Memory development and event-related brain potentials in children

Abstract

This review examines the evidence for the maturation of memory function during childhood using event-related brain potentials (ERP), and behavioral measures. It has been shown that brain structures implicated in different forms of memory mature during the first and into the second decade of life. Whereas the maturation rates of implicit and explicit memory have not been directly assessed in the literature, studies of the maturation of the corresponding brain regions imply that there should be a progression in the maturation of the different forms of memory. This review also motivates the use of brain imaging techniques for investigation of memory systems during the developing years. Although, only a handful of such studies with children are currently available, they demonstrate that such techniques can provide information that may be unavailable otherwise. For example, when children fail to generate the ERP old/new effect, an index of episodic retrieval, it has been suggested that they may lack the necessary pre-existing representations in their long-term lexical or semantic memories. Similarly, age-related differences in ERP scalp topography during source memory paradigms suggest that children, who do not appear to show frontal scalp activity, lack inputs from frontal regions that are necessary for successful retrieval of source information. Future research with children will reveal more details about the nature of mnemonic processing during the developmental years.