Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, 39118 Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany; University of Applied Sciences, 39114 Magdeburg-Stendal, Germany.
Institute of Physics, Chemnitz University of Technology, 09126 Chemnitz, Germany.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2020 Apr;192:104787. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104787. Epub 2020 Jan 22.
Episodic memory, the ability to remember past events in time and place, develops during childhood. Much knowledge about the underlying neuronal mechanisms has been gained from methods not suitable for children. We applied pupillometry to study memory encoding and recognition mechanisms. Children aged 8 and 9 years (n = 24) and adults (n = 24) studied a set of visual scenes to later distinguish them from new pictures. Children performed worse than adults, demonstrating immature episodic memory. During memorization, picture-related changes in pupil diameter predicted later successful recognition. This prediction effect was also observed on a single-trial level. During retrieval, novel pictures showed stronger pupil constriction than familiar pictures in both age groups. The statistically independent effects of objective familiarity (previously presented pictures) versus subjective familiarity (pictures evaluated as familiar independent of the prior presentation) suggest dissociable underlying brain mechanisms. In addition, we isolated principal components of the picture-related pupil response that were differently affected by the memorization and retrieval effects. Results are discussed in the context of the maturation of the medial temporal lobe and prefrontal networks. Our results demonstrate the dissociation of distinct contributions to episodic memory with a psychophysiological method that is suitable for a wide age spectrum.
情景记忆，即按照时间和地点回忆过去事件的能力，在儿童时期发展。人们已经通过不适合儿童的方法获得了大量关于潜在神经机制的知识。我们应用瞳孔测量法研究记忆编码和识别机制。我们让 8 岁和 9 岁的儿童（n=24）和成年人（n=24）学习一组视觉场景，以便之后能将其与新的图片区分开来。结果显示，儿童的表现不如成年人，这表明他们的情景记忆尚未成熟。在记忆过程中，瞳孔直径与图片相关的变化可以预测之后的成功识别。这种预测效应在单次试验水平上也可以观察到。在检索过程中，与新图片相比，熟悉的图片在两组年龄的被试中都会引起瞳孔收缩。客观熟悉度（之前呈现的图片）和主观熟悉度（独立于之前呈现而被评价为熟悉的图片）的独立影响表明存在分离的潜在大脑机制。此外，我们还分离了与图片相关的瞳孔反应的主要成分，这些成分受到记忆和检索效应的不同影响。研究结果在讨论内侧颞叶和前额叶网络的成熟时被提出。我们的研究结果表明，通过适合广泛年龄范围的生理心理学方法，可以分离出对情景记忆的不同贡献。
