Autobiographical Memory Recall Research Articles

Music as a trigger for specific memories

AbstractBackgroundThis study uses the expertise of an ethnomusicologist who uses preexisting music in the brain music as the cue to trigger the autobiographical memories of her own mother struggling with dementia.MethodBy adapting a methodology in Ethnomusicology involving the autobiography of one’s music history, I set up the experiment for another ethnomusicologist to conduct. Dividing the study into discrete music time periods (infancy, childhood, teenager, young adult, older adult), I delineated specific songs or pieces of music with powerful meanings to the patient in those time periods to be played. The responses of the patient on video was then recorded.ResultEach of those pieces of music had some level of recognition by the Alzheimer’s patient, some stronger than others. Other attendant contextual memories surfaced during the experiment, suggesting autobiographical recall, despite a weakened sense of time and space after the onset of Alzheimer’s.ConclusionThis single case study needs to be broadened into a larger scale experiment involving many participants to assess the efficacy of this ethnomusicological‐derived approach to improve autobiographical recall abilities among the Alzheimer’s patients. This approach also makes it possible for families to engage in the autobiographical recall process using the preexisting music in the patients’ neural pathways. This study also offers collaborative efforts between Ethnomusicology and Neurology in running clinical trials to develop autobiographical memory recall processes for therapy.

Posterior hippocampal CA2/3 volume is associated with autobiographical memory recall ability in lower performing individuals

People vary substantially in their capacity to recall past experiences, known as autobiographical memories. Here we investigated whether the volumes of specific hippocampal subfields were associated with autobiographical memory retrieval ability. We manually segmented the full length of the two hippocampi in 201 healthy young adults into DG/CA4, CA2/3, CA1, subiculum, pre/parasubiculum and uncus, in the largest such manually segmented subfield sample yet reported. Across the group we found no evidence for an association between any subfield volume and autobiographical memory recall ability. However, when participants were assigned to lower and higher performing groups based on their memory recall scores, we found that bilateral CA2/3 volume was significantly and positively associated with autobiographical memory recall performance specifically in the lower performing group. We further observed that this effect was attributable to posterior CA2/3. By contrast, semantic details from autobiographical memories, and performance on a range of laboratory-based memory tests, did not correlate with CA2/3 volume. Overall, our findings highlight that posterior CA2/3 may be particularly pertinent for autobiographical memory recall. They also reveal that there may not be direct one-to-one mapping of posterior CA2/3 volume with autobiographical memory ability, with size mattering perhaps only in those with poorer memory recall.

A pharmacological challenge paradigm to assess neural signatures of script-elicited acute dissociation in women with post-traumatic stress disorder.

There is limited experimentally controlled neuroimaging research available that could explain how dissociative states occur and which neurobiological changes are involved in acute post-traumatic dissociation. To test the causal hypothesis that acute dissociation is triggered bottom-up by a selective noradrenergic-mediated increase in amygdala activation during the processing of autobiographical trauma memories. Women with post-traumatic stress disorder (n = 47) and a history of interpersonal childhood trauma underwent a within-participant, placebo-controlled pharmacological challenge paradigm (4.0 mg reboxetine versus placebo) employing script-driven imagery (traumatic versus neutral autobiographical memory recall). Script-elicited brain activation patterns (measured via functional magnetic resonance imagery) were analysed by means of whole-brain analyses and a pre-registered region of interest (i.e. amygdala). Self-reported acute dissociation increased significantly during trauma (versus neutral) recall but did not differ between pharmacological conditions. The pharmacological manipulation was also unsuccessful in eliciting increased amygdala activation following script-driven imagery in the reboxetine (versus placebo) condition. In the reboxetine condition, trauma retrieval resulted in similar activation patterns as in the placebo condition (e.g. elevated brain activation in the middle occipital gyrus and supramarginal gyrus), albeit with different peaks. Current (null) findings cast doubt on the suggested role of the amygdala in subserving dissociative processing of trauma memories. Alternative pharmacological manipulation approaches (e.g. ketamine) and analysis techniques (e.g. event-related independent component analysis) might provide better insight into the spatiotemporal dynamics and network shifts involved in dissociative experiences and autobiographical trauma memory recall.

From childhood trauma to hyperarousal in adults: The mediating effect of maladaptive shame coping and insomnia.

A new line of insomnia research focuses on the developmental trajectories from early live stress to insomnia in adulthood. Adverse childhood experiences (ACE's) might create a vulnerability for later maladaptive coping with distress, as seen in chronic hyperarousal or insomnia. In an functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, failure to dissociate the neurobiological components of shame from autobiographical shameful memories in insomnia was reflected by continued activation of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), which may be a result of maladaptive coping in the wake of ACE's. Following up on that study, the current pilot study explores the relation between ACE's, shame coping-styles, adult insomnia, hyperarousal, and neurobiology of autobiographical memory. We used existing data (N = 57) from individuals with insomnia (N = 27) and controls (N = 30), and asked these participants to complete the childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ). Two structural equation models were used to test the hypotheses that shame-coping styles and insomnia symptom severity mediate the association between ACE's and (1) self-rated hyperarousal symptoms and (2) dACC activation to recall of autobiographical memories. For the association between ACE's and hyperarousal, there was a significant mediation of shame-coping style (p < 0.05). This model also indicated worse shame coping with more ACE's (p < 0.05) and worse insomnia symptoms with more ACES's (p < 0.05), but no association between shame coping and insomnia symptoms (p = 0.154). In contrast, dACC activation to recall of autobiographical memories could only be explained by its direct association with ACE's (p < 0.05), albeit that in this model more ACE's were also associated with worse insomnia symptoms. These findings could have an implication for the approach of treatment for insomnia. It could be focused more on trauma and emotional processing instead of conventional sleep interventions. Future studies are recommended to investigate the relationship mechanism between childhood trauma and insomnia, with additional factors of attachment styles, personality, and temperament.

Emotion Regulation Strategy Choices Following Aversive Self-Awareness in People with Nonsuicidal Self-Injury or Indirect Self-Injury

Emotion regulation difficulties are implicated prominently in self-injury. Additionally, emotion regulation strategy selection is a core component of the emotion regulation process. Yet it is unclear how people who engage in different forms of self-injury attempt to regulate negative affect when multiple strategies are available to them. This laboratory-based study examined emotion regulation strategy choices in individuals who engage in non-suicidal self-injury (n=40), indirect forms of self-injury (disordered eating and problematic substance use; n=46), and controls (n=48). Following a self-relevant stressor (negative autobiographical memory recall), participants selected one of six strategies based on what they believed would most effectively alter their affect. Strategies spanned behavioral (physical pain, a snack, word activity) and non-behavioral (rumination, reappraisal, doing nothing) domains. Compared to controls, individuals who engage in NSSI and indirect self-injury were more likely to select behavioral strategies. In addition, people with NSSI and indirect self-injury were more likely than controls to choose physical pain and less likely to ruminate. Findings indicate that people with direct and indirect forms of self-injury alike are more likely to take action than engage in further thought when experiencing aversive self-awareness, even when cognitive strategies are made salient. Results illuminate intervention targets for these clinical populations.

Altered brain activity and functional connectivity after MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder.

3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has demonstrated promise in multiple clinical trials. MDMA is hypothesized to facilitate the therapeutic process, in part, by decreasing fear response during fear memory processing while increasing extinction learning. The acute administration of MDMA in healthy controls modifies recruitment of brain regions involved in the hyperactive fear response in PTSD such as the amygdala, hippocampus, and insula. However, to date there have been no neuroimaging studies aimed at directly elucidating the neural impact of MDMA-AT in PTSD patients. We analyzed brain activity and connectivity via functional MRI during both rest and autobiographical memory (trauma and neutral) response before and two-months after MDMA-AT in nine veterans and first-responders with chronic PTSD of 6 months or more. We hypothesized that MDMA-AT would increase amygdala-hippocampus resting-state functional connectivity, however we only found evidence of a trend in the left amygdala-left hippocampus (t = -2.91, uncorrected p = 0.0225, corrected p = 0.0901). We also found reduced activation contrast (trauma > neutral) after MDMA-AT in the cuneus. Finally, the amount of recovery from PTSD after MDMA-AT correlated with changes in four functional connections during autobiographical memory recall: the left amygdala-left posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), left amygdala-right PCC, left amygdala-left insula, and left isthmus cingulate-left posterior hippocampus. Amygdala-insular functional connectivity is reliably implicated in PTSD and anxiety, and both regions are impacted by MDMA administration. These findings compliment previous research indicating that amygdala, hippocampus, and insula functional connectivity is a potential target of MDMA-AT, and highlights other regions of interest related to memory processes. More research is necessary to determine if these findings are specific to MDMA-AT compared to other types of treatment for PTSD. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02102802, identifier NCT02102802.

Influences of intervention of autobiographical memory recall in problematic and non-problematic drinkers on mental health

Influences of intervention of autobiographical memory recall in problematic and non-problematic drinkers on mental health

Toward Affirmation of Recovery of Deeply Embedded Autobiographical Memory with Background Music and Identification of an EEG Biomarker in Combination with EDA Signal Using Wearable Sensors

There is no disputing the role that background music plays in memory recall. Music has the power to activate the brain and trigger deeply ingrained memories. For dementia patients, background music is a common therapy because of this. Previous studies used music to recall lyrics, series of words, and long- and short-term memories. In this research, electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrodermal activity (EDA) data are collected from 40 healthy participants using wearable sensors during nine music sessions (three happy, three sad, and three neutral). A post-study survey is given to all participants after each piece of music to know if they recalled any autobiographical memories. The main objective is to find an EEG biomarker using the collected qualitative and quantitative data for autobiographical memory recall. The study finds that for all four EEG channels, alpha power rises considerably (on average 16.2%) during the memory “recall” scenario (F3: p = 0.0066, F7: p = 0.0386, F4: p = 0.0023, and F8: p = 0.0288) compared to the “no-recall” situation. Beta power also increased significantly for two channels (F3: p = 0.0100 and F4: p = 0.0210) but not for others (F7: p = 0.6792 and F8: p = 0.0814). Additionally, the phasic standard deviation (p = 0.0260), phasic max (p = 0.0011), phasic energy (p = 0.0478), tonic min (p = 0.0092), tonic standard deviation (p = 0.0171), and phasic energy (p = 0.0478) are significantly different for the EDA signal. The authors conclude by interpreting increased alpha power (8–12 Hz) as a biomarker for autobiographical memory recall.

Do emotional modulation induced by social rejection or social inclusion influences paranoia-like thoughts? The Autobiographical memory recall and Cyberball paradigms in two online studies

Do emotional modulation induced by social rejection or social inclusion influences paranoia-like thoughts? The Autobiographical memory recall and Cyberball paradigms in two online studies

Bringing Order to Life: Temporal Order Effects during the Recall of Important Autobiographical Memories in Young and Old Adults

ABSTRACT Objective The present study investigated whether younger and older adults differ in the extent to which they order their important autobiographical memories (AMs) in a chronological way during recall. Moreover, the number of autobiographical memories to be recalled was systematically varied in order to examine whether manipulating the size of the search sample affects the use of a chronological recall strategy. Methods Data come from 118 younger adults (M = 23.12, SD = 3.33) and 124 older adults (M = 69.79, SD = 8.94) who recalled either seven or thirteen important AMs. Results Using multilevel linear growth models, a temporal order effect for younger and older adults was found. For older adults, the temporal order effect was much more pronounced. The number of recalled events, however, did not affect the temporal order effect. Conclusion Our findings point to a higher need for a structured search or a stronger engagement in autobiographical reasoning processes in older age. Furthermore, asking for important AMs encourages participants to provide a comprehensive overview oftheir life independent of the number of important AMs to be recalled.

Differential effects of familiarity and emotional expression of musical cues on autobiographical memory properties.

Features of visual cues, such as their familiarity and emotionality, influence the quantity and qualities of the autobiographical memories they evoke. Despite increasing use in autobiographical memory research, comparatively little is known about how such features of musical cues influence memory properties. In a repeated-measures design, we presented 24 musical cues selected to vary on their familiarity (high/low), emotional valence (positive/negative), and emotional arousal (high/low) to 100 young adults, who recorded details of any autobiographical memories that were evoked. Familiarity of the music primarily impacted memory accessibility, with high-familiarity music evoking more memories that were retrieved more quickly. More familiar music also elicited more positive and arousing memories; however, these differences were found to be attributed to greater liking of the high-familiarity music. The emotional expression of the music impacted the emotionality and evaluation of the memories, with negative valence/low-arousal (e.g., "sad") music evoking the most negative memories, high-arousal and positively valenced music evoking more arousing memories, and low-arousal music evoking memories rated as more important. These results provide important insights for developing effective paradigms for triggering (particular types of) autobiographical memories via music and highlight the need to critically consider potential differences in cue familiarity and emotionality in studies comparing musical with non-musical cues. Future research should extend this approach to other cue types (e.g., visual, olfactory, other auditory cues), to probe how familiarity and emotional qualities of cues conjunctively or interactively constrain autobiographical memory recall across different domains.

Conduction velocity along a key white matter tract is associated with autobiographical memory recall ability.

Conduction velocity is the speed at which electrical signals travel along axons and is a crucial determinant of neural communication. Inferences about conduction velocity can now be made in vivo in humans using a measure called the magnetic resonance (MR) g-ratio. This is the ratio of the inner axon diameter relative to that of the axon plus the myelin sheath that encases it. Here, in the first application to cognition, we found that variations in MR g-ratio, and by inference conduction velocity, of the parahippocampal cingulum bundle were associated with autobiographical memory recall ability in 217 healthy adults. This tract connects the hippocampus with a range of other brain areas. We further observed that the association seemed to be with inner axon diameter rather than myelin content. The extent to which neurites were coherently organised within the parahippocampal cingulum bundle was also linked with autobiographical memory recall ability. Moreover, these findings were specific to autobiographical memory recall and were not apparent for laboratory-based memory tests. Our results offer a new perspective on individual differences in autobiographical memory recall ability, highlighting the possible influence of specific white matter microstructure features on conduction velocity when recalling detailed memories of real-life past experiences.

Remembering for Relationships: Brief Cognitive-Reminiscence Therapy Improves Young Adults’ Perceptions About Self and Others in Social Relationships

Reminiscence-based interventions involve the guided recall and interpretation of autobiographical memories to promote adaptive thinking. This study involved secondary analyses of a recent trial of a positively focused, group-based, three-session version of cognitive-reminiscence therapy (CRT) on perceptions of general relationship quality and interpersonally related psychological resources in young adults. A community sample ( N = 62, Mage = 24.6 ( SD = 3.1), 71% identified as cisgender women and 29% identified as cisgender men) of young adults were randomised into a CRT and wait-list condition. Participants completed assessments measuring perceived general relationship quality (relationship satisfaction, emotional intimacy, commitment, and trust) and perceptions of self and others within relationships (relationship self-esteem, relationship self-efficacy, relationship optimism and meaning in relationships). The CRT group, relative to the control group, scored significantly higher on perceived relationship quality ( d = .62), and higher on generalized relationship self-efficacy ( d = .70), relationship self-esteem ( d = .59), and relationship optimism ( d = .57) at the follow-up. Group differences for relationship meaning were not statistically significant (small to moderate). A brief, positive-focused intervention of guided recall of autobiographical memories led to more adaptive perceptions about self and others within the context of relationships in young adults. Replication studies with larger samples are needed, and outside of a pandemic lockdown context. Future research may expand CRT to target other relationship variables, assess the impacts of different doses, explore relationships in specific populations, and better understand the mechanisms for change.

Functional connectivity changes in the delta frequency band following trauma treatment in complex trauma and dissociative disorder patients.

ObjectivePhase-oriented trauma treatment is efficacious in the treatment of complex trauma and dissociative disorder patients. However, the neural correlates of this therapeutic effect are not yet well-understood. In the current study we investigated whether patients show a strengthening in functional network connectivity in the delta frequency band (1–3.5 Hz) over the course of phase-oriented inpatient trauma treatment while they performed an emotion regulation task. Further, we examined whether neural changes were associated with symptom reduction and improvement in emotion regulation skills.MethodsBefore and after 8 weeks of treatment, electroencephalography (EEG) was acquired in patients (n = 28) with a complex posttraumatic stress disorder (cPTSD) or complex dissociative disorder (CDD). They also completed clinical and emotion regulation questionnaires. To delimit data variability, patients participated as one dissociative part that is referred to as Apparently Normal Part (ANP). Patients' data were compared to a matched healthy control croup (n = 38), also measured twice.ResultsPrior to treatment, functional connectivity was significantly lower in patients compared to controls during cognitive reappraisal of unpleasant pictures and passive viewing of unpleasant and neutral pictures. These hypoconnected networks largely overlapped with networks typically activated during the recall of (emotional) autobiographical memories. Functional connectivity strength within these networks significantly increased following treatment and was comparable to controls. Patients showed symptom reduction across various clinical domains and improvement in the use of cognitive reappraisal as emotion regulation strategy. Treatment-related network normalizations were not related to changes in questionnaire data.ConclusionPhase-oriented treatment may strengthen connections between regions that are activated during autobiographical recall. These findings encourage further investigation of this circuitry as a therapeutic target in cPTSD and CDD patients.Clinial trial registrationwww.ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT02459340, https://www.kofam.ch/de/studienportal/suche/149284/studie/26681.

Total VREcall

Our memories and past experiences contribute to guiding our perception and action of future affective experiences. Virtual Reality (VR) experiences are more vividly memorized and recalled than non-VR ones, but there is little research on how to detect this recall in VR. We investigate the feasibility of recognizing autobiographical memory (AM) recall in VR using physiological cues: skin conductance, heart-rate variability, eye gaze, and pupillary response. We devised a methodology replicating an existing AM Test in VR. We conducted a user study with 20 participants recalling AM using three valence categories cue words: positive, negative, and neutral. We found a significant effect of AM recalls on EDA peak, and eye blink rate, with a generalized recognition accuracy of 77.1% and person dependent accuracy of up to 95.1%. This shows a promising approach for detecting AM recall in VR and we discuss the implications for VR experience design.

Combined Aerobic Exercise and Neurofeedback Lead to Improved Task-Relevant Intrinsic Network Synchrony

Lifestyle interventions such as exercise and mindfulness training have the potential to ameliorate mental health symptoms and restore dysregulated intrinsic connectivity network (ICN) dynamics, seen in many psychopathologies. Multiple lifestyle interventions, in combination, may interact synergistically for enhanced benefits. While the impacts of lifestyle interventions on subjective measures of mood are well-documented, their impacts on ICN dynamics are not well-established. In this study, we assessed the validity of EEG-derived measures of ICN dynamics as potential markers of mood disorders, by tracking ICN dynamics and mood symptoms through the course of a longitudinal exercise intervention. Specifically, we investigated the separate and combined effects of aerobic exercise and mindfulness-like neurofeedback training on task-linked ICN dynamics of the default mode network (DMN), central executive network (CEN), and salience network (SN). Participants were assigned pseudo-randomly into four experimental conditions—Control, Running, Neurofeedback, and Combined, performing the corresponding intervention for 16 sessions across 8 weeks. Intervention-linked changes in ICN dynamics were studied using EEG-based neuroimaging scans before and after the 8-week intervention, during which participants performed multiple blocks of autobiographical memory recall (AM) and working memory (WM) trials, designed to activate the DMN and CEN, respectively, and to activate the SN in conjunction with the task-appropriate network. The EEG-based features for classification of the three core networks had been identified in our prior research from simultaneously recorded EEG and fMRI during the same AM and WM tasks. We categorized participants as “responders” or “non-responders” based on whether the exercise intervention increased their aerobic capacity (VO2-max) (Running/Combined group), and/or neurofeedback increased the percentage time spent in the calm mindfulness state (Neurofeedback/Combined group). In responders, compared to each intervention alone, the combined exercise-neurofeedback intervention resulted in a more healthy CEN-SN synchrony pattern. Interestingly, non-responders to neurofeedback exhibited a maladaptive pattern of persistent, task-inappropriate DMN-SN synchrony which we speculate could be linked to depressive rumination. Furthermore, the CEN-SN synchrony at baseline predicted NFB response with up to 80% accuracy, demonstrating the potential utility of such network-based biomarkers in personalizing intervention plans.

Neural correlates of acute post-traumatic dissociation: a functional neuroimaging script-driven imagery study.

Current neurobiological models of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) assume excessive medial frontal activation and hypoactivation of cortico-limbic regions as neural markers of post-traumatic dissociation. Script-driven imagery is an established experimental paradigm that is used to study acute dissociative reactions during trauma exposure. However, there is a scarcity of experimental research investigating neural markers of dissociation; findings from existing script-driven neuroimaging studies are inconsistent and based on small sample sizes. The current aim was to identify the neural correlates of acute post-traumatic dissociation by employing the script-driven imagery paradigm in combination with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Functional neuroimaging data was acquired in 51 female patients with PTSD with a history of interpersonal childhood trauma. Blood-oxygen-level-dependent response during the traumatic (versus neutral) autobiographical memory recall was analysed, and the derived activation clusters were correlated with dissociation measures. During trauma recall, enhanced activation in the cerebellum, occipital gyri, supramarginal gyrus and amygdala was identified. None of the derived clusters correlated significantly with dissociative symptoms, although patients reported increased levels of acute dissociation following the paradigm. The present study is one of the largest functional magnetic resonance imaging investigations of dissociative neural biomarkers in patients with PTSD undergoing experimentally induced trauma confrontation to elicit symptom-specific brain reactivity. In light of the current reproducibility crisis prominent in neuroimaging research owing to costly and time-consuming data acquisition, the current (null) findings highlight the difficulty of extracting reliable neurobiological biomarkers for complex subjective experiences such as dissociation.

Remembering for resilience: Brief cognitive-reminiscence therapy improves psychological resources and mental well-being in young adults.

Reminiscence‐based interventions focus on the recall of autobiographical memories and reflective reasoning about these remembered experiences. This study assessed the effect of a three‐session, positive‐memory version of cognitive‐reminiscence therapy (CRT) on the psychological resources and mental well‐being of young adults. The participants (N = 62, M age = 24.6 [SD = 3.1], 71% females) were randomised to CRT or wait‐list. Psychological resources (self‐esteem, self‐efficacy, meaning in life and optimism), mental well‐being (depression, anxiety and stress symptoms) and theorised change processes (automatic negative thoughts, awareness of narrative identity and cognitive reappraisal) were assessed. The results showed the CRT group was significantly higher on psychological resources at post‐CRT (d = 0.75–0.80) and follow‐up (d = 0.52–0.87) and mental well‐being at post‐intervention (d = 0.71–1.30) and follow‐up (d = 0.64–0.98). The hypotheses regarding change processes were supported. Future research may use an active comparator and include a longer follow‐up, given only short‐term effects were assessed. Brief, positive‐focused CRT is effective in increasing psychological resources and mental well‐being in young adults.

P323. Blunted Amygdala Activity to Positive Memories in Young Adults With High Familial Risk for Depression

Depression is associated with a tendency to recall fewer specific and fewer positive autobiographical memories (AMs), and reduced amygdala hemodynamic activity when recalling positive AMs. This amygdala response may be a causal mechanism underlying depression, yet whether it is a precursor to disease onset is unclear. This study evaluates if blunted amygdala activity during positive AM recall is detectable in healthy individuals at risk for major depressive disorder (MDD), to inform its utility as an early therapeutic target aimed at disease prevention.

P335. Amygdala Neurofeedback During Positive Autobiographical Memory Recall as an Intervention for Treatment Resistant Depression: Preliminary Data

Previous work has shown that patients suffering from depression can increase their amygdala hemodynamic response while recalling positive autobiographical memories via real-time fMRI neurofeedback training, and this increase is associated with reduction in depressive symptoms. This study investigated if this intervention could also be effective in patients suffering from treatment resistant depression – those who do not respond to standard psychological and pharmacological interventions.