Recognition Of Memories Research Articles

RTMS stimulation on left DLPFC increases the correct recognition of memories for emotional target and distractor words

According to a recent hypothesis, the prefrontal cortex has been proposed as the site of emotional memory integration, because it is sensitive to the recognition of emotional contents. In the present research, we explored the role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in memory recognition processes for positive versus negative emotional stimuli when old (target) and new (distractor, either semantically related or unrelated to the target) stimuli were presented. The role of the DLPFC was analysed using an rTMS (repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation) paradigm that induced increased cortical activation of the left DLPFC. The subjects were required to perform a task that consisted of two experimental phases (i.e., an encoding and a recognition phase) in which the targets and the distractors were presented and recognition performance was measured. rTMS stimulation was provided over the left DLPFC during the recognition phase. We found that the rTMS stimulation affected the memory recognition of positive emotional material. Moreover, related and unrelated distractors were discarded better when they were positively valenced, and a more significant effect (i.e., increased performance) was produced in response to related distractors. This result suggests that the activation of the left DLPFC favours the memory recognition of positive emotional information, and that such activation is able to induce a more appropriate selective process to distinguish target from distractor stimuli in the presence of more complex processes (related distractors). The valence model of emotional cue processing may explain this increased performance by demonstrating the distinct role of the left hemisphere in the retrieval of positive emotional information.

France and the Memories of “Others”: <em>The Case of the Harkis</em>

Historical narratives help construct social identities, which are maintained through differentiation between in-groups and "others." In this article, we contend that Fatima Besnaci-Lancou's texts, as well as her reconciliation work—in which she enjoins Beurs and Harkis' offspring to write a new, inclusive, polyphonic narrative of the Algerian War—are an example of the positive use of textually mediated identity (re)construction. Her work suggests the possibility of implementing a moderate politics of empathetic recognition of the (often migration-related) memories of "others" so as to reinforce French national belongingness.

Hypo-retrieval and hyper-suppression mechanisms in functional amnesia

Functional amnesia (FA) is characterized by an extensive retrograde memory loss in the absence of detectable structural brain damage. The two main hypotheses put forward to explain this disturbance involve a global retrieval deficit (affecting both pre- and post-onset memories) and a selective inability to explicitly retrieve pre-onset memories. Here, we extensively examined P.P., a patient with FA, with a view to obtaining additional insights into the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying this disorder. In Experiments 1 and 2, post-onset memories were assessed using tasks focusing on the state of consciousness associated with their retrieval. Although subtle deficits in the ability to recollect post-onset personal events were detected, P.P.’s performances were normal when the encoding of the event was monitored in a laboratory setting. In Experiment 3, implicit recognition of pre-onset memories was tested using skin conductance responses. Results showed that P.P. responded implicitly to photographs of personal pre-onset events that were not explicitly recognized. In Experiment 4, designed to assess the patient's ability to suppress newly acquired information, P.P. suppressed more items than controls. Additionally, while no grey matter loss was evidenced with voxel-based morphometry, magnetic resonance spectroscopy and magnetization transfer imaging showed significant metabolic and structural changes within the white matter of the right prefrontal lobe. In conclusion, our results suggest that FA may result from a combination between two processes, a “hypo-retrieval” of pre-onset memories, tentatively due to white matter tract damage, and a “hyper-suppression” mechanism, concomitantly preventing the retrieval of pre-onset memories.

Forgotten but not gone: The recall and recognition of self-threatening memories

When people selectively forget feedback that threatens the self (mnemic neglect), are those memories permanently lost or potentially recoverable? In two experiments, participants processed feedback pertaining either to themselves or to another person. Feedback consisted of a mixture of positive and negative behaviors exemplifying traits that were both central and peripheral to participants’ self-definition. In Experiment 1, participants exhibited poorer recall for, but unimpaired recognition of, self-threatening feedback (i.e., negative, central, self-referent), relative to both self-affirming feedback (positive, central, self-referent) and other-relevant feedback (positive/negative, central, other-referent). In Experiment 2, participants who had experienced ego-deflation, but not ego-inflation, exhibited mnemic neglect for recall, but not for recognition. Both experiments imply that, even after being self-protectively neglected, self-threatening memories can still be retrieved.

Effects of test sequence on anterograde and retrograde impairment of negative emotional scenes1

Abstract: The present study examined recognition for sequences of scenes depicting emotional compared with neutral events. In two experiments, participants were presented with a thematic series of 18 slides of scenes in which the content of two critical scenes in the middle of the series were either emotional (dead men's bodies) or neutral (an opera). A two‐item, forced‐choice recognition paradigm was used to test participants’ immediate memory performance of all 18 slides of scenes. In Experiment 1, anterograde and retrograde amnesic effects were observed for the emotional, but not the neutral scenes when a test sequence of scenes was used that did not match the original presentation order. In contrast, in Experiment 2 the test sequence matched the order seen during the original presentation, and both the anterograde and retrograde amnesic effects were not found. These results indicate that the reinstatement of the original event context is an important factor for the recognition of negative emotional memories.

Recognition of Sounds in Residential Areas - An Indicator of Our Ambiguous Sound Environments -

abstractAn index of sound recognition of an area, i.e. LSRC5/2, has recently been developed through reanalyzing a matrix composed of the results of 1240 respondents placed in rows, and responses to 39 sounds in columns. This was done by arranging the answers to questions in a questionnaire survey carried out by random sampling at Yokohama city in 1991. The index is a reproduction from a trail of sound environments in daily lives based not on measured acoustic data but on the recognition of the long-term memories of respondents. It indicates the level of ambiguity to our total sound environments. The index will become a useful target for land use planning, travel demand management, life enjoyment, and so on.

The effects of specific retrieval instruction on social problem-solving in depression.

We examine the proposal that social problem-solving in depression may be improved with the retrieval of specific autobiographical memories. Social problem-solving was assessed with the Means-End Problem-Solving task (MEPS; Platt & Spivack, 1975a). Depressed and non-depressed participants were required either to retrieve a specific memory prior to generating a MEPS solution (primed condition) or to report on the memories retrieved during MEPS performance after giving their MEPS solution (non-primed condition). Participants also judged whether the memories retrieved had been helpful or unhelpful for the process of solution generation. In both depressed and non-depressed individuals, priming increased specific memory retrieval but did not improve MEPS performance. An interaction between depression and priming revealed that priming increased the retrieval of helpful memories in the depressed sample. Specificity is not, in itself, a sufficient retrieval aim for successful social problem-solving. However specific memory priming may be beneficial in depression because it facilitates the recognition of memories which are helpful for problem-solving.

Face encoding and recognition in the human brain.

A dissociation between human neural systems that participate in the encoding and later recognition of new memories for faces was demonstrated by measuring memory task-related changes in regional cerebral blood flow with positron emission tomography. There was almost no overlap between the brain structures associated with these memory functions. A region in the right hippocampus and adjacent cortex was activated during memory encoding but not during recognition. The most striking finding in neocortex was the lateralization of prefrontal participation. Encoding activated left prefrontal cortex, whereas recognition activated right prefrontal cortex. These results indicate that the hippocampus and adjacent cortex participate in memory function primarily at the time of new memory encoding. Moreover, face recognition is not mediated simply by recapitulation of operations performed at the time of encoding but, rather, involves anatomically dissociable operations.

Delusional Misidentification in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Summary of Clinical and Biological Aspects

Delusional misidentification symptoms (DMS) are common in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and they are frequent sources of serious distress for patients and particularly caregivers. We observed DMS in around 30% of the patients with moderate to severe AD in two independent prospective studies; the Capgras type, phantom boarder, mirror and TV DMS were found most frequently. Patients with DMS showed increased EEG delta-power over the right hemisphere, their CT scans showed more severe right frontal lobe atrophy, and the number of their pyramidal cells in area CA1 was lower than in the patients without DMS. This may indicate that the development of DMS in AD can be promoted by certain patterns of brain degeneration which affect systems relevant to the recognition and updating of memories, while verbal skills may initially be left largely intact.