Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of the Sciences, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Waterbury, Connecticut, USA.
Dev Psychobiol. 2021 Sep;63(6):e22124. doi: 10.1002/dev.22124. Epub 2021 May 6.
The ability to bind together the contextual details associated with an event undergoes dramatic improvement during childhood. However, few studies have examined the neural correlates of memory binding encoding and retrieval during middle childhood. We examined age-related encoding and retrieval differences using continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) measures in a sample of 6- and 8-year-olds. For the memory binding task, children were tested on memory for individual items (i.e., objects and backgrounds only) and combined object-backgrounds pairings (combination condition). Memory for individual item information was comparable across both age groups. However, younger children experienced greater difficulty (i.e., higher false alarm rate) in the combination condition. Theta (4-7 Hz) neuronal oscillations were analyzed to compare memory encoding and retrieval processes. Widespread retrieval-related increases in theta band EEG power (compared with baseline and encoding-related activation) were evident in both 6- and 8-year-olds. Regression analyses revealed that parietal theta EEG power during retrieval accounted for variability in memory binding performance. These findings suggest that theta rhythms are intricately linked to memory binding processes during middle childhood.
在儿童时期，与事件相关的语境细节的结合能力会得到显著提高。然而，很少有研究在儿童中期考察记忆绑定编码和检索的神经相关性。我们在一个由 6 岁和 8 岁儿童组成的样本中，使用连续脑电图（EEG）测量来检查与年龄相关的编码和检索差异。在记忆绑定任务中，孩子们接受了关于单个项目（即，仅对象和背景）和组合对象-背景配对（组合条件）的记忆测试。两个年龄组的个体项目信息记忆都相当。然而，年幼的孩子在组合条件下遇到了更大的困难（即，更高的误报率）。分析了θ（4-7 Hz）神经元振荡，以比较记忆编码和检索过程。在 6 岁和 8 岁的儿童中，都可以看到与基线和编码相关激活相比，检索过程中θ频段 EEG 功率的广泛增加（retrieval-related increases）。回归分析表明，在检索过程中，顶叶θ EEG 功率可以解释记忆绑定表现的变化。这些发现表明，在儿童中期，θ节律与记忆绑定过程密切相关。
