Factors Affecting Memory Encoding and Retrieval: A Cognitive Neuroscience Approach

记忆是一系列过程，我们通过这些过程编码和保留来自环境的信息，并随后访问它来重建过去的经验并指导行为。我和我的学生使用认知范式以及功能性磁神经成像来识别成功记忆所需的过程，并详细说明表现的神经基础。我的研究计划的长期目标是明确影响编码和提取的因素。确定这些过程如何在认知和神经水平上相互作用，将突出帮助或阻碍我们记忆能力的条件和情况。 我实验室之前的研究表明，当另一项正在进行的任务在编码过程中争夺注意力时，或者在检索过程中争夺类似材料时，记忆就会被破坏。第一部分的建议将评估是否个人，实验者诱导，在记忆中的信息表示的差异影响成功的检索，并将确定这一发现的非语言材料的普遍性。第二部分将探讨一个假设，即在编码过程中招募额外的特定于上下文的大脑区域会产生更强大的记忆痕迹，这些痕迹可以更容易和可靠地被各种线索重新激活，保护记忆免受双重任务对记忆的负面影响。虽然成功地检索信息是衡量记忆状态的一个指标，但记忆的质量是另一个指标。第三部分将讨论不同的编码条件如何影响记忆痕迹的质量。通过比较条件和人群（年轻人与老年人），允许创建或多或少有凝聚力的，上下文相关的记忆痕迹，我们可以更好地指定支持高保真记忆的条件和大脑区域。 在行为和神经水平上，这里提出的工作的融合将完善最初在我的实验室使用认知和神经成像方法开发的情景记忆模型。拟议的研究之所以重要，有几个原因。首先，他们强调了记忆表现可能被破坏的条件和情况，从而深入了解人类认知过程的局限性。第二，它们确定了补偿这种干扰效应的方法。最后，它们决定编码操作，这些操作可以影响记忆的数量和质量。 我的研究计划的所有三个方面都建立在过去资助周期取得的重大进展的基础上。我的研究计划将有助于培养学生谁将获得在认知神经科学研究的关键技能，突出的方法来改善记忆，尽管赤字与正常衰老，并与多任务环境中的年轻健康的成年人，这是越来越多地存在于今天的快节奏的世界。

Memory is the set of processes by which we encode and retain information from our environment, and subsequently access it to reconstruct past experiences and guide behaviour. My students and I use cognitive paradigms as well as functional magnetic neuroimaging to identify the processes required for successful memory, and to specify the neural basis of performance. The long-term goal of my research program is to specify factors affecting encoding and retrieval. Determining how these processes interact, at both the cognitive and neural levels, will highlight conditions and situations that help or hinder our ability to remember. Prior research in my lab showed that memory is disrupted when another ongoing task competes for attention during encoding, or for similar materials during retrieval. Part 1 of this proposal will assess whether individual, and experimenter-induced, differences in representing information in memory influence successful retrieval, and will determine the generalizability of this finding to non-verbal materials. Part 2 will explore the hypothesis that recruiting additional context-specific brain regions during encoding produces more robust memory traces that can more readily and reliably be re-activated by various cues, protecting memories from negative effects of dual-tasking on memory. While success at retrieving information is one measure indexing memory status, the quality of one’s memory is another. Part 3 will consider how different encoding conditions influence the quality of the memory trace that is formed and subsequently retrieved. By comparing conditions, and populations (younger versus older adults), that allow for creation of more or less cohesive, contextually-bound memory traces, we can better specify the conditions and brain regions that support high-fidelity memories. The convergence of work proposed here, at both the behavioural and neural levels, will refine a model of episodic memory initially developed in my lab using cognitive and neuroimaging methodologies. The proposed studies are important for several reasons. First, they highlight conditions and situations in which memory performance can be disrupted, providing insight into the limitations of human cognitive processing. Second, they identify a means for compensating for such interference effects. Finally, they determine encoding operations that can influence both the quantity and quality of what can be remembered. All 3 facets of my research program build on significant progress made during the past funding cycle. My research program will serve to train students who will gain skills critical for research in cognitive neuroscience, highlighting ways to ameliorate memory despite deficits associated with normal aging, and with multi-tasking environments in young healthy adults which are ever more present in today’s fast-paced world.