Neuroscience Of Memory Research Articles

Effect of a simple experimental control: The recall constraint in Sternberg's memory scanning task

This study was aimed at determining how a simple experimental control—recalling the sequence of digits in the order they were presented—may affect quantitative and qualitative performance in Sternberg's short-term memory scanning paradigm. First, the presence or absence of this constraint was shown to have practically no effect on the relationship between sequence length and mean response time: the two general laws proposed by Sternberg were found to hold true in both experimental conditions. However, subjects who had to recall the digit sequence were consistently slower than those who did not, and the yes response curves of the two experimental conditions differed in shape. Moreover, correlations between parameters of the linear function and various aptitude scores showed that this task was linked to the memory span only when the participants had to recall the digit sequence. If our results are confirmed, they should help to improve the interpretation of the data collected in many studies that use this paradigm in cognitive psychology as well as in neuroscience of memory.

Implications of neuroscientific evidence for the cognitive models of post-traumatic stress disorder

Brewin's dual representation theory, Ehlers and Clark's cognitive appraisal model, and Dalgleish's schematic, propositional, analogue and associative representational systems model are considered in the light of recent evidence on the neural substrates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The models' proposals about the cognitive mechanism of memory dysfunction in PTSD are described and evaluated against current knowledge about the neural pathways and functions disrupted in PTSD. A dual pathway model of memory is consistent with neuroscience of memory. The appraisal model also provides an account of the top-down modulation of memory and arousal problems consistent with current neuroscientific evidence of PTSD. Dalgleish's model is less consistent with the evidence because it relies upon assumptions that cannot yet be tested neuroscientifically. All three models under-specify the causal and maintaining influence of hyperarousal relative to the role it plays in current neuroscientific models of PTSD. Implications of the evidence for improving treatment and prevention are discussed.

From the Neuroscience of Memory to Psychoanalytic Interaction: Clinical Implications.

From the Neuroscience of Memory to Psychoanalytic Interaction: Clinical Implications.

The cognitive neuroscience of memory

The cognitive neuroscience of memory

Interlevel Experiments and Multilevel Mechanisms in the Neuroscience of Memory

The dominant neuroscientific theory of spatial memory is, like many theories in neuroscience, a multilevel description of a mechanism. The theory links the activities of molecules, cells, brain regions, and whole organisms into an integrated sketch of an explanation for the ability of organisms to navigate novel environments. Here I develop a taxonomy of interlevel experimental strategies for integrating the levels in such multilevel mechanisms. These experimental strategies include activation strategies, interference strategies, and additive strategies. These strategies are mutually reinforcing, providing a kind of interlevel and intratheoretic robustness that has not previously been recognized.

Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews

14 Memory 15 Synaesthesia 16 Grapheme-colour 17 Time-space 18 Superiority 19 a b s t r a c t People with synaesthesia show an enhanced memory relative to demographically matched controls. The most obvious explanation for this is that the 'extra' perceptual experiences lead to richer encoding and retrieval opportunities of stimuli which induce synaesthesia (typically verbal stimuli). Although there is some evidence for this, it is unlikely to be the whole explanation. For instance, not all stimuli which trigger synaesthesia are better remembered (e.g., digit span) and some stimuli which do not trigger synaesthesia are better remembered. In fact, synaesthetes tend to have better visual memory than verbal memory. We suggest that enhanced memory in synaesthesia is linked to wider changes in cognitive systems at the interface of perception and memory and link this to recent findings in the neuroscience of memory. © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The cognitive neuroscience of memory: perspectives from neuroimaging research.

Cognitive neuroscience approaches to memory attempt to elucidate the brain processes and systems that are involved in different forms of memory and learning. This paper examines recent research from brain-damaged patients and neuroimaging studies that bears on the distinction between explicit and implicit forms of memory. Explicit memory refers to conscious recollection of previous experiences, whereas implicit memory refers to the non-conscious effects of past experiences on subsequent performance and behaviour. Converging evidence suggests that an implicit form of memory known as priming is associated with changes in posterior cortical regions that are involved in perceptual processing; some of the same regions may contribute to explicit memory. The hippocampal formation and prefrontal cortex also play important roles in explicit memory. Evidence is presented from recent PET scanning studies that suggests that frontal regions are associated with intentional strategic efforts to retrieve recent experiences, whereas the hippocampal formation is associated with some aspect of the actual recollection of an event.

Network Analysis of Positron Emission Tomography Regional Cerebral Blood Flow Data: Ensemble Inhibition during Episodic Memory Retrieval

Two important objectives in the neuroscience of memory are (1) identification of neural pathways involved in memory processes; and (2) characterization of the pattern of interactions between these pathways. Functional neuroimaging can contribute to both of these goals. Using image subtraction analysis of regional cerebral blood flow data measured with positron emission tomography, we identified brain regions that changed activity during episodic memory retrieval (visual work recognition). Relative to a baseline reading task, decreased activity was observed in bilateral prefrontal, bilateral anterior and posterior temporal, and posterior cingulate cortices. Brain regions showing increased activity were the right prefrontal (different from deactivated regions), left anterior cingulate, and left occipital cortices, and vermis of cerebellum. We then performed a network analysis with structural equation modeling to test the hypothesis that regional decreases came about through active inhibition by regions showing increased activity during retrieval. This analysis demonstrated that the influence of activated regions on deactivated regions was more negative during retrieval than during reading, confirming the inhibition hypothesis. Such confirmation could not have been made from the subtraction analysis alone because decreases can come about, at the very least, through reduction of functional influences as well as by active inhibition. The concepts of ensemble excitation and inhibition, as defined through network analysis, are introduced. We argue that is is critical to examine the combined pattern of excitatory and inhibitory influences to fully appreciate the neural basis of episodic memory.

The cognitive neuroscience of memory

The cognitive neuroscience of memory