star
remember me (recuerdame)
remember me
though i have to say goodbye
remember me
don’t let it make you cry
for even if i’m far away i hold you in my heart
i sing a secret song to you each night we are apart
remember me
though i have to travel far
remember me
each time you hear a sad guitar
know that i’m with you the only way that i can be
until you’re in my arms again
remember me
remember me
for i will soon be gone
remember me
and let the love we have live on
and know that i’m with you the only way that i can be
until you’re in my arms again
remember me
are superficially dissimilar analogs better retrieved than superficially similar disanalogs?
lucas raynal et al. 2020
doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.102989
Our memory organises our experiences based on two main features: surface features, which include superficial similarities between situations (the setting, for instance, or the people present); and structural features, which characterize the depth of the situation and its key issues. The existing literature argues that people tend to favour surface clues when dealing with a given situation. “This is often attributed to the fact that our brain looks for the easiest option when it comes to memory recall, and that in general the surface of a recollection correlates to its structure,” begins Emmanuel Sander, a professor in the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences (FPSE) at UNIGE.
On analysing the existing literature, the researchers realised that earlier work was based on frequent recalls of situations that did not only share surface features but also a part of the structure. They also noticed that participants did not possess the knowledge needed to grasp the deep stucture of the situations presented to them. “We wondered whether the surface features really dominate the structural features when a situation elicits the recollection of another one,” explains Lucas Raynal, a researcher at CY Cergy Paris Université and an FPSE associate member.
Essence more important than form
To solve this problem, the researchers created six narratives that shared the surface, the structure or neither of the two (known as distractors) with a target narrative. “Our target narrative told the story of a pizzaiolo , Luigi, who worked in a busy square. A second pizzaiolo, Lorenzo, set up shop next door in direct competition with Luigi. But Lorenzo’s pizzas weren’t as good as Luigi’s, who gave the newcomer a piece of advice about how to improve the way he made his pizzas. To thank him, Lorenzo moved his pizzeria to put an end to the direct competition,” explains Evelyne Clément, a professor at CY Cergy Paris University. Some of the six stories created as part of the research put the emphasis on the pizzaioli; others emphasised the principle of competition that was amicably resolved; and others still did not highlight either of these features.
In the first experiment, the six stories were read by 81 adult participants before they came face-to-face with the story of Luigi and Lorenzo. They then had to say to what previous situation they related the story. “81.5% of the participants chose the story that had the same structure, i.e. the competition principle, compared to 18.5% for the account that shared the same surface (pizzaioli) and 0% for the distracting stories,” says professor Sander. This indicates a clear predominance for structural features, contrary to the claims made by the existing literature. The researchers now took the experiment a stage further: they presented six stories to other participants once more, but this time the story highlighting the earlier competition principle was accompanied by several stories about pizzaioli (experiment 2). The third and fourth experiment also aimed to confirm the robustness of the results by increasing the number of stories to be remembered and by distracting the participants with activities unrelated to the task during a variable timeframe (5 minutes in experiment 3 and 45 minutes in experiment 4) before the target story was presented. “The results of the four experiments were clear-cut, with around 80% of participants choosing the story with the same structure rather than those that shared the same surface or had no similarity,” points out Lucas Raynal.
And what happens at school?
The research calls into question the received idea that our memory is guided by the principle of the easiest option and that surface features dominate recall. “A human being’s way of remembering is less superficial than was thought, and in all likelihood favours structure over surface,” adds professor Sander. “It’s only out of ignorance that superficial clues will take precedence. This is a real challenge at school, because educational concepts can be opaque when students begin learning, hence the risk is that the surface would be prioritised.” It follows that these results play a fundamental role in education. “It’s a question of highlighting the relevant features for students. In other words, the conceptual aspects of the notions that are taught, helping them categorise the situations that are worked on in class by overlooking the superficial aspects that mislead them,” says professor Clément by way of conclus
abstract •Dissociating surface and structure similarities permits to assess their influence on retrieval.
•Analogical retrieval is predominantly driven by structural similarity.
•Surface similarity fails to drive retrieval when separated from structural similarity.
•Rare occurrence of structural retrievals in previous experiments is misleading.
In the present study, we tested the assumption that structural similarity overcomes surface similarity in the retrieval of past events, by observing whether structural similarity alone is a better cue than surface similarity alone. To do so, in four story-recall experiments, we provided the participants with multiple source stories and then with a target cue story. This target cue only shared either surface or structural similarity with the source stories. In Experiment 1A, a Superficially Similar Disanalog source story (SSD) and a Superficially Dissimilar Analog source story (SDA) were presented among Superficially Dissimilar Disanalog source stories (SDDs). A soundness rating task was used in Experiment 1B to control the absence of structural similarity among the SSDs presented in Experiment 1A. In Experiment 2, the number of SSDs was increased in the aim to reproduce more ecological conditions. In two further experiments, a five minute (Experiment 3) and a 45 minute (Experiment 4) delay was introduced, and supplementary source stories were presented, in order to make the study more similar to previous story-recall paradigms. The results of the four story-recall experiments support the dominance of structural over surface similarities in analogical retrieval. The role of a structurally-based access regarding the retrieval of Superficially Similar Analogs (SSAs) and SDAs is discussed, as well as the factors underlying the rare occurrence of SDAs retrievals in previous experiments.
bbc article
adam zeman interview on radionz.co.nz
haha that made me laugh! that's what happens when I draw anything — a generic representation by rules — the eyes are about here for this, this kind of dragon has four toes… playing piano I can do from “memory” but it’s a detailed relation between one note and the rest in the chord, and then the next… it can be very fast but it’s not recall, more like redoing? also interested in non–narrative “non–sensory” recall — I know when something is unjust but not by rationalisation. I think aphantasia is probably simplifying things quite a bit…
I just now read the new scientist article about it — “Kosslyn thinks the drawing sensation gives us a clue as to how aphantasics deal with apparently pictorial information. He suggests that to complete these tasks I am piggybacking on neurons involved in controlling physical movements rather than using the visual brain circuitry.” whoa.
seriously, this is probably more common than people realise — I have (relatively) useful adaptation mechanisms, others probably do too. also great from a diversity point of view…
I would like to study the coping/adaptation mechanisms that people use to compensate. also what advantages it gives
so my hunch is this is to do with the rebuilding of experience as we recall it — I can understand that my recall is through infilling of visual elements through an underlying process — but I don't “store” an image I store its components. I suspect in reality we all do this but people rationalize it differently — many people believe what they recall is what they saw
the chap in the article claims not to recall what happened to him during the day — I am not like that but my recall of what happened more than a few weeks ago is so sparse as to be almost non–existent. doesn't mean it's not in there somewhere, just I don't have ready access to it like other people do
or maybe I'm not so ready to believe that what story and scene I recall is actually a good representation of what actually happened
we are not questioning the basic assumption — our language assumes recall is sensory–based rather than something else. fmri studies of brain blood flow show brain blood flow — we are assuming our interpretation of the flow is correct, that when a similar region “lights up” on recall, the recall has identity with the initial experience
psychologists know recall is not initial experience, but not many people (psychologist or other) articulate that our “description of recall” is not recall — or do they,
we are not so different to those whose cultures have “three colours”. we have more words for more colours… seems I am with the “relativists” like John Lucy: “It does not really even matter whether the researchers involved are open-minded and consciously willing to recognize relativism as a possible outcome—because the universalist conclusion is guaranteed by their methodological assumptions.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity_and_the_color_naming_debate
we say “the triangle was red” not “the triangle had … with a wavelength of …” — we “reconstruct” “red”, which is not “a wavelength of…” and that’s just the colour term — what about “triangle” and “was”?
assessing complex situations — it's like being able to speed–read rather than reading by sounding each word in my mind
generally not as attached to concepts that other people use as the basis for their values, including appearance — but rather more attached to things like honesty and responsibility. could be just me though…
adventures in memory: the science and secrets of remembering and forgetting
hilde østby, ylva østby 2018
respiration modulates olfactory memory consolidation in humans
artin arshamian et al. 2018
doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3360-17.2018
working memory 2.0
earl k. miller et al. 2018
doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.09.023
Essentially the model posits that the brain operates working memory by coordinating ensembles of cells, or neurons, in the cortex with timely bursts of activity at the frequencies of specific brain waves. In the model, waves in the low “alpha and beta” frequencies carry our knowledge and goals in the situation (e.g. “I need tires that will last a long time but don’t want to pay more than $400.”) and regulate the higher frequency “gamma” waves that handle the new sensory information to be stored and manipulated, (e.g. the salesperson’s pitch that Tire set A will last 45,000 miles and cost $360, and tire set B will last 60,000 miles and cost $420). Meanwhile the temporary storage of that sensory information is achieved by how the interplay of these rhythmic waves changes the weight of connections among the neurons, called synapses.
The new paper summarizes several lines of experimental evidence supporting the model, including from papers Miller’s lab published earlier this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Nature Communications and in 2016 in Neuron. The evidence, and the model itself, challenges at least two classically held beliefs among neuroscientists. One is that brainwaves are merely byproducts of neural activity and don’t have functional meaning, and the other is that working memory is maintained by a persistent hum of neural firing, rather than short, coordinated bursts. But newer and more sophisticated techniques of analysis and measurement of neural activity amid working memory experiments in lab animals have shown otherwise, Miller, Lundqvist and Bastos write.
For instance, in the Nature Communications paper, led by Lundqvist, the team showed the functional consequences of the different frequencies of waves. Animals were trained to play a game where they saw a sequence of two images and had to judge whether the next sequence of two had the same images in the same order. Recordings of neural activity showed a specific pattern of interplay between the wave frequencies, in which beta would decline to allow gamma to increase when information needed to be stored or read out. Beta would then increase and gamma would die down when information could be discarded. More strikingly, the researchers could see that deviations from this pattern correlated strongly with animals making mistakes. From specific deviations the scientists could even tell if the animal subsequently made the wrong decision based on the first or second of the test images.
“This adds to mounting evidence that brain waves have a major functional role in the brain,” Miller said.
In the PNAS paper, led by Bastos, the researchers not only measured this same kind of pattern of brainwave control, but also showed that the governing alpha and beta waves originate from deeper layers of the prefrontal cortex, while gamma waves originate in more superficial layers, just as neuroscientists had previously observed in the visual cortex.
Some of the lab’s newest data, not yet published, suggests that this interplay of “top down” alpha-beta rhythms exerting executive control of “bottom up,” sensory-oriented gamma rhythms may be widespread around the cortex, therefore potentially governing other related functions such as attention.
abstract Working memory is the fundamental function by which we break free from reflexive input-output reactions to gain control over our own thoughts. It has two types of mechanisms: online maintenance of information and its volitional or executive control. Classic models proposed persistent spiking for maintenance but have not explicitly addressed executive control. We review recent theoretical and empirical studies that suggest updates and additions to the classic model. Synaptic weight changes between sparse bursts of spiking strengthen working memory maintenance. Executive control acts via interplay between network oscillations in gamma (30–100 Hz) in superficial cortical layers (layers 2 and 3) and alpha and beta (10–30 Hz) in deep cortical layers (layers 5 and 6). Deep-layer alpha and beta are associated with top-down information and inhibition. It regulates the flow of bottom-up sensory information associated with superficial layer gamma. We propose that interactions between different rhythms in distinct cortical layers underlie working memory maintenance and its volitional control.
evidence that neural information flow is reversed between object perception and object reconstruction from memory
juan linde-domingo et al. 2019
doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-08080-2
They found that, when retrieving information about a visual object, the brain focuses first on the core meaning -- recovering the 'gist' -- and only afterwards recalls more specific details.
This is in sharp contrast to how the brain processes images when it first encounters them. When we initially see a complex object, it's the visual details -- patterns and colours -- that we perceive first. Abstract, meaningful information that tells us the nature of the object we're looking at, whether it's a dog, a guitar, or a cup, for example, comes later.
"We know that our memories are not exact replicas of the things we originally experienced" says Juan Linde Domingo, lead author of the study. "Memory is a reconstructive process, biased by personal knowledge and world views -- sometimes we even remember events that never actually happened. But exactly how memories are reconstructed in the brain, step by step, is currently not well understood."
During the study, participants saw images of specific objects, and then learned to associate each image with a unique reminder word, for example the word 'spin' or 'pull'. The participants were later presented with the reminder word and asked to reconstruct the associated image in as much detail as possible.
Brain activity was recorded throughout the task via 128 electrodes attached to the scalp, allowing the researchers to observe changes in brain patterns with millisecond precision. Finally the researchers trained a computer algorithm to decode what kind of image the participant was retrieving at different points in the task.
"We were able to show that the participants were retrieving higher-level, abstract information, such as whether they were thinking of an animal or an inanimate object, shortly after they heard the reminder word," explains Maria Wimber, senior author of the study.
"It was only later that they retrieved the specific details, for example whether they had been looking at a colour object, or a black and white outline."
"If our memories prioritise conceptual information, this also has consequences for how our memories change when we repeatedly retrieve them," adds Linde Domingo.
"It suggests they will become more abstract and gist-like with each retrieval. Although our memories seem to appear in our 'internal eye' as vivid images, they are not simple snapshots from the past, but reconstructed and biased representations."
Follow-up studies will need to test whether this reversed reconstruction cascade is 'hard-wired' in the brain. If it is, the sequence of reconstruction should remain stable under different conditions, even when a person for example consciously focuses their attention on specific details during learning.
The team is currently also looking in more detail at how and where the brain reconstructs more complex memories. Once the pathway of memory retrieval is established in the healthy brain, researchers can also start looking into how it is altered in healthy ageing, or how this pathway might contribute to the over-generalization of memories in conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder
abstract Remembering is a reconstructive process, yet little is known about how the reconstruction of a memory unfolds in time in the human brain. Here, we used reaction times and EEG time-series decoding to test the hypothesis that the information flow is reversed when an event is reconstructed from memory, compared to when the same event is initially being perceived. Across three experiments, we found highly consistent evidence supporting such a reversed stream. When seeing an object, low-level perceptual features were discriminated faster behaviourally, and could be decoded from brain activity earlier, than high-level conceptual features. This pattern reversed during associative memory recall, with reaction times and brain activity patterns now indicating that conceptual information was reconstructed more rapidly than perceptual details. Our findings support a neurobiologically plausible model of human memory, suggesting that memory retrieval is a hierarchical, multi-layered process that prioritises semantically meaningful information over perceptual details.
rna from trained aplysia can induce an epigenetic engram for long-term sensitization in untrained aplysia
alexis bédécarrats et al. 2018
doi.org/10.1523/eneuro.0038-18.2018
restoring tip60 hat/hdac2 balance in the neurodegenerative brain relieves epigenetic transcriptional repression and reinstates cognition
priyalakshmi panikker et al. 2018
doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.2840-17.2018
impaired memory-guided attention in asymptomatic apoe4 carriers
jacqueline zimmermann et al. 2019
doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44471-1
Researchers found that older adults carrying a specific strain of the gene, apolipoprotein E4, otherwise known as APOE4, weren't able to tap into information they had just learned to assist them on a listening test.
These findings suggest greater difficulty for these individuals to access knowledge from their memory to guide their attention in ways that would have improved their performance, according to the study published in the journal Scientific Reports. This work could lead to the development of new ways to detect individuals at risk.
The research team worked with 60 research participants (aged 40 to 61) from the Oxford Biobank who had varying combinations of APOE genes -- which includes one group of individuals with a combination of APOE3/APOE4 genes, one group of individuals with a set of APOE4 genes and one group of individuals with a set of APOE3 genes. All research participants had normal hearing, scored within the normal range of cognitive assessments and completed a questionnaire about their memory.
Each research participant listened to 92 audio clips and they were told to pay attention to where the clip was coming from, whether it was presented in the left, right or both ears. After the clip was played, they were asked which side they heard the sound from and if they responded incorrectly, the sound was replayed. Participants had a one-hour break before hearing the 92 audio clips again, but this time they were asked whether there was an additional sound at the end of the clip and to press a button when they heard it. Each clip was placed twice. During the first play-through, the clip's location was replayed and during the second play-through, the additional tone was added.
The study found that no matter the APOE genotype, all older adults were able to learn the information and remember the location of the audio clip, but individuals with the APOE4 gene had greater difficulty in identifying the additional sound at the end of the clip.
"For some reason, people with the APOE4 gene were not able to take advantage of information they learned earlier, such as the expected location of the clip, to boost their performance," says Dr. Claude Alain, a senior author on the paper and senior scientist at Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute. "This study shows we have a test that is sensitive to capture problems or challenges faced by individuals with this gene, before their deficits are observed on a standard neuropsychological assessment."
This was an exciting study looking at healthy, middle-aged people who carry a gene that increases their risk of developing Alzheimer's disease by 15-fold, says Dr. Chris Butler, a senior author on the paper and an associate professor in clinical neurosciences at the University of Oxford.
"The research could lead to more sensitive methods of detecting Alzheimer's disease in its very earliest stages, the time at which treatments are most likely to be effective," says Dr. Butler. "I was delighted to carry out this work with researchers from Baycrest."
As next steps, researchers continue to explore how the brain's ability to process what is heard changes with neurodegenerative conditions, such as mild cognitive impairment.
abstract Attention and memory may be impaired in individuals at-risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), though standard cognitive assessments typically study the two in parallel. In reality, attention and memory interact to facilitate information processing, and thus a more integrative approach is required. Here, we used a novel auditory paradigm to assess how long-term memory for auditory scenes facilitates detection of an auditory target in asymptomatic carriers of Apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4), the principle risk gene for late-onset AD. We tested 60 healthy middle-aged adults with varying doses of APOE4 - 20 APOE4 homozygotes (E4/E4), 20 heterozygotes (E3/E4) and 20 non-carriers (E3/E3) - to determine effect on memory-guided attention. While explicit memory was unaffected by genotype, APOE4 dose significantly impaired memory-guided attention. A relationship between explicit memory and memory-guided attention was observed in non-carriers, but this correlation was not significant in E3/E4 and E4/E4 carriers, suggesting that APOE4 carriers rely less on explicit memory to facilitate attention. Since memory-guided attention declined with age in APOE4 homozygotes, this impairment may reflect early disease rather than being a life-long trait. In sum, asymptomatic individuals at increased genetic risk of AD show an age-dependent decline in attention-memory interaction when memory alone is not impaired.
false memories
motivated misremembering of selfish decisions
ryan w. carlson et al. 2020
doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15602-4
"When people behave in ways that fall short of their personal standards, one way they maintain their moral self-image is by misremembering their ethical lapses," said Yale's Molly Crockett, assistant professor of psychology and senior author of the study.
Psychologists have long been interested in how people balance their self-interest with their desire to be viewed as moral. To justify self-serving behaviors to themselves and others, people engage in a process called motivated reasoning -- for example, when leaving a stingy tip, customers might convince themselves that their server didn't deserve any more.
But a team of researchers led by Crockett and Ryan Carlson, a Ph.D. student at Yale and first author of the study, wanted to explore whether people's memories of their behaviors help them preserve their moral self-image, perhaps even negating the need to employ motivated reasoning.
Instead of convincing themselves their server didn't deserve a better tip, for example, a customer might misremember tipping more generously than they actually did.
In their first lab experiment, conducted at the University of Zurich with economists Michel Maréchal and Ernst Fehr, the researchers presented subjects with a pot of money and asked them to decide how much to keep and how much to give to anonymous strangers. After answering some intervening survey questions, participants then were asked to recall how much they had given to the anonymous strangers. Crucially, participants received bonus money if they recalled their decisions accurately.
Even with a financial incentive, stingier subjects tended to recall giving more money than they actually did.
In another pair of experiments conducted in the lab and online, the researchers asked subjects what they thought was a fair distribution of money before asking them to divide the pot. The researchers found that only those subjects who had given less than what they personally deemed fair recalled being more generous than they actually were.
A final pair of online studies showed that subjects only misremembered their stinginess when they felt personally responsible for their decisions. When participants were explicitly instructed by the experimenters to give lower amounts, and so felt no responsibility for their actions, they remembered their giving behavior accurately.
"Most people strive to behave ethically, but people sometimes fail to uphold their ideals," Carlson said. "In such cases, the desire to preserve a moral self-image can be a powerful force and not only motivate us to rationalize our unethical actions, but also 'revise' such actions in our memory."
Crockett cautioned that because the experiments were conducted in Switzerland and the USA, it is not yet clear whether the results will generalize across different cultures.
She also stressed that this tendency for faulty recall only applied to the selfish. The majority of people behaved generously toward their anonymous strangers, and remembered their behavior accurately.
abstract People often prioritize their own interests, but also like to see themselves as moral. How do individuals resolve this tension? One way to both pursue personal gain and preserve a moral self-image is to misremember the extent of one’s selfishness. Here, we test this possibility. Across five experiments (N = 3190), we find that people tend to recall being more generous in the past than they actually were, even when they are incentivized to recall their decisions accurately. Crucially, this motivated misremembering effect occurs chiefly for individuals whose choices violate their own fairness standards, irrespective of how high or low those standards are. Moreover, this effect disappears under conditions where people no longer perceive themselves as responsible for their fairness violations. Together, these findings suggest that when people’s actions fall short of their personal standards, they may misremember the extent of their selfishness, thereby potentially warding off threats to their moral self-image.
a mega-analysis of memory reports from eight peer-reviewed false memory implantation studies
alan scoboria et al. 2016
doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2016.1260747
feelings of familiarity and false memory for specific associations resulting from mugshot exposure
alan w. kersten, julie l. earles 2017
doi.org/10.3758/s13421-016-0642-7
an optimistic outlook creates a rosy past: the impact of episodic simulation on subsequent memory
aleea l. devitt, daniel l. schacter 2018
doi.org/10.1177/0956797617753936
fictional first memories
shazia akhtar et al. 2018
doi.org/10.1177/0956797618778831
i can see myself enjoying that: using imagery perspective to circumvent bias in self-perceptions of interest
zachary adolph niese et al. 2019
doi.org/10.1037/xge0000612
"When we are developing our interests and looking back on our memories, I don't think we realize how biased we can be by our pre-existing beliefs," said study lead author Zachary Niese, who did the research as a doctoral student in psychology at Ohio State.
"People think they know themselves and know if they liked something or not, but often they can be misled by their own thoughts."
In a series of four studies described in a paper published online recently in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Niese and his colleagues found consistent evidence that people can "forget" how much they enjoyed a particular activity because of what they believed going in.
But they also found a powerful tool to counteract that bias: visualizing the activities they do from a first-person perspective.
For example, the girl in the scenario above can later visualize herself being at the camp and picture exactly what she did in the science project, putting her back in touch with the joy that it brought her.
"We can use imagery as a tool to tap into our memories and more accurately identify what our actual experiences are instead of relying on our old beliefs," said study co-author Lisa Libby, associate professor of psychology at Ohio State.
"People sometimes have experiences that are inconsistent with what they think about themselves. We may think we don't like math, so if we enjoy a math class, that doesn't fit in with our view of ourselves, so we dismiss that positive experience. That's what using first-person visual imagery helps overcome."
Imagery perspective has this effect because it changes the frame of mind people use to process events. The first person perspective puts people in a frame of mind in which they pay attention to how the past event itself made them feel, Niese said.
In contrast, the third-person perspective puts people into a more abstract frame of mind in which they tend to rely more on their pre-existing beliefs. Further, imagery perspective is so tightly bound to people's frame of mind that it is even possible to change how people process events by merely showing them photographs taken from one visual perspective or the other, he said.
One of their experiments demonstrated exactly how this works. In this study, 253 undergraduate women began by taking a survey in which they reported their level of interest in science.
Several days later, they played a computer simulation game with the goal of creating a balanced ecosystem by manipulating the amount of grass and number of sheep and wolves to sustain the system. Some of the women played an interesting version of the game that gave them complete control. Others participated in a deliberately boring version that allowed them to simply run through predetermined settings rather than make any choices.
The researchers then had participants complete a task designed to influence their frame of mind in the moment. They showed all the women a series of images and told them to pay attention to each one and try to form an impression of it in their mind.
The images each showed an everyday action (such as wiping up a spill) that differed only in whether the photo was taken from the first-person or third-person perspective. (In other words, whether the person was watching herself clean the spill, or watching it from the perspective of another person.)
Each participant saw all photos in either the first-person or third-person perspective.
After viewing the photos, participants read instructions referring to the ecosystem simulation as a science task and then answered questions about how interesting they thought the task was.
The results showed the power of first-person imagery in influencing how the participants thought about the simulation.
Remember that all the women had reported how interested they were in science several days earlier. For women who viewed the third-person photos, it didn't matter if they played the boring or interesting version of the game. Their reported interest in the activity was very similar to how much interest they reported in science earlier.
If they believed they were interested in science going into the game, they reported that the game was interesting; if they believed they weren't interested in science going in, they reported that the game as not so interesting.
In other words, their pre-existing beliefs completely blinded them to how interesting the game actually was, Niese said.
But not so for the women who viewed the first-person perspective photos. They showed no bias from their pre-existing beliefs. Instead, they accurately reported more interest in the game if they played the interesting version than if they played the boring version.
This meant that women who engaged in an interesting science task were able to accurately recall how interesting it was even when they thought they were the kind of person who wasn't interested in science.
In other words, first-person imagery helped women get in touch with how interesting a science activity actually was rather than be biased by their pre-existing beliefs, Niese said.
The benefits of first-person imagery didn't stop there.
At the end of the study, the researchers offered participants three future "opportunities to do more things like the science task you completed today."
Results showed that the women who played the interesting version of the simulation and who viewed the first-person photos were more likely than others to show greater interest in future science activities.
Many studies show that people's memories are biased by their pre-existing beliefs and cultural stereotypes, Niese said. This research suggests there is a way to overcome those biases, by using first-person imagery to change people's frame of mind while recalling their experiences.
"Part of what is so interesting and surprising about our study is that a simple manipulation -- just the way people think about a past event -- is changing their conclusions about what they're doing and whether they're interested or not," he said.
"It's something people could do on their own if they wanted to and gain these benefits in situations where cultural stereotypes or pre-existing beliefs might be likely to bias their judgment or cloud their memories."
abstract People experience life satisfaction when pursuing activities that genuinely interest them. Unfortunately, cultural stereotypes (e.g., “science is not for girls”) and preexisting self-beliefs can bias people’s memories, thereby hindering their ability to identify the domains that they actually experience as interesting. The current experiments tested a novel method for circumventing this problem by manipulating visual imagery perspective as people recalled their experiences. Four experiments measured (or manipulated) participants’ actual experience of interest as they completed a task; the experiments also measured (or manipulated) participants’ self-beliefs about their interest in the domain. The experiments then manipulated imagery perspective as participants recalled their interest in the task. Prior research suggests that imagery from an actor’s first-person perspective facilitates a bottom-up processing style, whereas imagery from an external third-person facilitates a top-down processing style (Libby & Eibach, 2011). Consistent with this account, across all 4 experiments, first-person imagery (vs. third-person) caused people’s recall to be less biased by the top-down influence of their self-beliefs and better aligned with their past experienced interest. The final experiment demonstrated downstream consequences of these effects on female undergraduates’ intentions to pursue future activities in a domain (STEM) that negative stereotypes typically might dissuade them from pursuing. Thus, the present results suggest that first-person imagery can be a useful tool to reduce the influence of biased self-beliefs, while increasing sensitivity to past bottom-up experiences during recall. Further, these results hold practical implications for reducing psychological barriers that can keep underrepresented individuals from pursuing interests in counterstereotypical domains.
displacement of memory formation
preventing intrusive memories after trauma via a brief intervention involving tetris computer game play in the emergency department: a proof-of-concept randomized controlled trial
l iyadurai et al. 2017
doi.org/10.1038/mp.2017.23
eye-movement intervention enhances extinction via amygdala deactivation
lycia d. de voogd et al. 2018
doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0703-18.2018
reducing intrusive memories of trauma using a visuospatial interference intervention with inpatients with posttraumatic stress disorder (ptsd)
henrik kessler et al. 2018
doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000340
One of the most serious symptoms of PTSD is the involuntary recurrence of visual memories of traumatic experiences. "PTSD can be treated well using the therapies available," says Henrik Kessler, senior physician and trauma therapist. "However, there are many more patients than therapy places. That's why the researchers are looking for methods outside conventional treatments that can relieve the symptoms."
About ten years ago, Emily Holmes and her team found out that the computer game Tetris can suppress flashbacks caused by horror films in healthy people when played shortly after watching the film. In the current study, the research team tested whether this effect can also help patients with PTSD, for whom the cause of the stressful memories mostly dates back years.
Special intervention
The study involved 20 patients with complex PTSD who were hospitalised at the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy for six to eight weeks for regular therapy. In addition to the usual individual and group therapies, they also underwent a special intervention. They wrote one of their stressful memories down on a sheet of paper. Then they tore up the piece of paper -- without talking about the content -- and played Tetris on a tablet for 25 minutes.
The patients always stated several different flashbacks, such as experiences of violence in different situations, the occurrence of which they recorded in a diary over the weeks. They only ever targeted the content of a specific flashback for each intervention that took place from week to week.
Fewer flashbacks
Only the frequency of the flashbacks for which content was targeted during the week specifically decreased in the days and weeks following the intervention. The number of flashbacks remained relatively constant for the untargeted flashback contents. Over the weeks, various flashback contents were targeted one after the other, the frequency of which decreased in each case with time. Overall, the number of flashbacks for the situations that were targeted fell by an average of 64 percent. Flashbacks for which contents were never targeted decreased by only eleven percent. The intervention had an overall effect for 16 of the 20 patients tested.
Supposed underlying mechanisms of the new intervention
The researchers assume that the success of the method is based on the following mechanism: When patients visualise the stressful memory in detail, it is hypothesized that areas for visuospatial processing in the brain are activated and that comparable areas are also important for playing Tetris. Both tasks therefore require comparable and limited resources, resulting in interference.
Whenever a patient consciously remembers the content of a flashback, the associated memory trace becomes temporarily unstable. If interference occurs during this time, the memory trace could be weakened when it is stored again, resulting in fewer flashbacks, the scientists suspect.
Further studies in progress
"In our study, the intervention was supervised by a team member, but he did not play an active role and did not read the written traumatic memories," explains Kessler. "Our hope is that we will be able to derive a treatment that people could perform on their own to help them cope, even if there are no places available for therapy. However, the intervention cannot replace complex trauma therapy, but can only alleviate a central symptom, flashbacks."
The researchers also point out that this is a very early stage study and further investigations using control conditions and with a significantly larger number of patients are necessary to confirm the effectiveness of the method. The team led by Kessler and Kehyayan is currently conducting these studies. In addition, they are also investigating the exact mechanisms behind the effect in healthy people in experimental studies
abstract
Link: [ The core clinical feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is recurrent intrusive memories of trauma. This study aimed to test a novel and simple intervention, inspired by the concepts of concurrent task interference and memory reconsolidation, to reduce the occurrence of intrusive memories among inpatients with complex PTSD. Method: In this open-label single case series 20 patients with longstanding complex PTSD in inpatient treatment monitored the occurrence of intrusive trauma memories (intrusions) over the course of their admission (5 to 10 weeks). Patients received study-specific intervention sessions (including a memory reminder for a specific intrusion then 25 min Tetris gameplay) on a weekly basis. A within-subjects multiple baseline AB design was used, in that the length of baseline (“A,” preintervention, monitoring only) and postintervention (“B”) phases varied within-subjects across individual intrusions. Further, some intrusions were never targeted by the intervention. The study was registered prior to analysis, ISRCTN34320836. Results: Frequency of targeted intrusions reduced by on average 64% from baseline to the postintervention phase. Conversely, never-targeted intrusions reduced in frequency by on average 11% over a comparable time-period. Of the 20 patients, 16 met our criteria for showing “response” to the intervention. Conclusions: Results provide initial evidence that this brief behavioral procedure might reduce the occurrence of intrusive traumatic memories in longstanding and complex PTSD, here delivered in an inpatient setting. The potential of this simple, focused intervention opens up new possibilities for tackling a core clinical symptom of PTSD, warranting further research. ][7]
time
memory takes time
nikolay kukushkin, thomas carew 2017
[doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.05.029][9]
temporal proximity links unrelated news events in memory
mitchell g. uitvlugt, m. karl healey 2018
doi.org/10.1177/0956797618808474
"Our research shows that people are constantly recording information about the order in which events happen, even if those events are unrelated. They can then use the order to help search memory," explains psychological scientist M. Karl Healey of Michigan State University.
Memory scientists have long been interested in determining whether temporal proximity acts as a tether of sorts that connects memories for different events. In most studies, researchers have tried to examine the phenomenon by asking people to memorize lists of words in the lab, but it is unclear how well this lab-based approach translates to memory for real-world events.
"In the fall of 2016, I was obsessing over US election coverage and it occurred to me that many other people probably were, too. This provided the opportunity for a more naturalistic test -- we could ask people to remember news stories rather than word lists," Healey explains.
In one online study, Healey and coauthor Mitchell G.Uitvlugt collected and analyzed data following Election Day in 2016. The study participants had 7 minutes to recall as many election-related news stories as they could -- for each story, they also drafted a short newspaper-style headline.
Healey and Uitvlugt identified actual news stories that corresponded with the headlines generated by the participants, noting the date that the stories appeared. For their analyses, the researchers did not include stories that were not associated with specific election-related events. This process yielded 7,759 headlines from 855 participants.
The researchers then calculated a lag score that measured the transition, in days, from one headline in a participant's story sequence to the next.
The results showed that participants tended to recall stories in time-based clusters: Short transitions between stories (0 to 10 days) were much more common than would be expected according to chance. Furthermore, long transitions of more than 50 days were less frequent than one would expect by chance. The analyses showed that what participants remembered wasn't due to news events naturally clustering close together in time but rather the clustering of stories together in memory.
This pattern held even after the researchers accounted for similarity between events. And a second online study, in which a separate group of 561 participants recalled news stories from the previous 4 months, showed similar results.
"I was surprised at how well these real-world data agreed with lab data," says Healey. "Although remembering world events you've read about over the course of months seems different than memorizing a list of random words presented over the course of minutes, at a fundamental level it seems both are governed by the same principles."
Uitvlugt and Healey point out that the participants could not have prepared for the memory task, which rules out the possibility that participants used specific strategies when the events occurred to aid subsequent recall. Instead, the findings suggest that our memories are tagged with time-correlated information as we encode them, and that this information can be used when we search memory later on.
"This research tells us something about memory in general. It suggests we all have a tendency to bind events together in memory when they occur near together in time," Healey says.
abstract Some memories are linked such that recalling one can trigger the retrieval of another. What determines which memories are linked? Some models predict that simply occurring close together in time is sufficient for links to form between memories. A competing theory suggests that temporal proximity is generally not sufficient, and existing evidence for such links is an artifact of using chainlike lists of items in artificial laboratory tasks. To test these competing accounts, we asked subjects to recall news stories that they had encountered over the past 2 years (Experiment 1) or 4 months (Experiment 2). In both experiments, subjects showed a strong bias to successively recall stories that appeared in the news within days of each other—even after accounting for the fact that stories that occur close in time tend to be semantically related. By moving beyond laboratory tasks, this research solidifies the foundation of contemporary memory theory.
precise temporal memories are supported by the lateral entorhinal cortex in humans
maria e montchal et al. 2019
doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0303-1
abstract There is accumulating evidence that the entorhinal-hippocampal network is important for temporal memory. However, relatively little is known about the precise neurobiological mechanisms underlying memory for time. In particular, whether the lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) is involved in temporal processing remains an open question. During high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning, participants watched a ~28-min episode of a television show. During the test, they viewed still-frames and indicated on a continuous timeline the precise time each still-frame was viewed during the study. This procedure allowed us to measure error in seconds for each trial. We analyzed fMRI data from retrieval and found that high temporal precision was associated with increased blood-oxygen-level-dependent fMRI activity in the anterolateral entorhinal (a homolog of the LEC in rodents) and perirhinal cortices, but not in the posteromedial entorhinal and parahippocampal cortices. This suggests a previously unknown role for the LEC in processing of high-precision, minute-scale temporal memories.
time is just a memory
matthew l. shapiro 2019
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0331-x
Michael Yassa, director of UCI's Center for the Neurobiology of Learning & Memory and senior author on the study, said the research may further understanding of dementia, as these temporal memory regions are the first to experience age-related deficits and also show some of the first pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, most notably tangles.
"Whether these alterations have consequences for time-related memory remains to be seen; it's something that we are currently testing," he added.
Real-time brain imaging
In the UCI study, participants sat with their heads inside a high-resolution fMRI scanner while watching the TV show and then viewing still frames from the episode, one at a time.
The researchers found that when subjects had more precise answers to questions about what time certain events occurred, they activated a brain network involving the lateral entorhinal cortex and the perirhinal cortex. The team had previously shown that these regions, which surround the hippocampus, are associated with memories of objects or items but not their spatial location. Until now, little had been known about how this network might process and store information about time.
"The field of neuroscience has focused extensively on understanding how we encode and store information about space, but time has always been a mystery," said Yassa, a professor of neurobiology & behavior. "This study and the Moser team's study represent the first cross-species evidence for a potential role of the lateral entorhinal cortex in storing and retrieving information about when experiences happen."
"Space and time have always been intricately linked, and the common wisdom in our field was that the mechanisms involved in one probably supported the other as well," added Maria Montchal, a graduate student in Yassa's lab who led the research. "But our results suggest otherwise."
Testing time-related memory
Yassa said it's worth noting that his group published another report last year in Neuron showing that the lateral entorhinal cortex is dysfunctional in older adults with lower-than-average memory performance. That study did not test memory for time but rather discrimination memory for similar objects.
Most studies examining time in the laboratory employ static objects on a computer screen, Yassa said, but they tell very little about how the brain processes information in the real world. This is why the UCI study used "Curb Your Enthusiasm," a situational comedy that mirrors real life, as it involves people, scenes, dialogue, humor and narrative.
"We chose this show in particular because we thought it contained events that were relatable, engaging and interesting," he said. "We also wanted one without a laugh track. Interestingly, while the show is hilarious for some of us, it did not seem to instigate a lot of laughter among the college undergraduates we tested -- which was excellent for us, as we needed to keep their heads inside the scanner."
persistence of neuronal representations through time and damage in the hippocampus
walter g. gonzalez et al. 2019
doi.org/10.1126/science.aav9199
mnemonic training reshapes brain networks to support superior memory
dresler et al. 2017
[doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.02.003][11]
•Memory champions show distributed functional brain network connectivity changes
•Mnemonic strategies for superior memory can be learned by naive subjects
•Mnemonic training induces similarity with memory champion brain connectivity
•Brain network dynamics of this effect differ between task and resting state
Memory skills strongly differ across the general population; however, little is known about the brain characteristics supporting superior memory performance. Here we assess functional brain network organization of 23 of the world’s most successful memory athletes and matched controls with fMRI during both task-free resting state baseline and active memory encoding. We demonstrate that, in a group of naive controls, functional connectivity changes induced by 6 weeks of mnemonic training were correlated with the network organization that distinguishes athletes from controls. During rest, this effect was mainly driven by connections between rather than within the visual, medial temporal lobe and default mode networks, whereas during task it was driven by connectivity within these networks. Similarity with memory athlete connectivity patterns predicted memory improvements up to 4 months after training. In conclusion, mnemonic training drives distributed rather than regional changes, reorganizing the brain’s functional network organization to enable superior memory performance.
acoustic enhancement of sleep slow oscillations and concomitant memory improvement in older adults
nelly a. papalambros et al. 2017
[doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00109][12]
working memory revived in older adults by synchronizing rhythmic brain circuits
robert m. g. reinhart et al. 2019
doi.org/10.1038/s41593-019-0371-x
Reinhart and Nguyen's research targets working memory -- the part of the mind where consciousness lives, the part that is active whenever we make decisions, reason, and recall our grocery lists. Working memory starts to decline in our late 20s and early 30s, Reinhart explains, as certain areas of the brain gradually become disconnected and uncoordinated. By the time we reach our 60s and 70s, these neural circuits have deteriorated enough that many of us experience noticeable cognitive difficulties, even in the absence of dementias like Alzheimer's disease.
But the duo has discovered something incredible: by using electrical currents to noninvasively stimulate brain areas that have lost their rhythm, we can drastically improve working memory performance.
During the study, which was supported by a National Institutes of Health grant, they asked a group of people in their 20s and a group in their 60s and 70s to perform a series of memory tasks that required them to view an image, and then, after a brief pause, to identify whether a second image was slightly different from the original.
At baseline, the young adults were much more accurate at this, significantly outperforming the older group. However, when the older adults received 25 minutes of mild stimulation delivered through scalp electrodes and personalized to their individual brain circuits, the difference between the two groups vanished. Even more encouraging? That memory boost lasted at least to the end of the 50-minute time window after stimulation -- the point at which the experiment ended.
To understand why this technique is so effective, we need to take a look at the two mechanisms that allow working memory to function properly: coupling and synchronization.
Coupling occurs when different types of brain rhythms coordinate with one another, and it helps us process and store working memories. Slow, low-frequency rhythms -- theta rhythms -- dance in the front of your brain, acting like the conductors of an orchestra. They reach back to faster, high-frequency rhythms called gamma rhythms, which are generated in the region of the brain that processes the world around us.
Just as a musical orchestra contains flutes, oboes, violins -- so too, the gamma rhythms that reside within your brain each contribute something unique to the electricity-based orchestra that creates your memories. One gamma rhythm might process the color of an object you're holding in your mind, for instance, while another captures its shape, another its orientation, and another its sound.
But when the conductors fumble with their batons -- when the theta rhythms lose the ability to connect with those gamma rhythms to monitor them, maintain them, and instruct them -- the melodies within the brain begin to disintegrate and our memories lose their sharpness.
Meanwhile, synchronization -- when theta rhythms from different areas of the brain synchronize with one another -- allows separate brain areas to communicate with one another. This process serves as the glue for a memory, combining individual sensory details to create one coherent recollection. As we age, our theta rhythms become less synchronized and the fabric of our memories starts to fray.
Reinhart and Nguyen's work suggests that by using electrical stimulation, we can reestablish these pathways that tend to go awry as we age, improving our ability to recall our experiences by restoring the flow of information within the brain. And it's not just older adults that stand to benefit from this technique: it shows promise for younger people as well.
In the study, 14 of the young-adult participants performed poorly on the memory tasks despite their age -- so he called them back to stimulate their brains too.
"We showed that the poor performers who were much younger, in their 20s, could also benefit from the same exact kind of stimulation," Reinhart says. "We could boost their working memory even though they weren't in their 60s or 70s."
Coupling and synchronization, he adds, exist on a continuum: "It's not like there are people who don't couple versus people who couple."
On one end of the spectrum, someone with an incredible memory may be excellent at both synchronizing and coupling, whereas somebody with Alzheimer's disease would probably struggle significantly with both. Others lie between these two extremes -- for instance, you might be a weak coupler but a strong synchronizer, or vice versa.
And when we use this stimulation to alter neural symphonies, we aren't just making a minor tweak, Reinhart emphasizes. "It's behaviorally relevant. Now, [people are] performing tasks differently, they're remembering things better, they're perceiving better, they're learning faster. It is really extraordinary."
Looking ahead, he foresees a variety of future applications for his work.
"It's opening up a whole new avenue of potential research and treatment options," he says, "and we're super excited about it."
Reinhart would like to investigate electrostimulation's effects on individual brain cells by applying it to animal models, and he's curious about how repeated doses of stimulation might further enhance brain circuits in humans. Most of all, though, he hopes his discovery will one day lead to a treatment for the millions of people around the world living with cognitive impairments -- particularly those with Alzheimer's disease.
abstract Understanding normal brain aging and developing methods to maintain or improve cognition in older adults are major goals of fundamental and translational neuroscience. Here we show a core feature of cognitive decline—working-memory deficits—emerges from disconnected local and long-range circuits instantiated by theta–gamma phase–amplitude coupling in temporal cortex and theta phase synchronization across frontotemporal cortex. We developed a noninvasive stimulation procedure for modulating long-range theta interactions in adults aged 60–76 years. After 25 min of stimulation, frequency-tuned to individual brain network dynamics, we observed a preferential increase in neural synchronization patterns and the return of sender–receiver relationships of information flow within and between frontotemporal regions. The end result was rapid improvement in working-memory performance that outlasted a 50 min post-stimulation period. The results provide insight into the physiological foundations of age-related cognitive impairment and contribute to groundwork for future non-pharmacological interventions targeting aspects of cognitive decline.
ras acts as a molecular switch between two forms of consolidated memory in drosophila
nathaniel c. noyes et al. 2020
doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1819925117
moving memories to long-term storage involves the interplay of multiple genes, a known group whose activity must be upregulated, and, unexpectedly, another gatekeeping gene set, Ras, and its downstream connecting molecules, which are down-regulated. If either Ras or its downstream connector Raf are silenced, long-term memory storage is eliminated, the team writes in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, published the week of Jan. 13.
The type of memory they studied, ironically has a rather difficult-to-remember name: “protein-synthesis dependent long-term memory,” or PSD-LTM for short. To study how it and other types of memory form, scientists rely upon the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a model organism. The genetic underpinnings of memory storage are mostly conserved across species types, Davis explains.
To assess how the flies’ memory consolidation process works at a molecular level, they used a process called RNA interference to lower expression of several candidate genes in several areas of the fly brain. Doing so with both the Ras gene and its downstream molecule Raf in the fly brain’s mushroom body, its memory-storage area, had a two-pronged effect. It dramatically enhanced intermediate-term memories while completely eliminating PSD long-term memory of an aversive experience, Davis says.
The team’s experiments involved exposing flies to certain odors in one section of a glass tube while simultaneously administering a foot-shock. Flies’ subsequent avoidant behavior on exposure to that odor indicated their recollection of the unpleasant shock. Regardless of how many times the flies were “trained,” lowering expression of Ras and Raf reduced their PSD long-term memory performance, explains first author Nathaniel Noyes, PhD, a research associate in the Davis lab.
While the Ras enzyme, Ras85D, was already known for its roles in organ development and cancer, the studies showed that in the adult brain, it apparently plays memory gatekeeper, helping direct whether experiences should be remembered as intermediate memory that dissipates after a time, or as long-term “protein-synthesis dependent” memory that persists.
Gating off the memory from the intermediate storage process shifted it over to PSD long-term memory storage, indicates that it’s an either-or situation. Intermediate storage appears to be the fly brain’s preferential, default pathway, Noyes says. He expects that the neurotransmitter dopamine will prove to play a key signaling role.
“We believe that dopamine signals to the brain that this memory is important enough to be stored long-term. We speculate that Ras and Raf receive this dopamine signal and thereby block intermediate memory and promote PSD long-term memory,” Noyes says.
How this “intermediate” memory system works in humans requires further study as well, he adds.
“It’s becoming apparent that many of the same genes involved in intermediate memory storage also play a role in mammalian memory and plasticity,” he notes.
abstract Long-lasting, consolidated memories require not only positive biological processes that facilitate long-term memories (LTM) but also the suppression of inhibitory processes that prevent them. The mushroom body neurons (MBn) in Drosophila melanogaster store protein synthesis-dependent LTM (PSD-LTM) as well as protein synthesis-independent, anesthesia-resistant memory (ARM). The formation of ARM inhibits PSD-LTM but the underlying molecular processes that mediate this interaction remain unknown. Here, we demonstrate that the Ras→Raf→rho kinase (ROCK) pathway in MBn suppresses ARM consolidation, allowing the formation of PSD-LTM. Our initial results revealed that the effects of Ras on memory are due to postacquisition processes. Ras knockdown enhanced memory expression but had no effect on acquisition. Additionally, increasing Ras activity optogenetically after, but not before, acquisition impaired memory performance. The elevated memory produced by Ras knockdown is a result of increased ARM. While Ras knockdown enhanced the consolidation of ARM, it eliminated PSD-LTM. We found that these effects are mediated by the downstream kinase Raf. Similar to Ras, knockdown of Raf enhanced ARM consolidation and impaired PSD-LTM. Surprisingly, knockdown of the canonical downstream extracellular signal-regulated kinase did not reproduce the phenotypes observed with Ras and Raf knockdown. Rather, Ras/Raf inhibition of ROCK was found to be responsible for suppressing ARM. Constitutively active ROCK enhanced ARM and impaired PSD-LTM, while decreasing ROCK activity rescued the enhanced ARM produced by Ras knockdown. We conclude that MBn Ras/Raf inhibition of ROCK suppresses the consolidation of ARM, which permits the formation of PSD-LTM.
severely deficient autobiographical memory
[wired][13] article
basolateral to central amygdala neural circuits for appetitive behaviors
joshua kim et al. 2017
[doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.02.034][14]
practice increases procedural errors after task interruption
erik m. altmann, david z. hambrick 2017 [pdf][15]
[doi.org/10.1037/xge0000274][16]
silent memory engrams as the basis for retrograde amnesia
dheeraj s. roy et al. 2017
[doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1714248114][17]
this time it’s personal: the memory benefit of hearing oneself
noah d. forrin, colin m. macleod 2017
doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2017.1383434
enhancing individual and collaborative eyewitness memory with category clustering recall
craig thorley 2018
doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2018.1432058
learning from your mistakes: does it matter if you’re out in left foot, i mean field?
andrée-ann cyr, nicole d. anderson 2018
doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2018.1464189
gut vagal sensory signaling regulates hippocampus function through multi-order pathways
andrea n. suarez et al. 2018
doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04639-1
a resource-rational theory of set size effects in human visual working memory
ronald van den berg, wei ji ma 2018
doi.org/10.7554/eLife.34963
mcm2 promotes symmetric inheritance of modified histones during dna replication
nataliya petryk et al. 2018
doi.org/10.1126/science.aau0294
retrieval potentiates new learning: a theoretical and meta-analytic review
jason c. k. chan et al. 2018
doi.org/10.1037/bul0000166
The research shows the frequency and difficulty of questions can reverse the effect and be detrimental to learning. It also is not enough to simply ask a question; Chan says students must respond to see a positive effect on learning.
“Frequency is a critical factor. There appears to be a trade-off in how often you test students,” Chan said. “If I lecture nonstop throughout class, this lessens their ability to learn the material. However, too many questions, too often, can have a detrimental effect, but we don’t yet know exactly why that happens or how many questions is too many.”
The answer to that question may depend on the length of the lecture and the type or difficulty of the material, Chan said. Given the different dynamics of a class lecture, it may not be possible to develop a universal lecture-to-question ratio. Regardless, Chan says testing students throughout the lecture is a simple step instructors at any level and in any environment can apply to help students learn.
“This is a cheap, effective method and anyone can implement it in their class,” he said. “You don’t need to give every student an iPad or buy some fancy software — you just need to ask questions and have students answer them in class.”
Chan, Christian Meissner, a professor of psychology at Iowa State; and Sara Davis, a postdoctoral fellow at Skidmore College and former ISU graduate student, examined journal articles from the 1970s to 2016 detailing more than 150 different experiments for their analysis. The researchers looked at what factors influenced the magnitude of this effect, when it happens and when the effect is reversed.
There are several explanations as to why testing students is beneficial for new learning. The researchers evaluated four main theories for the meta-analysis to examine the strengths and weakness of these explanations from the existing research. The data strongly supported what researchers called the integration theory.
“This theory claims that testing enhances future learning by facilitating the association between information on the test and new, especially related, information that is subsequently studied, leading to spontaneous recall of the previously tested information when they learn related information,” Meissner said. “When this testing occurs, people can better tie new information with what they have learned previously, leading them to integrate the old and the new.”
Learning new information requires an encoding process, which is different from the process needed to retrieve that information, the researchers explained. Students are forced to switch between the two when responding to a question. Changing the modes of operation appears to refocus attention and free the brain to do something different.
A majority of the studies in the analysis focused on college students, but some also included older adults, children and people with traumatic brain injuries. The researchers were encouraged to find that testing could effectively enhance learning across all these groups.
“Memory retrieval can optimize learning in situations that require people to maintain attention for an extended period of time. It can be used in class lectures as well as employee training sessions or online webinars,” Davis said. “Future research could examine factors that can maximize this potential.”
abstract A growing body of research has shown that retrieval can enhance future learning of new materials. In the present report, we provide a comprehensive review of the literature on this finding, which we term test-potentiated new learning. Our primary objectives were to (a) produce an integrative review of the existing theoretical explanations, (b) summarize the extant empirical data with a meta-analysis, (c) evaluate the existing accounts with the meta-analytic results, and (d) highlight areas that deserve further investigations. Here, we identified four nonexclusive classes of theoretical accounts, including resource accounts, metacognitive accounts, context accounts, and integration accounts. Our quantitative review of the literature showed that testing reliably potentiates the future learning of new materials by increasing correct recall or by reducing erroneous intrusions, and several factors have a powerful impact on whether testing potentiates or impairs new learning. Results of a metaregression analysis provide considerable support for the integration account. Lastly, we discuss areas of under-investigation and possible directions for future research.
microstructure of a spatial map in the entorhinal cortex
torkel hafting et al. 2005
doi.org/10.1038/nature03721
long-term memory for haptically explored objects: fidelity, durability, incidental encoding, and cross-modal transfer
fabian hutmacher, christof kuhbandner 2018
doi.org/10.1177/0956797618803644
a mental addressing system for chunks
decoding hierarchical control of sequential behavior in oscillatory eeg activity
atsushi kikumoto, ulrich mayr 2018
doi.org/10.7554/elife.38550.001
In the study, electrical activity and oscillation patterns were measured by electroencephalogram, with electrodes on the scalp from 88 study participants, all university students, while they performed complex, sequential patterns.
"Basic elements -- the alphabet of any type of performance -- need to be combined in a certain order within larger chunks, and these chunks, in turn, need to be combined in a certain order to arrive at the complete sequence," said Mayr, who directs the UO's Cognitive Dynamics Lab. "This is at the heart of a lot of human creativity.
"For example, if you are playing a piece on the piano, your brain needs to keep track in which larger musical phrase, which bar, and which exact note you are currently at," he said. "So, you need a kind of mental addressing system. It is this addressing system that we discovered with our EEG methods."
Subjects memorized sequential patterns that consisted of three different angles of lines as basic elements. When participants subsequently tried to reconstruct the succession of lines, the EEG showed oscillatory patterns that Kikumoto and Mayr decoded using machine learning techniques.
It turns out that the EEG patterns kept track of the precise location within the sequence -- which chunk, which position within the chunk, and which line angle people were focusing on.
The findings from the basic research help to understand why some people have difficulties with executing complex sequential plans, Mayr said.
Within the hierarchically organized addressing system, not everyone showed a robust EEG expression of the more abstract levels, he said. Only people with strong working memory scores -- a reflection of the capacity of an individual's mental workspace -- seemed to have a crisp record of the current chunk.
"Without the chunk information they literally got lost within the mental landscape of the overall sequence," he said.
EEG allowed the researchers to capture electrical signaling in the brain in real time. Mayr and Kikumoto are now working to complement the findings with magnetic resonance imaging to document exactly where in the brain the sequential addressing system is localized.
abstract Despite strong theoretical reasons for assuming that abstract representations organize complex action sequences in terms of subplans (chunks) and sequential positions, we lack methods to directly track such content-independent, hierarchical representations in humans. We applied time-resolved, multivariate decoding analysis to the pattern of rhythmic EEG activity that was registered while participants planned and executed individual elements from pre-learned, structured sequences. Across three experiments, the theta and alpha-band activity coded basic elements and abstract control representations, in particular, the ordinal position of basic elements, but also the identity and position of chunks. Further, a robust representation of higher level, chunk identity information was only found in individuals with above-median working memory capacity, potentially providing a neural-level explanation for working-memory differences in sequential performance. Our results suggest that by decoding oscillatory activity we can track how the cognitive system traverses through the states of a hierarchical control structure.
an ant colony has memories that its individual members don’t have
deborah m gordon 2018
aeon.co/ideas/an-ant-colony-has-memories-that-its-individual-members-dont-have
impairment of glycolysis-derived l-serine production in astrocytes contributes to cognitive deficits in alzheimer’s disease
juliette le douce et al. 2020
doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2020.02.004
The brain uses a large part of the energy available to our body. To work properly, neurons and the surrounding cells, particularly astrocytes, must cooperate. The early phase of Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by a reduction in this energy metabolism, but until now we did not know whether this deficit contributed directly to the cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.
A collaborative study has shown in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease that a decrease in the use of glucose by astrocytes reduces L-serine production. This amino acid is mainly produced by these brain cells and its biosynthesis path is altered in patients. L-serine is the precursor of D-serine, known to stimulate NMDA receptors, essential for brain function and to the establishment of memory. So by producing less L-serine, astrocytes cause reduced activity in these receptors, which alters neuronal plasticity and the associated memorization capacities. Scientists have also demonstrated that memorization functions in mice were restored by supplying nutritional L-serine.
abstract •Astrocytes have impaired glycolytic flux in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease
•Consequently, astrocytes produce less glycolysis-derived l-serine
•Low NMDAR occupancy by d-serine leads to impairment of synaptic plasticity and memory
•Dietary supplementation of l-serine restores synaptic plasticity and memory
Alteration of brain aerobic glycolysis is often observed early in the course of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Whether and how such metabolic dysregulation contributes to both synaptic plasticity and behavioral deficits in AD is not known. Here, we show that the astrocytic l-serine biosynthesis pathway, which branches from glycolysis, is impaired in young AD mice and in AD patients. l-serine is the precursor of d-serine, a co-agonist of synaptic NMDA receptors (NMDARs) required for synaptic plasticity. Accordingly, AD mice display a lower occupancy of the NMDAR co-agonist site as well as synaptic and behavioral deficits. Similar deficits are observed following inactivation of the l-serine synthetic pathway in hippocampal astrocytes, supporting the key role of astrocytic l-serine. Supplementation with l-serine in the diet prevents both synaptic and behavioral deficits in AD mice. Our findings reveal that astrocytic glycolysis controls cognitive functions and suggest oral l-serine as a ready-to-use therapy for AD.
stress disrupts human hippocampal-prefrontal function during prospective spatial navigation and hinders flexible behaviour
thackery i. brown et al. 2020
doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.03.006
“We draw on memory not just to project ourselves backward into the past but to project ourselves forward, to plan,” said Stanford psychologist Anthony Wagner, who is the senior author of the paper detailing this work, published April 2 in Current Biology. “Stress can rob you of the ability to draw on cognitive systems underlying memory and goal-directed behavior that enable you to solve problems more quickly, more efficiently and more effectively.”
Combined with previous work from Wagner’s Memory Lab and others, these findings could have broad implications for understanding how different people plan for the future — and how lack of stress may afford some people a greater neurologically-based opportunity to think ahead.
“It’s a form of neurocognitive privilege that people who are not stressed can draw on their memory systems to behave more optimally,” said Wagner, who is the Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences at Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences. “And we may fail to actually appreciate that some individuals might not be behaving as effectively or efficiently because they are dealing with something, like a health or economic stressor, that reduces that privilege.”
Take a virtual walk
The researchers conducted experiments where they monitored participants’ behavior and brain activity — via fMRI — as they navigated through virtual towns. After participants became very familiar winding routes in a dozen towns, they were dropped onto one of the memorized paths and told to navigate to a goal location.
To test the effects of stress, the researchers warned some participants that they could receive a mild electric shock, unrelated to their performance, during their virtual rambles. Participants who didn’t have to worry about being randomly shocked tended to envision and take novel shortcuts based on memories acquired from prior journeys, whereas the stressed participants tended to fall back on the meandering, habitual routes.
Prior to beginning their trek, the participants were virtually held in place at their starting position. Brain scans from this period showed that the stressed individuals were less likely than their counterparts to activate the hippocampus — a brain structure that would have been active if they were mentally reviewing previous journeys. They also had less activity in their frontal-parietal lobe networks, which allows us to bring neural processes in line with our current goals. Previous work by the researchers had found that stress hinders this neural machinery, making it harder for us to retrieve and use memories.
The researchers believe their new study is the first to show how hippocampal-frontal lobe network disruption takes memory replay offline during a planning session due to stress.
“Its kind of like our brain is pushed into a more low-level thought-process state, and that corresponds with this reduced planning behavior,” said Thackery Brown, who was a postdoctoral scholar in the Memory Lab during this research and is lead author of the paper.
Stress and old age
Looking forward, the researchers are especially interested in how the relationship between stress and memory affects older populations, who often experience both health and economic issues. Older people are also more likely to be concerned about memory loss. Together, these combined stressors could contribute to a diminished ability to remember, which could further exacerbate their stress and also impair their ability to deal with it.
Brown has begun conducting studies similar to the virtual navigation experiments with participants between the ages of 65 and 80 to try to better understand how the associations between stress, memory and planning play out in older populations.
“It’s a powerful thing to think about how stressful events might affect planning in your grandparents,” said Brown, who is now an assistant professor at Georgia Institute of Technology. “It affects us in our youth and as we interact with and care for older members of our family, and then it becomes relevant to us in a different way when we are, ourselves, older adults.”
abstract The ability to anticipate and flexibly plan for the future is critical for achieving goal-directed outcomes. Extant data suggest that neural and cognitive stress mechanisms may disrupt memory retrieval and restrict prospective planning, with deleterious impacts on behavior. Here, we examined whether and how acute psychological stress influences goal-directed navigational planning and efficient, flexible behavior. Our methods combined fMRI, neuroendocrinology, and machine learning with a vir- tual navigation planning task. Human participants were trained to navigate familiar paths in virtual envi- ronments and then (concurrent with fMRI) performed a planning and navigation task that could be most efficiently solved by taking novel shortcut paths. Strikingly, relative to non-stressed control partici- pants, participants who performed the planning task under experimentally induced acute psycholog- ical stress demonstrated (1) disrupted neural activity critical for mnemonic retrieval and mental simulation and (2) reduced traversal of shortcuts and greater reliance on familiar paths. These neural and behav- ioral changes under psychological stress were tied to evidence for disrupted neural replay of memory for future locations in the spatial environment, providing mechanistic insight into why and how stress can alter planning and foster inefficient behavior.
too good to be true…
decoding european palaeolithic art: extremely ancient knowledge of precession of the equinoxes
martin b. sweatman, alistair coombs 2018
arxiv.org/abs/1806.00046
notes in visual boxes
[medium.goodnotes.com/taking-notes-using-the-boxing-method-9a68da2e1781][22]
similar to own method of “bracketing” where the “box” is provided by brackets at two or more corners, instead of drawing a full box
a memory called empire
arkady martine 2019
recursion
blake crouch 2019
this ancient mnemonic technique builds a palace of memory
lynne kelly 2017
[aeon.co/ideas/this-ancient-mnemonic-technique-builds-a-palace-of-memory][23]
how to develop a brilliant memory week by week: 50 proven ways to enhance your memory skills
dominic o’brien 2014
the mechanism of mind: understand how your mind works to maximise memory and creative potential
edward de bono 2015
the guardian of all things: the epic story of human memory
michael malone 2012
the memory illusion: remembering, forgetting, and the science of false memory
julia shaw 2016
you can learn to remember change your thinking, change your life
dominic o’brien 2014
the art of memory
frances a. yates 1966
the model thinker: what you need to know to make data work for you
scott e. page 2018
theory of society volume 1
niklas luhmann 2013
theory of society volume 2
niklas luhmann 2013
[7]: Objective: The core clinical feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is recurrent intrusive memories of trauma. This study aimed to test a novel and simple intervention, inspired by the concepts of concurrent task interference and memory reconsolidation, to reduce the occurrence of intrusive memories among inpatients with complex PTSD. Method: In this open-label single case series 20 patients with longstanding complex PTSD in inpatient treatment monitored the occurrence of intrusive trauma memories (intrusions) over the course of their admission (5 to 10 weeks). Patients received study-specific intervention sessions (including a memory reminder for a specific intrusion then 25 min Tetris gameplay) on a weekly basis. A within-subjects multiple baseline AB design was used, in that the length of baseline (“A,” preintervention, monitoring only) and postintervention (“B”) phases varied within-subjects across individual intrusions. Further, some intrusions were never targeted by the intervention. The study was registered prior to analysis, ISRCTN34320836. Results: Frequency of targeted intrusions reduced by on average 64% from baseline to the postintervention phase. Conversely, never-targeted intrusions reduced in frequency by on average 11% over a comparable time-period. Of the 20 patients, 16 met our criteria for showing “response” to the intervention. Conclusions: Results provide initial evidence that this brief behavioral procedure might reduce the occurrence of intrusive traumatic memories in longstanding and complex PTSD, here delivered in an inpatient setting. The potential of this simple, focused intervention opens up new possibilities for tackling a core clinical symptom of PTSD, warranting further research.
[7]: Objective:%20The%20core%20clinical%20feature%20of%20posttraumatic%20stress%20disorder%20(PTSD)%20is%20recurrent%20intrusive%20memories%20of%20trauma.%20This%20study%20aimed%20to%20test%20a%20novel%20and%20simple%20intervention,%20inspired%20by%20the%20concepts%20of%20concurrent%20task%20interference%20and%20memory%20reconsolidation,%20to%20reduce%20the%20occurrence%20of%20intrusive%20memories%20among%20inpatients%20with%20complex%20PTSD.%20Method:%20In%20this%20open-label%20single%20case%20series%2020%20patients%20with%20longstanding%20complex%20PTSD%20in%20inpatient%20treatment%20monitored%20the%20occurrence%20of%20intrusive%20trauma%20memories%20(intrusions)%20over%20the%20course%20of%20their%20admission%20(5%20to%2010%20weeks).%20Patients%20received%20study-specific%20intervention%20sessions%20(including%20a%20memory%20reminder%20for%20a%20specific%20intrusion%20then%2025%20min%20Tetris%20gameplay)%20on%20a%20weekly%20basis.%20A%20within-subjects%20multiple%20baseline%20AB%20design%20was%20used,%20in%20that%20the%20length%20of%20baseline%20(%E2%80%9CA,%E2%80%9D%20preintervention,%20monitoring%20only)%20and%20postintervention%20(%E2%80%9CB%E2%80%9D)%20phases%20varied%20within-subjects%20across%20individual%20intrusions.%20Further,%20some%20intrusions%20were%20never%20targeted%20by%20the%20intervention.%20The%20study%20was%20registered%20prior%20to%20analysis,%20ISRCTN34320836.%20Results:%20Frequency%20of%20targeted%20intrusions%20reduced%20by%20on%20average%2064%25%20from%20baseline%20to%20the%20postintervention%20phase.%20Conversely,%20never-targeted%20intrusions%20reduced%20in%20frequency%20by%20on%20average%2011%25%20over%20a%20comparable%20time-period.%20Of%20the%2020%20patients,%2016%20met%20our%20criteria%20for%20showing%20%E2%80%9Cresponse%E2%80%9D%20to%20the%20intervention.%20Conclusions:%20Results%20provide%20initial%20evidence%20that%20this%20brief%20behavioral%20procedure%20might%20reduce%20the%20occurrence%20of%20intrusive%20traumatic%20memories%20in%20longstanding%20and%20complex%20PTSD,%20here%20delivered%20in%20an%20inpatient%20setting.%20The%20potential%20of%20this%20simple,%20focused%20intervention%20opens%20up%20new%20possibilities%20for%20tackling%20a%20core%20clinical%20symptom%20of%20PTSD,%20warranting%20further%20research.%20
[9]: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.05.029
[10]: https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/27/16086018/concussion-diary-brain-injury-recovery-symptoms
[11]: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.02.003
[12]: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00109
[13]: http://www.wired.com/2016/04/susie-mckinnon-autobiographical-memory-sdam/
[14]: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.02.034
[15]: https://msu.edu/~ema/AltmannHambrickJEPG.pdf
[16]: http://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000274
[17]: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1714248114
[18]: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-011-0168-8
[19]: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04639-1#ref-CR22
[20]: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04639-1#ref-CR23
[21]: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04639-1#ref-CR24
[22]: https://medium.goodnotes.com/taking-notes-using-the-boxing-method-9a68da2e1781
[23]: https://aeon.co/ideas/this-ancient-mnemonic-technique-builds-a-palace-of-memory
[24]: http://makiaea.org/00045/20201205makiaea-anwiki