novel interpersonal cues (i.e., dynamic facial expressions of anger and happiness). We then used a Social Memory Accessibility Task in 29 SAUD patients and 30 HCs) to measure participants' access to and fluency for already existing social memories by asking them to retrieve as many specific positive and negative interpersonal events as possible within equal time limits. Results: In the Social Recognition Task, we found that, compared to HCs, patients with SAUD had a globally lower recognition performance for the facial identities of novel social stimuli, but a preserved bias toward positive information. Conversely, in the social memory accessibility task, patients showed greater access to and fluency for negative interpersonal memories than controls (no group differences were observed for positive ones), resulting in a negative accessibility bias. Conclusions: This exploration of episodic social memory in individuals with SAUD showed (1) a preserved bias for the encoding of positive versus negative novel social information, and (2) greater access to negative than positive interpersonal memories. These results enhance our understanding of socio‐affective processing in individuals with SAUD and identify social memory alterations that may contribute to social cognition and interpersonal difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: The influence of hippocampal connectivity on memory performance is well established in individuals with high educational attainment. However, the role of hippocampal connectivity in illiterate populations remains poorly understood. METHODS: Thirty‐five illiterate adults were administered a literacy assessment (Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults [TOFHLA]), structural and resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging, and an episodic memory test (Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test). Illiteracy was defined as a TOFHLA score < 53. We evaluated the correlation between hippocampal connectivity at rest and both free recall and literacy scores. RESULTS: Participants were mostly female (57.1%) and self‐declared as being Black individuals (84.8%), with a median age of 50 years. The median TOFHLA literacy score was 28.0 [21.0; 42.5] out of 100 points and the median free recall score was 30.0 [26.2; 35] out of 48 points. The median gray matter volume of both the left and right hippocampi was 2.3 [2.1; 2.4] cm3. We observed a significant connectivity between both hippocampi and the precuneus and the ventral medial prefrontal cortex. The right hippocampal connectivity positively correlated with the literacy scores (β = 0.58, P = 0.008). There was no significant association between episodic memory and hippocampal connectivity. Neither memory nor literacy scores correlated with hippocampal gray matter volume. DISCUSSION: Low literacy levels correlated with hippocampal connectivity in illiterate adults. The lack of association with memory scores might be associated with low brain reserve in this sample. Highlights: A significant link was found between health literacy and hippocampal connectivity.Enhanced hippocampus– ventromedial prefrontal cortex connectivity suggests potential cognitive reserve improvement.Higher cognitive reserve may protect against hippocampal atrophy and neurodegeneration.Health literacy improvements could help prevent cognitive impairment in illiterate populations.Study highlights importance of considering structural racism in brain connectivity research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we describe our approach to developing an intelligent and robust social robotic system for the Nadine social robot platform. We achieve this by integrating large language models (LLMs) and skillfully leveraging the powerful reasoning and instruction‐following capabilities of these types of models to achieve advanced human‐like affective and cognitive capabilities. This approach is novel compared to the current state‐of‐the‐art LLM‐based agents which do not implement human‐like long‐term memory or sophisticated emotional capabilities. We built a social robot system that enables generating appropriate behaviors through multimodal input processing, bringing episodic memories accordingly to the recognized user, and simulating the emotional states of the robot induced by the interaction with the human partner. In particular, we introduce an LLM‐agent frame for social robots, social robotics reasoning and acting, serving as a core component for the interaction module in our system. This design has brought forth the advancement of social robots and aims to increase the quality of human–robot interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cancer‐related cognitive impairment (CRCI) is a prevalent condition that significantly impacts the quality of life of individuals who receive cancer treatment. Clinical management of CRCI presents challenges due to the absence of a standardized assessment. This study identified clinically relevant phenotypic clusters of CRCI based on subjective and objective cognitive function scores. Methods: In this cross‐sectional study, participants were clustered using the VARCLUS™ based on subjective cognitive impairment assessed through the PROMIS® version 1.0 short‐form subscales of cognitive abilities and cognitive concerns and the CANTAB Cambridge Cognition® scores, which included measures of visuospatial working memory capacity, visual episodic memory, new learning, working memory, executive function, and sustained attention. Each cluster's characteristics were described using demographics, physical and psychosocial factors (physical function, affect, optimism, and social support), and psychoneurological symptoms (anxiety, depression, fatigue, neuropathic pain, and sleep disturbance). Results: We obtained five clusters from a total of 414 participants, where 99% were female, and 93% were self‐reported white. Clusters 4 and 5 showed the highest PROMIS® cognitive abilities and the lowest measures of cognitive concern, while Clusters 1 and 2 showed the lowest cognitive abilities and the highest cognitive concerns. Clusters 4 and 5 had higher education, income, employment, and higher scores in physical function, positive affect, optimism, and social support. Additionally, individuals in these clusters were less prone to experience severe cancer‐related psychoneurological symptoms. Conclusion: Our clustering approach, combining subjective and objective cognitive function information, shows promise in identifying phenotypes that hold clinical relevance for categorizing patient presentation of CRCI and facilitating individualized management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Episodic memory (EM) and working memory (WM) are negatively affected by healthy ageing, and additional memory impairment typically occurs in clinical ageing‐related conditions such as amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Recent studies on musical mnemonics in Alzheimer's dementia (AD) showed promising results on EM performance. However, the effects of musical mnemonics on WM performance have not yet been studied in (a)MCI or AD. Particularly in (a)MCI the use of musical mnemonics may benefit the optimisation of (working) memory performance. Therefore, in the present study, we examined the effects of musical presentation of digits consisting of pre‐recorded rhythms, sung unfamiliar pitch sequences, and their combinations, as compared to spoken presentation. Furthermore, musical expertise was assessed with two perceptual tests and the Self‐Report Inventory of the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index. Thirty‐two persons with aMCI and 32 cognitively unimpaired older adults (OA) participated in this study. Confirming and extending previous findings in research on ageing, our results show a facilitating effect of rhythm in both cognitively unimpaired OA and persons with aMCI (p =.001, ηp2 =.158). Furthermore, pitch (p =.048, ηp2 =.062) and melody (p =.012, ηp2 =.098) negatively affected performance in both groups. Musical expertise increased this beneficial effect of musical mnemonics (p =.021, ηp2 =.090). Implications for the future design of music‐based memorisation strategies in (a)MCI are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assessment of autobiographical memory is challenging in clinical settings. The Autobiographical Fluency Task (AFT) – that is designed to test both Episodic Autobiographical Memory (EAM) and experience‐near Personal Semantics (enPS) – may represent a feasible and rapid method to test access to autobiographical memories. Here we tested the reliability and the construct validity of the AFT. A total number of 51 individuals participated in the present study, with 24 included in Experiment 1 and 27 in Experiment 2. In Experiment 1, participants performed both the AFT and the Survey of Autobiographical Memory (SAM). In Experiment 2, participants completed the AFT and the Autobiographical Interview (AI). The AFT showed a moderate‐to‐high reliability. Also, EAM and enPS scores significantly correlated with the episodic subscale of the SAM. Results of Experiment 1 were replicated and expanded in Experiment 2. Again, the AFT showed a high reliability. Both EAM and enPS showed a significant correlation with the number of internal details produced during the AI; enPS also correlated with the number of external details. Overall, the present results show that the AFT may be a feasible instrument to assess autobiographical memory, especially for testing episodic autobiographical memory and experience‐near personal semantics in clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the functional connectivity (FC) characteristics of the episodic memory network (EMN) in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients with different levels of executive function (EF). Methods: This study included 76 participants from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative database, comprising 23 healthy controls (HCs) and 53 aMCI patients. Based on EF levels, aMCI patients were categorized into aMCI‐highEF and aMCI‐lowEF groups. Cognitive function scores, pathological markers (cerebrospinal fluid β‐amyloid, total tau protein, phosphorylated tau protein, AV45‐PET, and FDG‐PET), and functional magnetic resonance imaging were collected and compared among the three groups. Seed‐based FC analysis was used to examine differences in the EMN among the groups, and partial correlation analysis was employed to investigate the relationship between changes in FC and cognitive function scores as well as pathological markers. Results: Compared to the aMCI‐highEF group, the aMCI‐lowEF group exhibited more severe cognitive impairment, decreased cerebral glucose metabolism, and elevated AV45 levels. Significant FC differences in the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) of the EMN were observed among the three groups. Post hoc analysis revealed that the aMCI‐lowEF group had increased FC in the left STG compared to the HCs and aMCI‐highEF groups, with statistically significant differences. Correlation analysis showed a significant negative correlation between the differences in FC in the left STG of aMCI‐highEF and aMCI‐lowEF groups and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test forgetting scores. Receiver operator characteristic curve analysis indicated an area under the curve of 0.741 for distinguishing between aMCI‐highEF and aMCI‐lowEF groups based on FC of left STG, with a sensitivity of 0.808 and a specificity of 0.667. Conclusion: aMCI‐lowEF exhibits characteristic changes in FC within the EMN, providing theoretical support for the role of EF in mediating EMN alterations and, consequently, impacting episodic memory function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the formation of memories and challenges the traditional belief that memories are formed through strengthening synaptic connections between neurons. It highlights the case of Henry Gustav Molaison, who lost the ability to form new memories after brain surgery, leading to the discovery of the role of the hippocampus in memory formation. The article also presents studies suggesting that memories can persist even after synaptic connections are erased, indicating the involvement of other mechanisms in memory storage. Recent research on zebrafish suggests that the number of synapses increases during the learning process, challenging the idea that synaptic strength is the primary mechanism for memory formation. Additionally, studies on non-neural organisms suggest that memory may be encoded by molecules rather than synaptic connections. However, the exact mechanisms of memory storage and retrieval remain unknown. [Extracted from the article]

Structural and functional differences in the hippocampus have been related to the episodic memory and social impairments observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In neurotypical individuals, hippocampal–cortical functional connectivity systematically varies between anterior and posterior hippocampus, with changes observed during typical development. It remains unknown whether this specialization of anterior–posterior hippocampal connectivity is disrupted in ASD, and whether age‐related differences in this specialization exist in ASD. We examined connectivity of the anterior and posterior hippocampus in an ASD (N = 139) and non‐autistic comparison group (N = 133) aged 5–21 using resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from the Healthy Brain Network (HBN). Consistent with previous results, we observed lower connectivity between the whole hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex in ASD. Moreover, preferential connectivity of the posterior relative to the anterior hippocampus for memory‐sensitive regions in posterior parietal cortex was reduced in ASD, demonstrating a weaker anterior–posterior specialization of hippocampal–cortical connectivity. Finally, connectivity between the posterior hippocampus and precuneus negatively correlated with age in the ASD group but remained stable in the comparison group, suggesting an altered developmental specialization. Together, these differences in hippocampal–cortical connectivity may help us understand the neurobiological basis of the memory and social impairments found in ASD. Lay Summary: The brain's hippocampus is an important structure for memory, learning, and social interaction. Research has shown differences in the structure and function of the hippocampus in autism. We investigated the anterior–posterior specialization of the hippocampus; whereby the front and back portions of the hippocampus display unique patterns of coordinated activity with the rest of the brain. This specialization matures during child development and is related to memory performance. Based on previous work, we hypothesized that hippocampal specialization would differ in those diagnosed with autism. Using magnetic resonance imaging, we measured the coordinated activity of the hippocampus with the rest of the brain in autistic and non‐autistic children and young adults. We identified several brain regions displaying different hippocampal specialization between autistic and non‐autistic participants. Many of these regions are known to be involved in memory processes. Interestingly, only the autistic group showed age‐related differences in specialization. This suggests that distinct developmental patterns of hippocampal specialization exist in autistic and non‐autistic children. These findings help us understand how the hippocampus functions differently in autism and may give insight into differences in memory and social behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]