The aging episodic memory and its plasticity: A cross-cultural approach

老化的情景记忆及其可塑性：跨文化方法

• 批准号: 411083073
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Jutta Kray
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: National Natural Science Foundation of China
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2018-12-31 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/411083073?language=en
• 关键词: aging; episodic; memory; its; plasticity

The aging episodic memory and its plasticity: A cross-cultural approachEpisodic memory (i.e., the ability to learn and remember an episode with its specific temporal and spatial context) impairments are prominent in healthy older adults and in patients with amnesic mild cognitive impairments (aMCI) who are at high risk for the development of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Cross-cultural research has indicated that Westerners in a relatively individualized, independent culture are inclined to process context-independent and categorical information, whereas East Asians in a more collectivistic tradition pay more attention to contextual and relational information (Park & Gutchess, 2006). However, not much is known on how culture-related lifelong experiences moderate age-related and neurodegenerative deficits in episodic memory, and how this is reflected in the associated neural underpinnings.The main goal of the proposed research project is to examine the contribution of lifelong experience with cultural values and practices on age differences in long-term episodic memory processes and its neural underpinnings and to develop and validate a culturally adapted memory training intervention for healthy older adults and a-MCI patients. In more detail, we will use an Age by Culture interaction approach to explore how two subprocesses of episodic memory, familiarity and recollection and their electrophysiological correlates (the FN400 and LPC, respectively) are modulated by culture. In the first project part we plan a systematic investigation of how memory for objects and scenes and source memory for valued information are modulated by culture in different age groups. Here it will be explored whether items and context (or source) can be fused to a unitized representation and remembered on the basis of familiarity. A special focus will be how culture and age modulate strategic retrieval processing (i.e. retrieval orientation).In Part 2 we aim to develop and validate a culturally adapted memory intervention program for healthy older adults and aMCI patients. Given that familiarity-based unitization is relatively preserved in both healthy older adults and a-MCI patients (Koen & Yonelinas, 2014), we predict that the culturally preferred mnemonic strategy training (i.e., relational associations in Chinese and categorical associations in Germans) will produce the largest benefits in associative remembering as well as enhanced FN400 and reduced LPC effects.The findings will not only provide novel insights into the relative contributions of nature (i.e., biological decline) and nurture (i.e., culture experience) to cognitive aging. They also have important practical and clinical implications in creating aging-specific and effective memory training programs which will ameliorate the quality of life among older adults and prevent and delay the onset of dementia in both cultures.

情景记忆的老化及其可塑性：跨文化研究情景记忆（即，学习和记忆具有其特定时间和空间背景的事件的能力）损伤在健康老年人和处于阿尔茨海默病（AD）发展的高风险中的遗忘性轻度认知损伤（aMCI）患者中是突出的。跨文化研究表明，西方人在一个相对个性化，独立的文化倾向于处理上下文无关和分类信息，而东亚人在一个更集体主义的传统，更注重上下文和关系信息（公园和Gutchess，2006）。然而，关于文化相关的终身经历如何调节情景记忆中与年龄相关的神经退行性缺陷，以及这是如何反映在相关的神经基础。拟议的研究项目的主要目标是研究终身经验的贡献与文化价值观和做法的年龄差异，在长期的，术语情景记忆过程及其神经基础，并开发和验证健康老年人和a-MCI患者的文化适应性记忆训练干预。更详细地说，我们将使用年龄文化互动的方法，探讨如何情景记忆，熟悉和回忆和他们的电生理相关（FN 400和LPC，分别）的两个子过程调制的文化。在第一个项目部分，我们计划在不同年龄组的文化如何调制的对象和场景的记忆和有价值的信息的源记忆的系统调查。在这里，我们将探讨项目和上下文（或来源）是否可以融合到一个单位化的表示和熟悉的基础上记住。一个特别的重点将是文化和年龄如何调节策略检索处理（即检索取向）。在第2部分中，我们的目标是开发和验证一个文化适应的记忆干预计划，为健康的老年人和aMCI患者。鉴于基于熟悉度的单元化在健康老年人和a-MCI患者中相对保留（Koen & Yonelinas，2014），我们预测文化上偏好的记忆策略训练（即，汉语的关系联想和德语的范畴联想）将在联想记忆中产生最大的益处，以及增强的FN 400和减少的LPC效应。这一发现不仅将为自然的相对贡献提供新的见解（即，生物衰退）和养育（即，文化经验）到认知老化。他们也有重要的实践和临床意义，在创建特定年龄和有效的记忆训练计划，这将改善老年人的生活质量，预防和延迟痴呆症的发病在两种文化。