Mnemonic System Research Articles

Assessing episodic memory in rodents using spontaneous object recognition tasks.

Models of episodic memory are successfully established using spontaneous object recognition tasks in rodents. In this review, we present behavioral techniques devised to investigate this type of memory, emphasizing methods based on associations of places and temporal order of items explored by rats and mice. We also provide a review on the areas and circuitry of the medial temporal lobe underlying episodic-like memory, considering that a large number of neurobiology data derived from these protocols. Although spontaneous recognition tasks are commonplace in this field, there is need for careful evaluation of factors affecting animal performance. Such as the ongoing development of tools for investigating the neural basis of memory, efforts should be put in the refinement of experimental designs, in order to provide reliable behavioral evidence of this complex mnemonic system.

Pattern differentiation and tuning shift in human sensory cortex underlie long-term threat memory

The amygdala-prefrontal-cortex circuit has long occupied the center of the threat system,1 but new evidence has rapidly amassed to implicate threat processing outside this canonical circuit.2-4 Through nonhuman research, the sensory cortex has emerged as a critical substrate for long-term threat memory,5-9 underpinned by sensory cortical pattern separation/completion10,11 and tuning shift.12,13 In humans, research has begun to associate the human sensory cortex with long-term threat memory,14,15 but the lack of mechanistic insights obscures a direct linkage. Toward that end, we assessed human olfactory threat conditioning and long-term (9days) threat memory, combining affective appraisal, olfactory psychophysics, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) over a linear odor-morphing continuum (five levels of binary mixtures of the conditioned stimuli/CS+ and CS- odors). Affective ratings and olfactory perceptual discrimination confirmed (explicit) affective and perceptual learning and memory via conditioning. fMRI representational similarity analysis (RSA) and voxel-based tuning analysis further revealed associative plasticity in the human olfactory (piriform) cortex, including immediate and lasting pattern differentiation between CS and neighboring non-CS and a late onset, lasting tuning shift toward the CS. The two plastic processes were especially salient and lasting in anxious individuals, among whom they were further correlated. These findings thus support an evolutionarily conserved sensory cortical system of long-term threat representation, which can underpin threat perception and memory. Importantly, hyperfunctioning of this sensory mnemonic system of threat in anxiety further implicates a hitherto underappreciated sensory mechanism of anxiety.

La metarretórica cognitiva aristotélica y su relación con el tratamiento de la memoria en la Rhetorica ad Herennium

This article examines the influence exerted by the Aristotelian cognitive metarhetoric over the treatment of memory in Book 3 of the Rhetorica ad Herennium. Sections 3.16.28–29, 3.19.32 and 3.22.35–37 are read against the backdrop of the core principles of Aristotle’s psychological treatises on mind and memory, De Anima and De Memoria et Reminiscentia, together with the multifaceted concept of energeia, found in these treatises as well as in the Rhetoric and the Metaphysics. The results suggest that the psychology of memory of the Rhetorica ad Herennium and its rhetorical products are indebted to Aristotelian philosophy, with particular emphasis on the imagines agentes within the mnemonic system per locos et imagines.

La metarretórica cognitiva aristotélica y su relación con el tratamiento de la memoria en la Rhetorica ad Herennium

This article examines the influence exerted by the Aristotelian cognitive metarhetoric over the treatment of memory in Book 3 of the Rhetorica ad Herennium. Sections 3.16.28-29, 3.19.32 and 3.22.35-37 are read against the backdrop of the core principles of Aristotle’s psychological treatises on mind and memory, De Anima and De Memoria et Remmiscentia, together with the multifaceted concept of energeia, found in these treatises as well as in the Rhetoric and the Metaphysics. The results suggest that the psychology of memory of the Rhetorica ad Herennium and its rhetorical products are indebted to Aristotelian philosophy, with particular emphasis on the imagines agentes within the mnemonic system per locos et imagines.

Better in Pictures

Better in Pictures

Decreased Alpha Peak Frequency Is Linked to Episodic Memory Impairment in Pathological Aging.

The Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT) is a largely validated neuropsychological test for the identification of amnestic syndrome from the early stage of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Previous electrophysiological data suggested a slowing down of the alpha rhythm in the AD-continuum as well as a key role of this rhythmic brain activity for episodic memory processes. This study therefore investigates the link between alpha brain activity and alterations in episodic memory as assessed by the FCSRT. For that purpose, 37 patients with altered FCSRT performance underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment, supplemented by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/structural magnetic resonance imaging (18FDG-PET/MR), and 10 min of resting-state magnetoencephalography (MEG). The individual alpha peak frequency (APF) in MEG resting-state data was positively correlated with patients’ encoding efficiency as well as with the efficacy of semantic cues in facilitating patients’ retrieval of previous stored word. The APF also correlated positively with patients’ hippocampal volume and their regional glucose consumption in the posterior cingulate cortex. Overall, this study demonstrates that alterations in the ability to learn and store new information for a relatively short-term period are related to a slowing down of alpha rhythmic activity, possibly due to altered interactions in the extended mnemonic system. As such, a decreased APF may be considered as an electrophysiological correlate of short-term episodic memory dysfunction accompanying pathological aging.

Value-based cognition and drug dependency

Value-based decision-making is thought to play an important role in drug dependency. Achieving elevated levels of euphoria or ameliorating dysphoria/pain may motivate goal-directed drug consumption in both drug-naïve and long-time users. In other words, drugs become viewed as the preferred means of attaining a desired internal state. The bias towards choosing drugs may affect one’s cognition. Observed biases in learning, attention and memory systems within the brain gradually focus one’s cognitive functions towards drugs and related cues to the exclusion of other stimuli. In this narrative review, the effects of drug use on learning, attention and memory are discussed with a particular focus on changes across brain-wide functional networks and the subsequent impact on behaviour. These cognitive changes are then incorporated into the cycle of addiction, an established model outlining the transition from casual drug use to chronic dependency. If drug use results in the elevated salience of drugs and their cues, the studies highlighted in this review strongly suggest that this salience biases cognitive systems towards the motivated pursuit of addictive drugs. This bias is observed throughout the cycle of addiction, possibly contributing to the persistent hold that addictive drugs have over the dependent. Taken together, the excessive valuation of drugs as the preferred means of achieving a desired internal state affects more than just decision-making, but also learning, attentional and mnemonic systems. This eventually narrows the focus of one’s thoughts towards the pursuit and consumption of addictive drugs.

Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide in Learning and Memory.

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a highly conserved neuropeptide that regulates neuronal physiology and transcription through Gs/Gq-coupled receptors. Its actions within hypothalamic, limbic, and mnemonic systems underlie its roles in stress regulation, affective processing, neuroprotection, and cognition. Recently, elevated PACAP levels and genetic disruption of PAC1 receptor signaling in humans has been linked to maladaptive threat learning and pathological stress and fear in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PACAP is positioned to integrate stress and memory in PTSD for which memory of the traumatic experience is central to the disorder. However, PACAP’s role in memory has received comparatively less attention than its role in stress. In this review, we consider the evidence for PACAP-PAC1 receptor signaling in learning and plasticity, discuss emerging data on sex differences in PACAP signaling, and raise key questions for further study toward elucidating the contribution of PACAP to adaptive and maladaptive fear learning.

CONTEMPORARY NOVEL IN ASPECT OF FRAME POETICS

The article considers the possibility of synthesizing the system of poetics on the basis of cognitology, in this case - the theory of frames. The frame poetics is able to provide motivation where classical, non-classical or postnonclassical cannot offer convincing motivations. Poetics develops according to the laws of human thinking, in particular fixed in the frame theory. Therefore, we have reason to use frames in literary studies, because the frame is a natural segmentation of thinking in literature as well as in any field of science. The problem of genre definitions and genre transformations in modern novel forms has created a crisis of genre delineation. Frame theory allows to solve this problem of genre definition. Оr look at the genre in a new way, contributing to the conclusion of a new genre gestalt. The formation of different modern novel forms is considered in the aspect of the evolution of different types of poetics, which were concluded by mankind throughout its existence. Poetics is a mental mnemonic system of recoding reality or fiction into the figurative world of a work of art. Postnonclassical poetics, which is represented primarily in the works of postmodernists, has ceased to meet the needs of literary analysis, as it no longer has time to generate theoretical approaches due to the many modifications of the modern novel. Thus, there was a problem of inventing a different approach to the analysis of the current state of novel. Poetics is renewed in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of the structure of thinking of the artistic phenomenon and loses relevance when it does not provide such an opportunity. The nature of thinking is immutable and consistent in the principles of thought construction, and therefore, frame poetics is an evolutionary product of all previous types of poetics. It cannot contradict classical or postnonclassical poetics because it is a question of purely cognitive regularities. The sources of basic ideas for the creation of frame poetics of literature are the theory of frames from M. Minsky to I. Hoffman and W. Wachstein, frame semantics in linguistics from C. Fillmore to S. Shid, the theory of psychological patterns by E. de Bono and dynamic patterns by N. Babutz with a projection on French literature of the modernist era, interdisciplinary methodology of cognitive literary criticism and Gestalt theory from T. Kuhn and I. Prigogine to K. Aidukevich and T. Kotarbinsky, and finally, iconology as a principle of embodied frame unfolding by E. Panufsky, N. Goodman to E. Cassirer, J. Richardson and W. T. Mitchell.

China’s “Gold Shield”: Monemonic Internet Practice Management Policy

Actualization of the past is a natural manifestation of need for reflection of historical memory for society; it also pushes elites to search for new forms of “mental control” over public consciousness. The research is devoted to the problem of keeping historical memory in the context of censorship on the Internet. The goal is to identify the symbolic effects of historical memory that arises as a result of narrative representations of history and cognitive mnemonic practices of network media and online Internet communities in the context of censorship. Result of this research was conceptualization of the notion for “cognitive mnemonic Internet practices”, their typology in accordance with the types of cognitive censorship of network media and a description of their symbolic effects. Concept of the Internet as a mnemonic system is theoretically grounded, a typology of censorship strategies is given as a factor affecting the displacement of some forms of historical memory from the public sphere of society and their expression in various network mnemonic practices. The case study analysis of modern Chinese network media allowed for conceptualization of the notion of “cognitive mnemonic Internet practices” and grounding the conclusions.

Cross-modal involvement of the primary somatosensory cortex in visual working memory: A repetitive TMS study

Recent literature suggests that the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), once thought to be a low-level area only modality-specific, is also involved in higher-level, cross-modal, cognitive functions. In particular, electrophysiological studies have highlighted that the cross-modal activation of this area may also extend to visual Working Memory (WM), being part of a mnemonic network specific for the temporary storage and manipulation of visual information concerning bodies and body-related actions. However, the causal recruitment of S1 in the WM network remains speculation.In the present study, by taking advantage of repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS), we look for causal evidence that S1 is implicated in the retention of visual stimuli that are salient for this cortical area. To this purpose, in a first experiment, high-frequency (10 Hz) rTMS was delivered over S1 of the right hemisphere, and over two control sites, the right lateral occipital cortex (LOC) and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), during the maintenance phase of a high-load delayed match-to-sample task in which body-related visual stimuli (non-symbolic hand gestures) have to be retained. In a second experiment, the specificity of S1 recruitment was deepened by using a version of the delayed match-to-sample task in which visual stimuli depict geometrical shapes (non-body related stimuli).Results show that rTMS perturbation of S1 activity leads to an enhancement of participants’ performance that is selective for body-related visual stimuli; instead, the stimulation of the right LOC and dlPFC does not affect the temporary storage of body-related visual stimuli. These findings suggest that S1 may be recruited in visual WM when information to store (and recall) is salient for this area, corroborating models which suggest the existence of a dedicated mnemonic system for body-related information in which also somatosensory cortices play a key role, likely thanks to their cross-modal (visuo-tactile) properties.

Co-composition and de-composition: Biological agency as a compositional tool

GeneMusiK is an artistic project that puts into play ideas about the capacity of physical morphologies to act as mnemonic systems by using DNA to transcode and remix musical structures. The project suggests that both biological and cultural information can function as both macro- and micro-scale structures arrayed at physical loci to create topologies which function as keys to the mapping of memory.

Explaining short-term memory phenomena with an integrated episodic/semantic framework of long-term memory

Current thinking about human memory is dominated by distinctions between episodic and semantic memory and between short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). However, many memory phenomena seem to cut across these distinctions. This article attempts to set the groundwork for the issues that need to be resolved in generating an integrated model of long-term memory that incorporates semantic, episodic, and short-term memory. We contrast Nairne’s (2002, Annual Review of Psychology) consensus account of short-term memory with a relatively generic theory of an integrated episodic-semantic memory. The later consists primarily of a list of principles which we and others argue are necessary to include in any theory of long-term memory. We then add some more specific assumptions to outline a modern theory of forgetting. We then turn to the issue of much of the phenomena thought to necessitate a dedicated short-term memory can be explained by an integrated theory of episodic and semantic memory. Our conclusion is that an integrated theory of long-term memory must be augmented to explain a small number of outstanding memory phenomena. Finally, we ask whether the augmentation needs to involve a dedicated mnemonic system, or sensory or language-based systems, which also have mnemonic capabilities.

The Cultural Foundation of Human Memory

Human memory, as a product of the mind and brain, is inherently private and personal. Yet, arising from the interaction between the organism and its ecology in the course of phylogeny and ontogeny, human memory is also profoundly collective and cultural. In this review, I discuss the cultural foundation of human memory. I start by briefly reflecting on the conception of memory against a historical and cultural background. I then detail a model of a culturally saturated mnemonic system in which cultural elements constitute and condition various processes of remembering, focusing on memory representation, perceptual encoding, memory function, memory reconstruction, memory expression, and memory socialization. Then I discuss research on working memory, episodic memory, and autobiographical memory as examples that further demonstrate how cultural elements shape the processes and consequences of remembering and lay the foundation for human memory. I conclude by outlining some important future directions in memory research.

Genes, Memes and Dots

GeneMusiK is an artistic project that puts into play ideas about the capacity of physical morphologies to act as mnemonic systems by using DNA to transcode and re-mix musical structures. The project suggests that both biological and cultural information can function as both macro and the micro scale structures arrayed as physical loci and topologies that function as keys to the mapping of memory. The author’s attraction to this ongoing series of sound-works that combine human and biological agency to re-invent musical scores is directly proportional to the difficulty of the undertaking with its unpredictable outcomes and high failure rate. As a generative method the outcome is surrendered to the stochastic process of biological transformation, a strategy that substantially erodes the human agency and control invested in authorship. Ultimately the work is returned to the human sphere in the form of live musical performance that carries with it the additional complications of nuanced interpretation and virtuosity, all of which combine to create a fluid matrix of cultural, social and biological exchange that act to flesh-out life-forms (as forms of life) across temporal and spatial barriers.

The Writings: Psalms

The WritingsPsalms Christopher T. Begg 1333. [Servant of the Lord in the Psalter] Egbert Ballhorn, "Von David dem Knecht zum Volk der Gottesknechte im Psalter," Zur Theologie des Psalters, 287-315 [see #1618]. The title "servant of the Lord" is used in two different ways in the Psalter: On the one hand, it is a self-designation used by the pray-er in his relationship to God, while on the other it functions as a title ascribed to King David. That title is so impregnated with the figure of David that every individual pray-er who uses the designation of himself stands in the succession of David, with consequences not only for the pray-er's relationship to God but also for his status as God's chosen one. [Adapted from published abstract] 1334. [Psalms; Chronicles] Ehud Ben Zvi, "Psalms, Chronicles, and Matters of Social Memory in the Early Second Temple Period: Some Introductory Considerations," Psalmen und Chronik, 243-56 [see #1555]. B. Z. seeks to identify a "social memory system" unifying both Chronicles and the Psalter as well as these books' respective receptional circles. In so doing, he cautions, with regard to such comparisons, against taking the modern understanding of the two textual complexes as a basis. Chronicles, on the one hand, does indeed concern itself with psalms and pieces of song, but does not, however, present the "actual content of the songs," while, on the other hand, the Psalter features later resignifications, contemporaneous with Chronicles, [End Page 452] of Chronistic personages. Taking the Persian or early Hellenistic period as background, B. Z. sets out to selectively ascertain how old psalms were remembered and newly interpreted. Thus, the psalm titles refer to David as a "master musician." In Chronicles, on the basis of this already existent memory of David as a musician, the figure of David is further developed. Psalms and Chronicles both participate in a common "mnemonic system," wherein, by way of the Davidic figure, sacrificial cult and psalms are interwoven. The Levitical singers Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun represent another example of shared memory. They are mentioned in Psalms 39, 50, 62, 73–88, 89, and also appear in Chronicles. Likewise psalmic formulations such as the refrain "for his steadfast love endures forever" show themselves to have been especially suitable for memory formation. In Psalms 106, 107, 118, and 136 this formula occurs a total of 32 times, while in 1 Chr 16:34; 2 Chr 5:13; 7:3, 6; 20:21, it is used in the articulation of the praise of Yhwh. In addition, B. Z.'s contribution devotes particular attention to psalmic citations in 1 Chr 16:8-36 and 2 Chr 6:41-42. For ancient recipients the question of the origin of the above formula—did it originate in Chronicles or in the Psalter—was not an issue. Far more important than the certainly greater age of Pss 96:1-13; 105:1-15; 106:47-48; and 132:8-10 vis-à-vis the citations of these verses in Chronicles is the mutual illumination of both Chronicles and the Psalter via the reception process. Both complexes have had a part to play in the formation of Israel's memory. This becomes clear in that in the "narrative" of Chronicles the psalms initiated by David are at the same time reflective of the postexilic situation (see 1 Chr 16:15). A similar situation occurs in 2 Chr 6:41-42, where Ps 132:8-10 is paraphrased. In 2 Chronicles 6 these verses are the conclusion of Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple and reflect changes to the source text of 1 Kings 8. In dealing as it does with its source material, 2 Chr 6:41-42 emphasizes that the foundations of the Temple cult go back to Yhwh alone. [Adapted from published abstract] 1335. [Psalms; Isaiah; Zion] Joseph Blenkinsopp, "Zion as Reality and Symbol in Psalms and Isaiah," Essays on the Book of Isaiah, 122-34 [see #1628]. B. opens this brief essay with the statement (p. 122): "Psalms and Isaiah . . . have a great deal in common. Their intertextual relations are...

FROM MANAGING BEES TO SCHEDULING LIFE VIA DAY SIGNS: THE LOG HIVE AS A WINDOW FOR COMMUNICATION IN PRE-HISPANIC MAYA SOCIETY

Mayas from the pre-Hispanic period documented important facts and life experiences via a writing system consisting of hieroglyphs. To timetable these events, they used time units such as the so-called day signs, whose origins are largely unknown. Classic Maya civilization included a tradition of keeping native stingless bees in horizontally oriented, hollowed-out logs for the production of honey and wax. The legacy and value of this stingless-bee keeping, also called meliponiculture, can be found in their culture and religion. The most commonly kept species was Melipona beecheii , which the Mayas knew by the name of Xunan-kab . The principal way for Mayan beekeepers to access nest interiors and extract honey and wax was via the ends of the rustic log hives. Here I argue that the day signs Imix , Kib’ , Kab’an , Kawak and Ajaw represent cross sections of log hives that are visible when opened at their sides. The signs' interiors reflect extant but stylized bee nest elements that are important to beekeeping, such as food stocks, brood content, adult bees, and nest entrances. Similar to all other day signs and nearly all variants, their roundish, outer frames imitate a hollow log’s solid wall. In those cases where numerous hives were densely stacked together in bee sheds, Maya beekeeping must have become more complex in its organization. To tackle increasing complexity in bee management and sustain colony growth and optimize honey and wax production, Mayan beekeepers likely administered their work based on written figures related to beekeeping details. The five day signs were probably derived from a mnemonic system that originally was intended to identify individual log hives, to keep records of colonies and to share information with others involved in this activity.

Counter-memory and and–and: Aesthetics and temporalities for living together

This essay traces a critical genealogy of counter-memory – spanning critical theory, film and contemporary art – bound to what Rosi Braidotti terms nomadic subjectivity. Engaging with the work of feminist and postcolonial theorists and artists, this essay charts the import of nomadic subjectivity as a method for staying with the many times and histories of global contemporaneity. It aims to move beyond thinking of counter-memory as simply a means to maintain or register erased and/or contested histories, or as a dialectical mnemonic system. It charts an alternative concept of counter-memory, one that is post-dialectical, not bound to the formulas of either/or, us/them or self/other, but which is instead committed to the endless accumulation and proximities of things – the and–and.

Sensing the music: oral mnemonics as a technique of affective sensitization in Japanese “court music”

Inspired by a broader “sensory turn” in anthropology, research on Japanese traditional performing arts has recently acknowledged the intense physicality of doing fieldwork with actors and musicians. Moving from the similarly situated perspective of ethnographic apprenticeship, this article shows how shōga, the oral mnemonic system used in Japanese court music (gagaku), can function as a technique of affective sensitization. While past studies have successfully explained the efficacy of similar “acoustic-iconic mnemonic systems,” untangling their concealed logic, this research highlights the ways in which shōga operates on the level of affect, enabling practitioners to feel with each other. Analyzing how members of the group Nanto Gakuso use it to detect resonances between the kinaesthetic qualities of playing and dancing, the article maintains that shōga is employed not only as a mnemonic device, but also as a sophisticated means of embodied music transmission.

Memories of Kings of Israel and Judah within the Mnemonic Landscape of the Literati of the Late Persian/Early Hellenistic Period: Exploratory Considerations

ABSTRACTThis article explores, from a perspective informed by Social Memory studies, memories of kings of Judah (/Israel) in three different corpora (the Deuteronomistic Historical Collection, the Prophetic Book Collection and Chronicles). It draws attention to the interdependence between memories of kings and other characters populating the world of memory evoked by each of these corpora and explores the ways in which the worlds of memory evoked by each of them interacted, informed and balanced each other within what we may call the “comprehensive mnemonic system” of the literati. The article sheds light on generative grammars governing systems of preferences and dis-preferences for certain types of memories of kings in each of the corpora and across them, and at times, even across cultures, and highlights that the world of memory of the Yehudite literati of the late Persian/early Hellenistic period was shaped by a consistency of inconsistency, and an overall coherence manifested through a seeming lack thereof that served well the social reproduction of the group.