scholarly journals Episodic memory and common sense: how far apart?

2001 ◽  
Vol 356 (1413) ◽  
pp. 1505-1515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Endel Tulving
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Perceptual Information ◽  
Subjective Time ◽  
Retrieval Processes ◽  
Past Experiences

Research has revealed facts about human memory in general and episodic memory in particular that deviate from both common sense and previously accepted ideas. This paper discusses some of these deviations in light of the proceedings of The Royal Society's Discussion Meeting on episodic memory. Retrieval processes play a more critical role in memory than commonly assumed; people can remember events that never happened; and conscious thoughts about one's personal past can take two distinct forms—‘autonoetic’ remembering and ‘noetic’ knowing. The serial—dependent—independent (SPI) model of the relations among episodic, semantic and perceptual memory systems accounts for a number of puzzling phenomena, such as some amnesic patients' preserved recognition memory and their ability to learn new semantic facts, and holds that episodic remembering of perceptual information can occur only by virtue of its mediation through semantic memory. Although common sense endows many animals with the ability to remember their past experiences, as yet there is no evidence that humanlike episodic memory—defined in terms of subjective time, self, and autonoetic awareness—is present in any other species.

scholarly journals Replay of cortical spiking sequences during human memory retrieval

Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 367 (6482) ◽  
pp. 1131-1134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex P. Vaz ◽  
John H. Wittig ◽  
Sara K. Inati ◽  
Kareem A. Zaghloul
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Single Unit ◽  
Temporal Order ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Memory Encoding ◽  
Human Cortex ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
Specific Sequences

Episodic memory retrieval is thought to rely on the replay of past experiences, yet it remains unknown how human single-unit activity is temporally organized during episodic memory encoding and retrieval. We found that ripple oscillations in the human cortex reflect underlying bursts of single-unit spiking activity that are organized into memory-specific sequences. Spiking sequences occurred repeatedly during memory formation and were replayed during successful memory retrieval, and this replay was associated with ripples in the medial temporal lobe. Together, these data demonstrate that human episodic memory is encoded by specific sequences of neural activity and that memory recall involves reinstating this temporal order of activity.

A Scene-Based Episodic Memory System for a Simulated Autonomous Creature

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa C. Castro ◽  
Ricardo R. Gudwin
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Navigation System ◽  
Cognitive Architecture ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Memory Module ◽  
The Past ◽  
3D Environment ◽  
Main Ideas

In this paper the authors present the development of a scene-based episodic memory module for the cognitive architecture controlling an autonomous virtual creature, in a simulated 3D environment. The scene-based episodic memory has the role of improving the creature’s navigation system, by evoking the objects to be considered in planning, according to episodic remembrance of earlier scenes testified by the creature where these objects were present in the past. They introduce the main background on human memory systems and episodic memory study, and provide the main ideas behind the experiment.

scholarly journals Total recall: episodic memory retrieval, choice, and memory confidence in the rat

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah R. Joo ◽  
Hexin Liang ◽  
Jason E Chung ◽  
Charlotte Geaghan-Breiner ◽  
Jiang Lan Fan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Correct Choice ◽  
Decision Variable ◽  
Future Behavior ◽  
Episodic Memories ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
Memory Confidence ◽  
Modern Machine

Episodic memory enables recollection of past experiences to guide future behavior. Humans know which memories to trust (high confidence) and which to doubt (low confidence). How memory retrieval, memory confidence, and memory-guided decisions are related, however, is not understood. Additionally, whether animals can assess confidence in episodic memories to guide behavior is unknown. We developed a spatial episodic memory task in which rats were incentivized to gamble their time: betting more following a correct choice yielded greater reward. Rat behavior reflected memory confidence, with higher temporal bets following correct choices. We applied modern machine learning to identify a memory decision variable, and built a generative model of memories evolving over time that accurately predicted both choices and confidence reports. Our results reveal in rats an ability thought to exist exclusively in primates, and introduce a unified model of memory dynamics, retrieval, choice, and confidence.

scholarly journals Components of episodic memory: the contribution of recollection and familiarity

2001 ◽  
Vol 356 (1413) ◽  
pp. 1363-1374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew P. Yonelinas
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Qualitative Information ◽  
Recognition Memory Performance ◽  
Retrieval Processes ◽  
Cognitive Neuropsychological ◽  
Memory Confidence ◽  
Threshold Process

The examination of recognition memory confidence judgements indicates that there are two separate components or processes underlying episodic memory. A model that accounts for these results is described in which a recollection process and a familiarity process are assumed to contribute to recognition memory performance. Recollection is assumed to reflect a threshold process whereby qualitative information about the study event is retrieved, whereas familiarity reflects a classical signal–detection process whereby items exceeding a familiarity response criterion are accepted as having been studied. Evidence from cognitive, neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies indicate that the model is in agreement with the existing recognition results, and indicate that recollection and familiarity are behaviourally, neurally and phenomenologically distinct memory retrieval processes.

scholarly journals Hippocampal-cortical encoding activity predicts the precision of episodic memory

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saana M. Korkki ◽  
Franziska R. Richter ◽  
Jon S. Simons
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Memory Retrieval ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Memory Formation ◽  
Continuous Scale ◽  
Neuroimaging Data ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
Object Features ◽  
Memory Precision

AbstractOur recollections of past experiences can vary both in the number of specific event details accessible from memory and the precision with which such details are reconstructed. Prior neuroimaging evidence suggests the success and precision of episodic recollection to rely on distinct neural substrates during memory retrieval. In contrast, the specific encoding mechanisms supporting later memory precision, and whether they differ from those underlying successful memory formation in general, are currently unknown. Here, we combined continuous measures of memory retrieval with model-based analyses of behavioural and neuroimaging data to tease apart the encoding correlates of successful memory formation and mnemonic precision. In the MRI scanner, participants encoded object-scene displays, and later reconstructed features of studied objects using a continuous scale. We observed overlapping encoding activity in inferior prefrontal and posterior perceptual regions to predict both which object features were later remembered versus forgotten, and the precision with which they were reconstructed from memory. In contrast, hippocampal encoding activity significantly predicted the precision, but not overall success, of subsequent memory retrieval. The current results identify a hippocampal-cortical encoding basis for episodic memory precision, and suggest a contribution of shared cortical encoding mechanisms to the formation of both accessible and precise memory representations.

scholarly journals Minocycline differentially modulates human spatial memory systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (13) ◽  
pp. 2162-2169
Author(s):  
Sam C. Berens ◽  
Chris M. Bird ◽  
Neil A. Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Long Term Potentiation ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
The Right

Abstract Microglia play a critical role in many processes fundamental to learning and memory in health and are implicated in Alzheimer’s pathogenesis. Minocycline, a centrally-penetrant tetracycline antibiotic, inhibits microglial activation and enhances long-term potentiation, synaptic plasticity, neurogenesis and hippocampal-dependent spatial memory in rodents, leading to clinical trials in human neurodegenerative diseases. However, the effects of minocycline on human memory have not previously been investigated. Utilising a double-blind, randomised crossover study design, we recruited 20 healthy male participants (mean 24.6 ± 5.0 years) who were each tested in two experimental sessions: once after 3 days of Minocycline 150 mg (twice daily), and once 3 days of placebo (identical administration). During each session, all completed an fMRI task designed to tap boundary- and landmark-based navigation (thought to rely on hippocampal and striatal learning mechanisms respectively). Given the rodent literature, we hypothesised that minocycline would selectively modulate hippocampal learning. In line with this, minocycline biased use of boundary- compared to landmark-based information (t980 = 3.140, p = 0.002). However, though this marginally improved performance for boundary-based objects (t980 = 1.972, p = 0.049), it was outweighed by impaired landmark-based navigation (t980 = 6.374, p < 0.001) resulting in an overall performance decrease (t980 = 3.295, p = 0.001). Furthermore, against expectations, minocycline significantly reduced activity during memory encoding in the right caudate (t977 = 2.992, p = 0.003) and five other cortical regions, with no significant effect in the hippocampus. In summary, minocycline impaired human spatial memory performance, likely through disruption of striatal processing resulting in greater biasing towards reliance on boundary-based navigation.

scholarly journals Great apes selectively retrieve relevant memories to guide action

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Bobrowicz ◽  
Mikael Johansson ◽  
Mathias Osvath
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
Innovation Planning

Abstract Memory allows us to draw on past experiences to inform behaviour in the present. However, memories rarely match the situation at hand exactly, and new situations regularly trigger multiple related memories where only some are relevant to act upon. The flexibility of human memory systems is largely attributed to the ability to disregard irrelevant, but salient, memories in favour of relevant ones. This is considered an expression of an executive function responsible for suppressing irrelevant memories, associated with the prefrontal cortex. It is unclear to what extent animals have access to this ability. Here, we demonstrate, in a series of tool-use tasks designed to evoke conflicting memories, that chimpanzees and an orangutan suffer from this conflict but overcome it in favour of a more relevant memory. Such mnemonic flexibility is among the most advanced expressions of executive function shown in animals to date and might explain several behaviours related to tool-use, innovation, planning and more.

scholarly journals Longitudinal Differences in Human Hippocampal Connectivity During Episodic Memory Processing

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyuwan Choi ◽  
Lisa Bagen ◽  
Linley Robinson ◽  
Gray Umbach ◽  
Michael Rugg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Memory Encoding ◽  
Hemispheric Differences ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Human Hippocampus ◽  
Hippocampal Networks

Abstract The question of longitudinal hippocampal functional specialization is critical to human episodic memory because an accurate understanding of this phenomenon would impact theories of mnemonic function and entail practical consequences for the clinical management of patients undergoing temporal lobe surgery. The implementation of the robotically assisted stereo electroencephalography technique for seizure mapping has provided our group with the opportunity to obtain recordings simultaneously from the anterior and posterior human hippocampus, allowing us to create an unparalleled data set of human subjects with simultaneous anterior and posterior hippocampal recordings along with several cortical regions. Using these data, we address several key questions governing functional hippocampal connectivity in human memory. First, we ask whether functional networks during episodic memory encoding and retrieval are significantly different for the anterior versus posterior hippocampus (PH). We also examine how connections differ across the 2–5 Hz versus 4–9 Hz theta frequency ranges, directly addressing the relative contribution of each of these separate bands in hippocampal–cortical interactions. While we report some overlapping connections, we observe evidence of distinct anterior versus posterior hippocampal networks during memory encoding related to frontal and parietal connectivity as well as hemispheric differences in aggregate connectivity. We frame these findings in light of the proposed AT/PM memory systems. We also observe distinct encoding versus retrieval connectivity patterns between anterior and posterior hippocampal networks, we find that overall connectivity is greater for the PH in the right hemisphere, and further that these networks significantly differ in terms of frontal and parietal connectivity. We place these findings in the context of existing theoretical treatments of human memory systems, especially the proposed AT/PM system. During memory retrieval, we observe significant differences between slow-theta (2–5 Hz) and fast-theta (4–9 Hz) connectivity between the cortex and hippocampus. Taken together, our findings describe mnemonically relevant functional connectivity differences along the longitudinal axis of the human hippocampus that will inform interpretation of models of hippocampal function that seek to integrate rodent and human data.

Human Memory Systems: A Framework for Understanding Dementia

ASHA Leader ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 8-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nidhi Mahendra ◽  
Allegra Apple
Keyword(s):  
Human Memory ◽  
Memory Systems
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