Evoking episodic and semantic details with instructional manipulation during autobiographical recall.

Older adults tend to describe experiences from their past with fewer episodic details, such as spatiotemporal and contextually specific information, but more nonepisodic details, particularly personal semantic knowledge, than younger adults. While the reduction in episodic details is interpreted in the context of episodic memory decline typical of aging, interpreting the increased production of semantic details is not as straightforward. We modified the widely used Autobiographical Interview (AI) to create a Semantic Autobiographical Interview (SAI) that explicitly targets personal (P-SAI) and general semantic memories (G-SAI) with the aim of better understanding the production of semantic information in aging depending on instructional manipulation. Overall, older adults produced a lower proportion of target details than young adults. There was an intra-individual consistency in the production of target details in the AI and P-SAI, suggesting a trait level in the production of personal target details or consistency in the narrative style and communicative goals adopted across interviews. Older adults consistently produced autobiographical facts and self-knowledge across interviews, suggesting that they are biased toward the production of personal semantic information regardless of instructions. These results cannot be easily accommodated by accounts of aging and memory emphasizing reduced cognitive control or compensation for episodic memory impairment. Nevertheless, future work is needed to fully disentangle between these accounts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Temporal features of size constancy for perception and action in a real-world setting: A combined EEG-kinematics study.

A stable representation of object size, in spite of continuous variations in retinal input due to changes in viewing distance, is critical for perceiving and acting in a real 3D world. In fact, our perceptual and visuo-motor systems exhibit size and grip constancies in order to compensate for the natural shrinkage of the retinal image with increased distance. The neural basis of this size-distance scaling remains largely unknown, although multiple lines of evidence suggest that size-constancy operations might take place remarkably early, already at the level of the primary visual cortex. In this study, we examined for the first time the temporal dynamics of size constancy during perception and action by using a combined measurement of event-related potentials (ERPs) and kinematics. Participants were asked to maintain their gaze steadily on a fixation point and perform either a manual estimation or a grasping task towards disks of different sizes placed at different distances. Importantly, the physical size of the target was scaled with distance to yield a constant retinal angle. Meanwhile, we recorded EEG data from 64 scalp electrodes and hand movements with a motion capture system. We focused on the first positive-going visual evoked component peaking at approximately 90 ms after stimulus onset. We found earlier latencies and greater amplitudes in response to bigger than smaller disks of matched retinal size, regardless of the task. In line with the ERP results, manual estimates and peak grip apertures were larger for the bigger targets. We also found task-related differences at later stages of processing from a cluster of central electrodes, whereby the mean amplitude of the P2 component was greater for manual estimation than grasping. Taken together, these findings provide novel evidence that size constancy for real objects at real distances occurs at the earliest cortical stages and that early visual processing does not change as a function of task demands.

How do the sleep features that characterise depression impact memory?

Depression is associated with general sleep disturbance and abnormalities in sleep physiology. For example, compared with control subjects, depressed patients exhibit lower sleep efficiency, longer rapid eye movement (REM) sleep duration, and diminished slow-wave activity during non-REM sleep. A separate literature indicates that depression is also associated with many distinguishing memory characteristics, including emotional memory bias, overgeneral autobiographical memory, and impaired memory suppression. The sleep and memory features that hallmark depression may both contribute to the onset and maintenance of the disorder. Despite our rapidly growing understanding of the intimate relationship between sleep and memory, our comprehension of how sleep and memory interact in the aetiology of depression remains poor. In this narrative review, we consider how the sleep signatures of depression could contribute to the accompanying memory characteristics.

From jamais to déjà vu: The respective roles of semantic and episodic memory in novelty monitoring and involuntary memory retrieval.

Barzykowski and Moulin's model proposes that déjà vu and involuntary autobiographical memories are the result of a continuously active memory system that tracks the novelty of situations. Déjà vu would only have episodic content and concern interpretation of prior experiences. We argue that these aspects of the model would gain to be clarified and explored further and we suggest possible directions.

The shared and unique neural correlates of personal semantic, general semantic, and episodic memory.

One of the most common distinctions in long-term memory is that between semantic (i.e., general world knowledge) and episodic (i.e., recollection of contextually specific events from one's past). However, emerging cognitive neuroscience data suggest a surprisingly large overlap between the neural correlates of semantic and episodic memory. Moreover, personal semantic memories (i.e., knowledge about the self and one's life) have been studied little and do not easily fit into the standard semantic-episodic dichotomy. Here, we used fMRI to record brain activity while 48 participants verified statements concerning general facts, autobiographical facts, repeated events, and unique events. In multivariate analysis, all four types of memory involved activity within a common network bilaterally (e.g., frontal pole, paracingulate gyrus, medial frontal cortex, middle/superior temporal gyrus, precuneus, posterior cingulate, angular gyrus) and some areas of the medial temporal lobe. Yet the four memory types differentially engaged this network, increasing in activity from general to autobiographical facts, from autobiographical facts to repeated events, and from repeated to unique events. Our data are compatible with a component process model, in which declarative memory types rely on different weightings of the same elementary processes, such as perceptual imagery, spatial features, and self-reflection.

Expectation-based gist facilitation: Rapid scene understanding and the role of top-down information.

Scene meaning is processed rapidly, with "gist" extracted even when presentation duration spans a few dozen milliseconds. This has led some to suggest a primacy of bottom-up information. However, gist research has typically relied on showing successions of unrelated scene images, contrary to our everyday experience in which the world unfolds around us in a predictable manner. Thus, we investigated whether top-down information-in the form of observers' predictions of an upcoming scene-facilitates gist processing. Within each trial, participants (N = 370) experienced a series of images, organized to represent an approach to a destination (e.g., walking down a sidewalk), followed by a target scene either congruous or incongruous with the expected destination (e.g., a store interior or a bedroom). A series of behavioral experiments revealed that appropriate expectations facilitated gist processing; inappropriate expectations interfered with gist processing; sequentially-arranged scene images benefitted gist processing when semantically related to the target scene; expectation-based facilitation was most apparent when presentation duration was most curtailed; and findings were not simply the result of response bias. We then investigated the neural correlates of predictability on scene processing using event-related potentials (ERPs) (N = 24). Congruency-related differences were found in a putative scene-selective ERP component, related to integrating visual properties (P2), and in later components related to contextual integration including semantic and syntactic coherence (N400 and P600, respectively). Together, results suggest that in real-world situations, top-down predictions of an upcoming scene influence even the earliest stages of its processing, affecting both the integration of visual properties and meaning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The ERP correlates of self-knowledge in ageing.

Self-knowledge is a type of personal semantic knowledge that concerns one's self-image and personal identity. It has most often been operationalized as the summary of one's personality traits ("I am a stubborn person"). Interestingly, recent studies have revealed that the neural correlates of self-knowledge can be dissociated from those of general semantic and episodic memory in young adults. However, studies of "dedifferentiation" or loss of distinctiveness of neural representations in ageing suggest that the neural correlates of self-knowledge might be less distinct from those of semantic and episodic memory in older adults. We investigated this question in an event-related potential (ERP) study with 28 young and 26 older adults while they categorised personality traits for their self-relevance (self-knowledge conditions), and their relevance to certain groups of people (general semantic condition). Participants then performed a recognition test for previously seen traits (episodic condition). The amplitude of the late positive component (LPC), associated with episodic recollection processes, differentiated the self-knowledge, general semantic, and episodic conditions in young adults, but not in older adults. However, in older adults, participants with higher composite episodic memory scores had more differentiated LPC amplitudes across experimental conditions. Moreover, consistent with the fact that age-related neural dedifferentiation may be material and region specific, in both age groups some differences between memory types were observed for the N400 component, associated with semantic processing. Taken together, these findings suggest that declarative memory subtypes are less distinct in ageing, but that the amount of differentiation varies with episodic memory function.

Cognitive and neuroimaging markers for preclinical vascular cognitive impairment.

Detection of incipient cognitive impairment and dementia pathophysiology is critical to identify preclinical populations and target potentially disease modifying interventions towards them. There are currently concerted efforts for such detection for Alzheimer's disease (AD). By contrast, the examination of cognitive markers and their relationship to biomarkers for Vascular Cognitive Impairment (VCI) is far less established, despite VCI being highly prevalent and often concomitantly presenting with AD. Critically, vascular risk factors are currently associated with the most viable treatment options via pharmacological and non-pharmacological intervention, hence early identification of vascular factors have important implications for modifying dementia disease trajectories. The aim of this review is to examine the current evidence of cognitive marker correlates to VCI pathology. We begin by examining midlife risk factors that predict VCI. Next, discuss preclinical cognitive hallmarks of VCI informed by insights from neuropsychological assessment, network connectivity and ERP/EEG experimental findings. Finally, we discuss limitations of current cognitive assessments and the need for future cognitive test development to inform diagnostic assessment. As well as, intervention outcome measures for preclinical VCI. In turn, these tests will inform earlier detection of vascular changes and allow implementation of disease intervention approaches.

Altering access to autobiographical episodes with prior semantic knowledge.

Within autobiographical knowledge, semantic and episodic memory are traditionally considered separate, but newer models place them along a continuum, which raises the possibility of an intermediate form of knowledge - personal semantics. This study tested how different types of semantics - general semantics and two forms of personal semantics - impact access to personal episodic memories. In two experiments, participants made a series of true/false judgments about a prime statement, which reflected a general semantic fact, a context-dependent (e.g., repeated event) or context-independent (e.g., trait), personal semantic fact and then retrieved a specific past episodic memory. There was a significantly stronger priming effect for accessing specific episodic memories after judging personal semantic facts versus general facts. We also found that context-dependent and -independent personal semantic facts had separable priming effects on episodic memory. These findings support a continuum model of memory and verifies that there are multiple forms of personal knowledge.

The N170 event-related potential differentiates congruent and incongruent gaze responses in gaze leading.

To facilitate social interactions, humans need to process the responses that other people make to their actions, including eye movements that could establish joint attention. Here, we investigated the neurophysiological correlates of the processing of observed gaze responses following the participants' own eye movement. These observed gaze responses could either establish, or fail to establish, joint attention. We implemented a gaze leading paradigm in which participants made a saccade from an on-screen face to an object, followed by the on-screen face either making a congruent or incongruent gaze shift. An N170 event-related potential was elicited by the peripherally located gaze shift stimulus. Critically, the N170 was greater for joint attention than non-joint gaze both when task-irrelevant (Experiment 1) and task-relevant (Experiment 2). These data suggest for the first time that the neurocognitive system responsible for structural encoding of face stimuli is affected by the establishment of participant-initiated joint attention.

Classification of general and personal semantic details in the Autobiographical Interview.

The Autobiographical Interview (AI) separates internal (episodic) and external (non-episodic) details from transcribed protocols using an exhaustive and reliable scoring system. While the details comprising the internal composite are centered on elements of episodic memory, external details are more heterogeneous as they are meant to capture a variety of non-episodic utterances: general semantics, different types of personal semantics details, metacognitive statements, repetitions, and details about off topic events. Elevated external details are consistently observed in aging and in neurodegenerative diseases. In the present study, we augmented the AI scoring system to differentiate subtypes of external details to test whether the elevation of these details in aging and in frontotemporal lobar degeneration (including mixed frontotemporal/semantic dementia [FTD/SD] and progressive non-fluent aphasia [PNFA]) would be specific to general and personal semantics or would concern all subtypes. Specifically, we separated general semantic details from personal semantic details (including autobiographical facts, self-knowledge, and repeated events). With aging, external detail elevation was observed for general and personal semantic details but not for other types of external details. In frontotemporal lobar degeneration, patients with FTD/SD (but not PNFA) generated an excess of personal semantic details but not general semantic details. The increase in personal but not general semantic details in FTD/SD is consistent with prevalent impairment of general semantic memory in SD, and with the personalization of concepts in this condition. Under standard AI instructions, external details were intended to capture off-topic utterances and were not intended as a direct measure of semantic abilities. Future investigations concerned with semantic processing in aging and in dementia could modify standard instructions of the AI to directly probe semantic content.

Scrutinizing the grey areas of declarative memory: Do the self-reference and temporal orientation of a trait knowledge task modulate the Late Positive Component (LPC)?

Knowledge about the future self may engage cognitive processes typically ascribed to episodic memory, such as awareness of the future self as an extension of the current self (i.e., autonoetic awareness) and the construction of future events. In a prior study (Tanguay et al., 2018), temporal orientation influenced the Late Positive Component (LPC), an ERP correlate of recollection. The LPC amplitude for present traits was intermediate between semantic and episodic memory, whereas thinking about one's future traits produced a larger LPC amplitude that was similar to episodic memory. Here, we examined further the effect of temporal orientation on the LPC amplitude and investigated if it was influenced by whether knowledge concerns the self or another person, with the proximity of the other being considered. Participants verified whether traits (e.g., Enthusiastic) were true of themselves and the "other," both now and in the future. Proximity of the other person was manipulated between subjects, such that participants either thought about the typical traits of a close friend (n = 31), or those of their age group more broadly (n = 35). Self-reference and temporal orientation interacted: The LPC amplitude for future knowledge was larger than for present knowledge, but only for the self. This effect of temporal orientation was not observed when participants thought about the traits of other people. The proximity of the other person did not modify these effects. Future-oriented cognition can engage different cognitive processes depending on self-reference; knowledge about the personal future increased the LPC amplitude unlike thinking about the future of other people. Our findings strengthen the notion of self-knowledge as a grey area between semantic and episodic memory.

An historical perspective on Endel Tulving's episodic-semantic distinction.

The distinction between episodic and semantic memory, proposed by Endel Tulving in 1972, remains a key concept in contemporary Cognitive Neuroscience. Here we review how this distinction evolved in Tulving's writings over the years. Crucially, from 1972 onward, he argued that the two forms of memory were inter-dependent and that their interaction was an essential feature of normal episodic memory function. Moreover, later elaborations of the theory clearly proposed that these interactions formed the basis of normal declarative memory functioning. A later but crucial aspect of Tulving's contribution was his stress on the importance of subjective experience, which, according to him, "should be the ultimate object of interest, the central aspect of remembering that is to be explained and understood". We relate these and his numerous other ideas to current perspectives about the organization and function of human memory.

From Knowing to Remembering: The Semantic-Episodic Distinction.

The distinction between episodic and semantic memory was first proposed in 1972 by Endel Tulving and is still of central importance in cognitive neuroscience. However, data obtained over the past 30 years or so support the idea that the frontiers between perception and knowledge and between episodic and semantic memory are not as clear cut as previously thought, prompting a rethink of the episodic-semantic distinction. Here, we review recent research on episodic and semantic memory, highlighting similarities between the two systems. Taken together, current behavioral, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging data are compatible with the idea that episodic and semantic memory are inextricably intertwined, yet retain a measure of distinctiveness, despite the fact that their neural correlates demonstrate considerable overlap.

Predicting memory formation over multiple study episodes.

Repeated study typically improves episodic memory performance. Two different types of explanations of this phenomenon have been put forward: (1) reactivating the same representations strengthens and stabilizes memories, or (2) greater encoding variability benefits memory by promoting richer traces. The present experiment directly compared these predictions in a design with multiple repeated study episodes, allowing to dissociate memory for studied items and their context of study. Participants repeatedly encoded names of famous people four times, either in the same task, or in different tasks. During the test phase, an old/new judgment task was used to assess item memory, followed by a source memory judgment about the encoding task. Consistent with predictions from the encoding variability view, encoding stimulus in different contexts resulted in higher item memory. In contrast, consistent with the reactivation view, source memory performance was higher when participants encoded stimuli in the same task repeatedly. Taken together, our findings indicate that encoding variability benefits episodic memory, by increasing the number of items that are recalled. These benefits are however at the expenses of source recollection and memory for details, which are decreased, likely due to interference and generalization across contexts.

Physical aggression and attentional bias to angry faces: An event related potential study.

This study aimed to identify the neural correlates of aggression-related attentional selectivity to angry faces in physical aggression. Physical aggression in a non-clinical sample of young men (N = 36) was measured using an aggression questionnaire. Visual attentional bias to angry faces was assessed using a dot-probe task during which angry and neutral faces were presented simultaneously, and EEG was recorded. Median split and correlational analyses were conducted to assess the relationship between physical aggression and attentional bias. Behavioural results indicated that higher levels of physical aggression were associated with greater attentional bias to angry faces. ERP results revealed an interaction where males with higher physical aggression had undifferentiated P3 amplitudes to angry and neutral trials, whereas low physical aggression males exhibited greater P3 amplitude to angry than to neutral trials (effect of probe congruency). Increased levels of physical aggression were also significantly correlated with increased P3 amplitude to probes replacing neutral faces, relative to angry faces. It was concluded that the aggressive males selectively attend to angry faces, and that attentional bias is characterized by undifferentiated P3 amplitude. We propose that this results from an inferior ability to downregulate competing angry face distractors when responding to probes replacing neutral faces (as reflected by the P3 response). These findings indicate that attentional bias to angry faces in individuals with higher physical aggression is characterized by a distinctive ERP signature; this could inform the development of therapeutic interventions seeking to reduce aggression.

A Central Component of the N1 Event-Related Brain Potential Could Index the Early and Automatic Inhibition of the Actions Systematically Activated by Objects.

Stimuli of the environment, like objects, systematically activate the actions they are associated to. These activations occur extremely fast. Nevertheless, behavioral data reveal that, in most cases, these activations are then automatically inhibited, around 100 ms after the occurrence of the stimulus. We thus tested whether this early inhibition could be indexed by a central component of the N1 event-related brain potential (ERP). To achieve that goal, we looked at whether this ERP component is larger in tasks that could increase the inhibition and in trials where reaction times (RTs) happen to be long. The illumination of a real space bar of a keyboard out of the dark was used as a stimulus. To maximize the modulation of the inhibition, the task participants had to perform was manipulated across blocks. A look-only task and a count task were used to increase inhibition and an immediate press task was used to decrease it. ERPs of the two block-conditions where presses had to be prevented and where the largest central N1s were predicted were compared to those elicited in the press task, differentiating the ERPs to the third of the trials where presses were the slowest from the ERPs to the third of the trials with the fastest presses. Despite larger negativities due to lateralized readiness potentials (LRPs) and despite greater attention likely in immediate press-trials, central N1s were found to be minimal for the fastest presses, intermediate for the slowest ones and maximal for the two no-press conditions. These results thus provide a strong support for the idea that the central N1 indexes an early and short lasting automatic inhibition of the actions systematically activated by objects. They also confirm that the strength of this automatic inhibition spontaneously fluctuates across trials and tasks. On the other hand, just before N1s, parietal P1s were found larger for fastest presses. They might thus index the initial activation of these actions. Finally, consistent with the idea that N300s index late inhibition processes, that occur preferentially when the task requires them, these ERPs were quasi absent for fast presses trials and much larger in the three other conditions.

Predicting our own and others' future preferences: The role of social distance.

People underestimate how much their preferences will change in the future, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as a "presentism bias." Recently, we found that this presentism bias is attenuated when thinking about the preferences of other people. The aim of this study was to investigate whether predicting future preferences also differs depending on the level of social distance between self and other. A total of 67 participants completed a perspective-taking task in which they were required to think about their own preferences, those of a generic peer, and those of a close other both now and in the future. They were also asked to consider the preferences of an older adult now. Participants predicted less change between their current and future preferences than between the current and future preferences of a generic peer. Predicted change in preferences for a close other were similar, but not identical, to those made for the self. When considering relevant future preferences, participants predicted less change for themselves than for their close others and less change for close others than for generic peers. In other words, as social distance increases, the presentism bias decreases. Interestingly, participants estimated that both they and their peers would not change so much that they become similar to current older adults. Simulating the future perspectives of a generic peer or, even better, the current perspectives of an older adult may thus result in improved long-term decision-making, as it may enable a more realistic estimation of the magnitude of likely changes in the future.

WITHDRAWN: Physical aggression and attentional bias to angry faces: An event related potential study.

This article has been withdrawn at the request of the authors. The authors have opted to update their article and have resubmitted it to the journal as a new submission. The updated article has now been accepted and can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2019.146387. The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal.

The ERP correlates of self-knowledge: Are assessments of one's past, present, and future traits closer to semantic or episodic memory?

Self-knowledge concerns one's own preferences and personality. It pertains to the self (similar to episodic memory), yet does not concern events. It is factual (like semantic memory), but also idiosyncratic. For these reasons, it is unclear where self-knowledge might fall on a continuum in relation to semantic and episodic memory. In this study, we aimed to compare the event-related potential (ERP) correlates of self-knowledge to those of semantic and episodic memory, using N400 and Late Positive Component (LPC) as proxies for semantic and episodic processing, respectively. We considered an additional factor: time perspective. Temporally distant selves have been suggested to be more semantic compared to the present self, but thinking about one's past and future selves may also engage episodic memory. Twenty-eight adults answered whether traits (e.g., persistent) were true of most people holding an occupation (e.g., soldiers; semantic memory condition), or true of themselves 5 years ago, in the present, or 5 years from now (past, present, and future self-knowledge conditions). The study ended with an episodic recognition memory task for previously seen traits. Present self-knowledge produced mean LPC amplitudes at posterior parietal sites that fell between semantic and episodic memory. Mean LPC amplitudes for past and future self-knowledge were greater than for semantic memory, and not significantly different from episodic memory. Mean N400 amplitudes for the self-knowledge conditions were smaller than for semantic memory at sagittal sites. However, this N400 effect was not separable from a preceding P200 effect at these same electrode sites. This P200 effect can be interpreted as reflecting the greater emotional salience of self as compared to general knowledge, which may have facilitated semantic processing. Overall, our findings are consistent with a distinction between knowledge of others and self-knowledge, but the closeness of self-knowledge's neural correlates to either semantic or episodic memory appears to depend to some extent on time perspective.