Pan Yafeng, Hao Ning, Liu Ning, Zhao Yijie, Cheng Xiaojun, Ku Yixuan, Hu Yi
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
NPJ Sci Learn. 2023 Aug 11;8(1):27. doi: 10.1038/s41539-023-00177-8.
It is said that our species use mnemonics - that "magic of memorization" - to engrave an enormous amount of information in the brain. Yet, it is unclear how mnemonics affect memory and what the neural underpinnings are. In this electroencephalography study, we examined the hypotheses whether mnemonic training improved processing-efficiency and/or altered encoding-pattern to support memory enhancement. By 22-day training of a digit-image mnemonic (a custom memory technique used by world-class mnemonists), a group of children showed increased short-term memory after training, but with limited gain generalization. This training resulted in regular odd-even neural patterns (i.e., enhanced P200 and theta power during the encoding of digits at even- versus odd- positions in a sequence). Critically, the P200 and theta power effects predicted the training-induced memory improvement. These findings provide evidence of how mnemonics alter encoding pattern, as reflected in functional brain organization, to support memory enhancement.
据说我们人类使用记忆法——那种“记忆的魔法”——在大脑中铭刻大量信息。然而，记忆法如何影响记忆以及其神经基础是什么尚不清楚。在这项脑电图研究中，我们检验了以下假设：记忆训练是否提高了处理效率和/或改变了编码模式以支持记忆增强。通过对数字图像记忆法（一种世界级记忆大师使用的自定义记忆技巧）进行为期22天的训练，一组儿童在训练后短期记忆有所增强，但泛化增益有限。这种训练导致了规则的奇偶神经模式（即，在对序列中偶数和奇数位置的数字进行编码时，P200和theta波功率增强）。至关重要的是，P200和theta波功率效应预测了训练引起的记忆改善。这些发现提供了证据，证明记忆法如何改变编码模式，如在功能性脑组织结构中所反映的那样，以支持记忆增强。
