Investigating the neural and behavioural development of episodic memory and control

研究情景记忆和控制的神经和行为发展

• 批准号: RGPIN-2018-04933
• 负责人: Schlichting, Margaret
• 金额: $ 2.11万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=713364
• 关键词: Investigating; neural; behavioural; development; episodic

Memory is profoundly important to the human experience. In addition to allowing us to mentally travel back in time to re-live specific episodes, memory also abstracts away from particular events to form our general knowledge. Accordingly, our memory system must simultaneously represent aspects of our experiences that are unique, while also highlighting their shared features. Beginning in childhood, both types of memory play an important role in our everyday lives by allowing us to recall individual experiences and make new decisions based on our knowledge, respectively. Yet, virtually nothing is known about how the developing brain supports the ability to form, store, and access select information from a complex web of interrelated memories. This proposal will build on my prior work in healthy young adults to fill this critical gap in our understanding. I have previously shown that the mature brain stores both kinds of “distorted” memoriesdetailed (differentiated) and gist-based (integrated)in separate parts of the brain's memory and control systems. Are memories representedand distortedsimilarly over development as they are in adults? Emerging perspectives suggest probably not. Contrary to existing ideas that memory matures in infancy, new research reveals that both the memory and control regions of the brainhippocampus and prefrontal cortex, respectivelyin fact show protracted structural and functional development that continues into young adulthood. Due to asynchrony in the development of specific anatomical regions within hippocampus and prefrontal cortex as well as their structural connections, I hypothesize that memories will shift from being primarily rigid and specific early in life to flexible and generalized as we reach young adulthood. I propose a series of experiments to test this theory in three lines of inquiry: (1) how is memory competition resolved via differentiation or integration over development?; (2) how are reasoning operations impacted by the balance of differentiation and integration, and do they predict academic achievement?; and (3) in infancy, are memories rigidly bound to the context in which they were formed? The proposed work will provide empirical support for a novel mechanistic framework that will generate new predictions about how memory behaviours emerge and change across development. By grounding behaviour in the brain through the use of neuroscience approaches, we can begin to consider how differences in the neural machinery available at different points in development are relevant to educational practice. Finally, the cutting-edge methods central to the proposed research will provide a unique training experience for the undergraduate and graduate trainees supported by this proposal. Skills gained through this work will prepare my trainees to make innovative contributions to academia, education, and industry.

记忆对于人类体验非常重要。除了让我们在精神上回到过去重温特定的事件之外，记忆还可以从特定的事件中抽象出来，形成我们的常识。因此，我们的记忆系统必须同时代表我们独特经历的各个方面，同时也突出它们的共同特征。从童年开始，这两种类型的记忆在我们的日常生活中都发挥着重要作用，它们分别使我们能够回忆个人经历并根据我们的知识做出新的决定。然而，对于发育中的大脑如何支持从复杂的相互关联的记忆网络中形成、存储和访问选择信息的能力，我们几乎一无所知。该提案将建立在我之前对健康年轻人的研究基础上，以填补我们理解中的这一关键空白。我之前已经证明，成熟的大脑在大脑的记忆和控制系统的不同部分中存储了两种“扭曲”的详细记忆（分化的）和基于要点的（整合的）记忆。记忆在发育过程中的表现和扭曲是否与成人的记忆相似？ 新兴观点表明可能不会。与记忆在婴儿期成熟的现有观点相反，新的研究表明，大脑海马体和前额皮质的记忆和控制区域实际上分别表现出持续到成年早期的长期结构和功能发育。由于海马体和前额皮质内特定解剖区域的发育及其结构连接的异步性，我假设，当我们进入成年早期时，记忆将从最初的刚性和特定性转变为灵活和概括性。我提出了一系列实验，从三个方面检验这一理论：（1）如何通过分化或整合而不是发展来解决记忆竞争？ （2）分化与整合的平衡如何影响推理运算，它们是否预测学业成绩？； （3）在婴儿期，记忆是否与其形成的环境严格相关？ 拟议的工作将为一种新颖的机制框架提供实证支持，该框架将产生关于记忆行为如何在发展过程中出现和变化的新预测。通过使用神经科学方法为大脑中的行为奠定基础，我们可以开始考虑不同发育阶段可用的神经机制的差异如何与教育实践相关。最后，该研究的核心前沿方法将为该提案支持的本科生和研究生学员提供独特的培训体验。通过这项工作获得的技能将使我的学员做好准备，为学术界、教育界和工业界做出创新贡献。