Abstract
Episodic memory refers to the capacity to bind multimodal memories to constitute a unique personal event. Most developmental studies on episodic memory focused on one specific component, i.e., the core factual information. The present study examines the relevance of a novel episodic paradigm to assess its developmental trajectories in a more comprehensive way according to the type of association (item-feature, item-location, and item-sequence associations) with measures of both objective and subjective recollection. We conducted a behavioral study aimed at testing the effects of age in a large sample of 160 children, adolescents, and young adults (6–23 years old). We confronted the behavioral data to the neural correlates in a subgroup of 30 children using voxel-based morphometry. Behavioral data outlined differential developmental trajectories according to the type of association, with a continuous increase of factual associative memory efficiency until 10 years, a linear increase of performance in spatial associative memory that pursues until early adulthood and an abrupt increase in temporal associative memory efficiency between 9 and 10. Regarding recollection, measures showed a more pronounced enhancement from 9 to 10 years. Hence, behavioral data highlight a peculiar period in late childhood (8–10 years old) crucial for the developmental time course of episodic memory. Regarding structural data, we found that the improvement of associative memory efficiency was related to a decrease in gray matter volume in a large cerebral network including the dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (and superior and anterior temporal regions), and the hippocampus bilaterally. These data suggest that multimodal integration would probably be related to the maturation of temporal regions and modulated by a fronto-parietal network. Besides, our findings emphasize the relevance of the present paradigm to assess episodic memory especially in the clinical setting.
Highlights
Episodic memory refers to the most complex human memory system that emerges in early childhood
The one-way ANOVA performed on the within-domain factual associative memory (WHAT) scores revealed a significant group effect [F (4, 95) = 2.54; p = 0.04] on performance associated with only one significant difference between 6- and 10-year-old groups (p = 0.04)
These cortical regions and medial temporal structures have been previously described in functional studies, no such morphological data have been reported in developmental studies in relation with participants’ overall associative memory efficiency
Summary
Episodic memory refers to the most complex human memory system that emerges in early childhood It requires both the individual’s self-awareness (i.e., autonoetic) of having personally experienced a past event while retrieving the overall phenomenological details (i.e., context or source) bound to that unique moment (which gives a peculiar vividness to the recall) and the ability to make sense of this recall for future experiences (Tulving, 2002). Episodic memory processes rely on the binding of different types of associations, i.e., both within-domain associations such as inter-item associations (e.g., child and flower) and between-domain associations such as itemlocation associations (e.g., child and behind-window) (Mayes et al, 2007) These associations may be integrated into a single representation (e.g., the child standing behind the window) and may elicit a vivid sense of re-experiencing at retrieval (e.g., reliving the event with affective and perceptual information, i.e., recollection). Subjective recollection or “autonoetic” awareness would rely on a relational process (see Klein, 2013).
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