Dataset Information

Neural oscillations and event-related potentials reveal how semantic congruence drives long-term memory in both young and older humans.

ABSTRACT: Long-term memory can improve when incoming information is congruent with known semantic information. This so-called congruence effect has widely been shown in younger adults, but age-related changes and neural mechanisms remain unclear. Here, congruence improved recognition memory in younger and older adults (i.e. congruence effect), with only weak evidence for age-related decline in one behavioral study. In an EEG study, however, no significant behavioral differences in the congruence effect could be observed between age-groups. In line with this observation, electroencephalography data show that, in both groups, congruence led to widespread differences in Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), starting at around 400?ms after stimulus onset, and theta, alpha and beta oscillations (4-20?Hz). Importantly, these congruence-related ERPs were associated to increases in memory performance for congruent items, in both age groups. Finally, the described ERPs and neural oscillations in the theta-alpha range (5-13?Hz) were less pronounced in the elderly despite a preserved congruence effect. Together, semantic congruence increases long-term memory across the lifespan, and, at the neural level, this could be linked to neural oscillations in the theta, alpha and beta range, as well as ERPs that were previously associated with semantic processing.

SUBMITTER: Packard PA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7272459 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Neural oscillations and event-related potentials reveal how semantic congruence drives long-term memory in both young and older humans.

Packard Pau A PA Steiger Tineke K TK Fuentemilla Lluís L Bunzeck Nico N

Scientific reports 20200604 1

Long-term memory can improve when incoming information is congruent with known semantic information. This so-called congruence effect has widely been shown in younger adults, but age-related changes and neural mechanisms remain unclear. Here, congruence improved recognition memory in younger and older adults (i.e. congruence effect), with only weak evidence for age-related decline in one behavioral study. In an EEG study, however, no significant behavioral differences in the congruence effect co ...[more]

PMID: 32499519

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Project description:Memories compete for retrieval when they are related to a common retrieval cue. Previous research has shown that retrieval of a target memory may lead to subsequent retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) of currently irrelevant competing memories. In the present study, we investigated the time course of competitive semantic retrieval and examined the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying RIF. We contrasted two theoretical accounts of RIF by examining a critical aspect of this memory phenomenon, namely the extent to which it depends on successful retrieval of the target memory. Participants first studied category-exemplar word-pairs (e.g. Fruit-Apple). Next, we recorded electrophysiological measures of brain activity while the participants performed a competitive semantic cued-recall task. In this task, the participants were provided with the studied categories but they were instructed to retrieve other unstudied exemplars (e.g. Fruit-Ma__?). We investigated the event-related potential (ERP) correlates of retrieval success by comparing ERPs from successful and failed retrieval trials. To isolate the ERP correlates of continuous retrieval attempts from the ERP correlates of retrieval success, we included an impossible retrieval condition, with incompletable word-stem cues (Drinks-Wy__) and compared it with a non-retrieval presentation baseline condition (Occupation-Dentist). The participants' memory for all the studied exemplars was tested in the final phase of the experiment. Taken together, the behavioural results suggest that RIF is independent of target retrieval. Beyond investigating the mechanisms underlying RIF, the present study also elucidates the temporal dynamics of semantic cued-recall by isolating the ERP correlates of retrieval attempt and retrieval success. The ERP results revealed that retrieval attempt is reflected in a late posterior negativity, possibly indicating construction of candidates for completing the word-stem cue and retrieval monitoring whereas retrieval success was reflected in an anterior positive slow wave.

Project description:As the stream of experience unfolds, our memory system rapidly transforms current inputs into long-lasting meaningful memories. A putative neural mechanism that strongly influences how input elements are transformed into meaningful memory codes relies on the ability to integrate them with existing structures of knowledge or schemas. However, it is not yet clear whether schema-related integration neural mechanisms occur during online encoding. In the current investigation, we examined the encoding-dependent nature of this phenomenon in humans. We showed that actively integrating words with congruent semantic information provided by a category cue enhances memory for words and increases false recall. The memory effect of such active integration with congruent information was robust, even with an interference task occurring right after each encoding word list. In addition, via electroencephalography, we show in 2 separate studies that the onset of the neural signals of successful encoding appeared early (∼400 ms) during the encoding of congruent words. That the neural signals of successful encoding of congruent and incongruent information followed similarly ∼200 ms later suggests that this earlier neural response contributed to memory formation. We propose that the encoding of events that are congruent with readily available contextual semantics can trigger an accelerated onset of the neural mechanisms, supporting the integration of semantic information with the event input. This faster onset would result in a long-lasting and meaningful memory trace for the event but, at the same time, make it difficult to distinguish it from plausible but never encoded events (i.e., related false memories).Significance statementConceptual or schema congruence has a strong influence on long-term memory. However, the question of whether schema-related integration neural mechanisms occur during online encoding has yet to be clarified. We investigated the neural mechanisms reflecting how the active integration of words with congruent semantic categories enhances memory for words and increases false recall of semantically related words. We analyzed event-related potentials during encoding and showed that the onset of the neural signals of successful encoding appeared early (∼400 ms) during the encoding of congruent words. Our findings indicate that congruent events can trigger an accelerated onset of neural encoding mechanisms supporting the integration of semantic information with the event input.

Dataset Information

Neural oscillations and event-related potentials reveal how semantic congruence drives long-term memory in both young and older humans.

Publications

Neural oscillations and event-related potentials reveal how semantic congruence drives long-term memory in both young and older humans.

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