Dynamics of Episodic Memory Networks in the Developing Human Brain

记忆是一种基本的认知功能，在人类发展中起着至关重要的作用。从童年到青年，形成生动、详细的记忆的能力显著提高。尽管对儿童记忆发展进行了广泛的行为研究，但对大脑成熟如何支持情景记忆发展知之甚少。以前的证据表明，记忆来自大脑中几个大规模网络的协调活动。这些与记忆相关的网络是如何从儿童发展到成人的？它们是如何在发育过程中支持记忆能力的提高的？早期的学习经验是否影响这些网络的组织以及它们如何支持记忆发展？拟议的研究计划旨在通过应用一种新的多模态成像方法来回答这些问题，该方法使用混合横截面/纵向设计来研究从童年中期到成年早期的记忆网络的发展。该计划有三个短期目标。首先，我们的目标是阐明在记忆编码和提取过程中大脑皮层记忆网络动态的发展。其次，我们的目标是绘制出的记忆网络的功能连接的发展轨迹。第三，我们将研究记忆网络动态的变异性如何与发展过程中记忆表现的个体差异相关。 拟议的研究计划将提供有关大脑中大规模记忆网络成熟的新知识，这些大脑网络如何支持记忆发展并与发展过程中记忆表现的个体差异有关，以及不同的学习经验如何与这些过程相互作用。这些知识将大大有助于我的长期研究目标，了解大脑成熟和认知发展之间的相互作用。 这项研究的新颖之处在于，它通过应用多模态成像方法在网络水平上研究了大脑中情景记忆系统的发展。网络水平的方法对于理解记忆在大脑中如何发展的全貌至关重要。这项研究具有高度创新性，因为它集成了尖端的多模态成像（以实现高空间和时间分辨率），行为和计算方法，以解决不同记忆过程发展过程中网络相互作用的复杂动态。通过这项研究计划获得的知识将更好地为教育和课堂策略提供信息。 通过向科学界提供所开发的高分辨率MR方法，并向开放的科学知识库提供纵向多模态成像数据集，将最大限度地扩大拟议研究的广泛影响。

Memory is an essential cognitive function that plays a critical role in human development. The ability to form vivid, detailed memory improves significantly from childhood to young adulthood. Despite extensive behavioral research on memory development in children, very little is known about how brain maturation supports episodic memory development. Previous evidence suggests that memory arises from coordinated activities from several large-scale networks in the brain. How do these memory-related networks develop from children to adults? How do they support the improvement in memory abilities during development? Does early learning experience influence the organization of these networks and how they support memory development? The proposed research program aims to answer these questions by applying a novel multimodal imaging approach to investigate the development of memory networks from middle childhood to young adulthood, using a mixed cross-sectional/longitudinal design. The proposed program has three short-term objectives. First, we aim to elucidate the development of the hippocampal-cortical memory network dynamics during memory encoding and retrieval. Second, we aim to map out the developmental trajectory of the functional connectivity of the memory networks. Third, we will examine how variabilities in memory network dynamics relate to individual differences in memory performance during development. The proposed research program will deliver new knowledge about the maturation of large-scale memory networks in the brain, how these brain networks support memory development and relate to individual differences in memory performance during development, and how different learning experiences interact with these processes. This knowledge will contribute significantly to my long-term research goal of understanding the interaction between brain maturation and cognitive development. The proposed research is novel in that it investigates the development of episodic memory systems in the brain at the network level by applying a multimodal imaging approach. A network-level approach is crucial to understand the complete picture of how memory develops in the brain. The proposed research is highly innovative in that it integrates cutting-edge multimodal imaging (to achieve high spatial and temporal resolution), behavioral, and computational methods to tackle the complex dynamics of network interactions during the development of different memory processes. The knowledge gained by this research program will better inform education and classroom strategies. The broader impact of the proposed research will be maximized by making available to the scientific community the high-resolution MR methods developed and by contributing longitudinal multimodal imaging datasets to open science repositories.