Köster Moritz, Haese André, Czernochowski Daniela
Center for Cognitive Science, Technical University Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Faculty of Education and Psychology, Free University Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
PLoS One. 2017 Aug 2;12(8):e0182540. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0182540. eCollection 2017.
This EEG study investigated the neuronal processes during intentional compared to incidental learning in young adults and two groups of children aged 10 and 7 years. Theta (3-8 Hz) and alpha (10-16 Hz) neuronal oscillations were analyzed to compare encoding processes during an intentional and an incidental encoding task. In all three age groups, both encoding conditions were associated with an increase in event-related theta activity. Encoding-related alpha suppression increased with age. Memory performance was higher in the intentional compared to the incidental task in all age groups. Furthermore, intentional learning was associated with an improved encoding of perceptual features, which were relevant for the retrieval phase. Theta activity increased from incidental to intentional encoding. Specifically, frontal theta increased in all age groups, while parietal theta increased only in adults and older children. In younger children, parietal theta was similarly high in both encoding phases. While alpha suppression may reflect semantic processes during encoding, increased theta activity during intentional encoding may indicate perceptual binding processes, in accordance with the demands of the encoding task. Higher encoding-related alpha suppression in the older age groups, together with age differences in parietal theta activity during incidental learning in young children, is in line with recent theoretical accounts, emphasizing the role of perceptual processes in mnemonic processing in young children, whereas semantic encoding processes continue to mature throughout middle childhood.
这项脑电图研究调查了年轻人以及两组分别为10岁和7岁儿童在有意学习与偶然学习过程中的神经元活动。分析了theta（3 - 8赫兹）和alpha（10 - 16赫兹）神经元振荡，以比较在有意编码任务和偶然编码任务期间的编码过程。在所有三个年龄组中，两种编码条件均与事件相关的theta活动增加有关。与编码相关的alpha抑制随年龄增长而增加。在所有年龄组中，有意学习任务的记忆表现均高于偶然学习任务。此外，有意学习与对感知特征的更好编码有关，这些特征与检索阶段相关。theta活动从偶然编码到有意编码增加。具体而言，所有年龄组的额叶theta均增加，而顶叶theta仅在成年人和较大儿童中增加。在年幼儿童中，两个编码阶段的顶叶theta同样高。虽然alpha抑制可能反映编码过程中的语义过程，但有意编码期间theta活动的增加可能表明感知绑定过程，这与编码任务的要求一致。年龄较大组中与编码相关的alpha抑制更高，以及年幼儿童偶然学习期间顶叶theta活动的年龄差异，与最近的理论观点一致，强调感知过程在年幼儿童记忆处理中的作用，而语义编码过程在整个童年中期持续成熟。
