المفاهيم الأساسية
Children show less robust memory consolidation and differential neural upregulation for remote versus recent memories compared to young adults. Both children and adults exhibit decreased scene-specific neural reinstatement over time, but children rely more on gist-like neural reinstatement in anterior hippocampal and medial prefrontal regions.
الملخص
This study examined system-level memory consolidation of object-scene associations in 5-to-7-year-old children and young adults. The researchers characterized changes in functional neural activation and reinstatement of neural patterns over time, assessed by fMRI and representational similarity analysis.
Key findings:
- Memory consolidation was less robust in children compared to young adults, with more forgetting over time.
- Contrasting remote versus recent memories, children showed less upregulation in posterior parahippocampal gyrus, lateral occipital cortex, and cerebellum than adults.
- Both children and adults exhibited decreased scene-specific neural reinstatement over time, indicating time-related decay of detailed differentiated memories.
- Children relied more on gist-like neural reinstatement in anterior hippocampal and medial prefrontal regions, suggesting qualitative differences in memory traces compared to adults.
- Multivariate brain profiles of neural upregulation and scene-specific reinstatement were associated with variations in short-term and long-term memory performance similarly in both age groups.
In summary, 5-to-7-year-old children show less robust memory consolidation compared to young adults, potentially due to difficulties in engaging in differentiated neural reinstatement in neocortical regions during remote memory retrieval, coupled with greater reliance on gist-like neural reinstatement.
الإحصائيات
"Children needed on average between two to four learning-cycles to reach the criterion of 83% correct responses, while young adults needed on average two cycles."
"Final learning accuracy was significantly higher in young adults compared to children across all sessions."
"Memory accuracy for recently consolidated items did not differ between sessions in young adults and children and was collapsed across recent memory accuracy on Day 1 and Day 14. Memory accuracy for remotely consolidated items differed between sessions in both young adults and children, showing higher remote memory accuracy on Day 1 than on Day 14."
اقتباسات
"Memory consolidation tends to be less robust in childhood than adulthood. However, little is known about the corresponding functional differences in the developing brain that may underlie age-related differences in retention of memories over time."
"Taken together, 5-to-7-year-old children, compared to young adults, show less robust memory consolidation, possibly due to difficulties in engaging in differentiated neural reinstatement in neocortical mnemonic regions during retrieval of remote memories, coupled with relying more on gist-like generic neural reinstatement."