On the Organization of Short-Term Memory by Modality

The analysis of how a modality affects the structure of the memory process has until recently been an open question.     

Implicit Learning of Arithmetic Regularities Is Facilitated by Proximal Contrast

Natural number arithmetic is a simple, powerful and important symbolic system. Despite intense focus on learning in cognitive development and educational research many adults have weak knowledge of the system. In current study participants learn arithmetic principles via an implicit learning paradigm. Participants learn not by solving arithmetic equations, but through viewing and evaluating example equations, similar to the implicit learning of artificial grammars. We expand this to the symbolic arithmetic system. Specifically we find that exposure to principle-inconsistent examples facilitates the acquisition of arithmetic principle knowledge if the equations are presented to the learning in a temporally proximate fashion. The results expand on research of the implicit learning of regularities and suggest that contrasting cases, show to facilitate explicit arithmetic learning, is also relevant to implicit learning of arithmetic.     

Working Memory Is Partially Preserved during Sleep

Although several cognitive processes, including speech processing, have been studied during sleep, working memory (WM) has never been explored up to now. Our study assessed the capacity of WM by testing speech perception when the level of background noise and the sentential semantic length (SSL) (amount of semantic information required to perceive the incongruence of a sentence) were modulated. Speech perception was explored with the N400 component of the event-related potentials recorded to sentence final words (50% semantically congruent with the sentence, 50% semantically incongruent). During sleep stage 2 and paradoxical sleep: (1) without noise, a larger N400 was observed for (short and long SSL) sentences ending with a semantically incongruent word compared to a congruent word (i.e. an N400 effect); (2) with moderate noise, the N400 effect (observed at wake with short and long SSL sentences) was attenuated for long SSL sentences. Our results suggest that WM for linguistic information is partially preserved during sleep with a smaller capacity compared to wake.     

Symbolic Numerical Magnitude Processing Is as Important to Arithmetic as Phonological Awareness Is to Reading

In this article, we tested, using a 1-year longitudinal design, whether symbolic numerical magnitude processing or children’s numerical representation of Arabic digits, is as important to arithmetic as phonological awareness is to reading. Children completed measures of symbolic comparison, phonological awareness, arithmetic, reading at the start of third grade and the latter two were retested at the start of fourth grade. Cross-sectional and longitudinal correlations indicated that symbolic comparison was a powerful domain-specific predictor of arithmetic and that phonological awareness was a unique predictor of reading. Crucially, the strength of these independent associations was not significantly different. This indicates that symbolic numerical magnitude processing is as important to arithmetic development as phonological awareness is to reading and suggests that symbolic numerical magnitude processing is a good candidate for screening children at risk for developing mathematical difficulties.     

Transferrin Receptor Is a Specific Ferroptosis Marker

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Cognitive Dissonance Resolution Is Related to Episodic Memory

The notion that our past choices affect our future behavior is certainly one of the most influential concepts of social psychology since its first experimental report in the 50 s, and its initial theorization by Festinger within the “cognitive dissonance” framework. Using the free choice paradigm (FCP), it was shown that choosing between two similarly rated items made subjects reevaluate the chosen items as more attractive and the rejected items as less attractive. However, in 2010 a major work by Chen and Risen revealed a severe statistical flaw casting doubt on most previous studies. Izuma and colleagues (2010) supplemented the traditional FCP with original control conditions and concluded that the effect observed could not be solely attributed to this methodological flaw. In the present work we aimed at establishing the existence of genuine choice-induced preference change and characterizing this effect. To do so, we replicated Izuma et al.’ study and added a new important control condition which was absent from the original study. Moreover, we added a memory test in order to measure the possible relation between episodic memory of choices and observed behavioral effects. In two experiments we provide experimental evidence supporting genuine choice-induced preference change obtained with FCP. We also contribute to the understanding of the phenomenon by showing that choice-induced preference change effects are strongly correlated with episodic memory.     

Type I Calmodulin-Sensitive Adenylyl Cyclase Is Neural Specific

Abstract: The distribution of type I calmodulin-sensitive adenylyl cyclase in bovine and rat tissues was examined by northern blot analysis and in situ hybridization. Northern blot analysis using poly(A)⁺-selected RNA from various bovine tissues indicated that mRNA for type I adenylyl cyclase was found only in brain, retina, and adrenal medulla, suggesting that this enzyme is neural specific. In situ hybridization studies using bovine, rabbit, and rat retina indicated that mRNA for type I adenylyl cyclase is found in all three nuclear layers of the neural retina and is particularly abundant in the inner segment of the photoreceptor cells. The neural-specific distribution of type I adenylyl cyclase mRNA and its restricted expression in areas of brain implicated in neuroplasticity are consistent with the proposal that this enzyme plays an important role in various neuronal functions including learning and memory.     

ELISPOT检测人乳头瘤病毒特异性的记忆T细胞

应用ELISPOT方法检测人乳头瘤病毒感染后自发清除者外周血中抗原特异性的记忆T细胞。收集人乳头瘤病毒（HPV）感染后自发清除者外周血（病毒清除后74个月）,分离外周血单个核细胞（peripheralblood mononuclear cells,PBMC）。体外应用已鉴定的表位肽刺激PBMC,10 d后计数细胞,去除表位肽,继续培养。第11天,ELISPOT方法检测PBMC中HPV抗原特异性的记忆T细胞。PBMC经表位肽刺激10 d后,细胞数量有明显增加,由最初的4.1×105增加为4.2×106。第11天,细胞数量增加为4.65×106,为抗原刺激前细胞数的11.3倍。ELISPOT结果显示,PBMC中的记忆T细胞活化后,能够识别抗原递呈细胞递呈的抗原肽,并分泌IFN-γ。此HPV自发清除者外周血中抗原特异性的记忆T细胞的频数为0.007%。人乳头瘤病毒（HPV）感染后自发清除者外周血存在抗原特异性记忆T细胞,抗原肽可激活记忆T细胞,使之数量增加,分泌IFN-γ。ELISPOT可用于检测外周血中HPV特异性的记忆T细胞。     

Memory for Time of Day (Time Memory) Is Encoded by a Circadian Oscillator and Is Distinct From Other Context Memories

We report that the neural representation of the time of day (time memory) in golden hamsters involves the setting of a 24-h oscillator that is functionally and anatomically distinct from the circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), but is entrained by the SCN acting as a weak zeitgeber. In hamsters, peak conditioned place avoidance (CPA) was expressed only near the time of day of the learning experience (±2?h) for the first days after conditioning. On a 14:10 light:dark cycle, with conditioning at the end of the light period (zeitgeber time 11 [ZT11]), CPA behavior, including time of day memory, was retained for more than 18 d. With conditioning in the early day (zeitgeber time 03 [ZT03]), CPA was completely lost after 5 d but reemerged after an additional 6 d, with the peak avoidance time shifted to ZT11. When the entraining light cycle was shifted immediately following learning at either ZT11 or ZT03, with no additional experience in the training apparatus, peak CPA 18 d later was always found at ZT11 on the shifted light cycles. When conditioned at ZT03, then placed into constant dark for 18 cycles, the peak shifted to subjective circadian time 11 (CT11). In all experiments, the peak CPA time was set initially to the time of experience, and was reset subsequently to the end of the subjective day, without memory loss for other context associations. In the absence of an SCN, peak avoidance was not reset. Therefore, time memory is distinct from other context memories, and involves the setting of a non-SCN circadian oscillator. We suggest that circadian oscillators underlying time memory work in concert with the SCN to enable anticipation of critical conditions according to both immediate- and long-term probabilities of where and when important conditions could be encountered again. (Author correspondence: ralph@psych.utoronto.ca)     

Primitive Auditory Memory Is Correlated with Spatial Unmasking That Is Based on Direct-Reflection Integration

In reverberant rooms with multiple-people talking, spatial separation between speech sources improves recognition of attended speech, even though both the head-shadowing and interaural-interaction unmasking cues are limited by numerous reflections. It is the perceptual integration between the direct wave and its reflections that bridges the direct-reflection temporal gaps and results in the spatial unmasking under reverberant conditions. This study further investigated (1) the temporal dynamic of the direct-reflection-integration-based spatial unmasking as a function of the reflection delay, and (2) whether this temporal dynamic is correlated with the listeners’ auditory ability to temporally retain raw acoustic signals (i.e., the fast decaying primitive auditory memory, PAM). The results showed that recognition of the target speech against the speech-masker background is a descending exponential function of the delay of the simulated target reflection. In addition, the temporal extent of PAM is frequency dependent and markedly longer than that for perceptual fusion. More importantly, the temporal dynamic of the speech-recognition function is significantly correlated with the temporal extent of the PAM of low-frequency raw signals. Thus, we propose that a chain process, which links the earlier-stage PAM with the later-stage correlation computation, perceptual integration, and attention facilitation, plays a role in spatially unmasking target speech under reverberant conditions.     

Blood BDNF Level Is Gender Specific in Severe Depression

Though the role of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) as a marker for major depressive disorder (MDD) and antidepressant efficacy has been widely studied, the role of BDNF in distinct groups of patients remains unclear. We evaluated the diagnostic value of BDNF as a marker of disease severity measured by HAM-D scores and antidepressants efficacy among MDD patients. Fifty-one patients who met DSM-IV criteria for MDD and were prescribed antidepressants and 38 controls participated in this study. BDNF in serum was measured at baseline, 1st, 2nd and 8th treatment weeks. Depression severity was evaluated using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D). BDNF polymorphism rs6265 (val66met) was genotyped. We found a positive correlation between blood BDNF levels and severity of depression only among untreated women with severe MDD (HAM-D>24). Serum BDNF levels were lower in untreated MDD patients compared to control group. Antidepressants increased serum BDNF levels and reduced between-group differences after two weeks of treatment. No correlations were observed between BDNF polymorphism, depression severity, duration of illness, age and BDNF serum levels. Further supporting the role of BDNF in the pathology and treatment of MDD, we suggest that it should not be used as a universal biomarker for diagnosis of MDD in the general population. However, it has diagnostic value for the assessment of disease progression and treatment efficacy in individual patients.     

Drosophila Full-Length Amyloid Precursor Protein Is Required for Visual Working Memory and Prevents Age-Related Memory Impairment

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Cognitive Control in Auditory Working Memory Is Enhanced in Musicians

Musical competence may confer cognitive advantages that extend beyond processing of familiar musical sounds. Behavioural evidence indicates a general enhancement of both working memory and attention in musicians. It is possible that musicians, due to their training, are better able to maintain focus on task-relevant stimuli, a skill which is crucial to working memory. We measured the blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) activation signal in musicians and non-musicians during working memory of musical sounds to determine the relation among performance, musical competence and generally enhanced cognition. All participants easily distinguished the stimuli. We tested the hypothesis that musicians nonetheless would perform better, and that differential brain activity would mainly be present in cortical areas involved in cognitive control such as the lateral prefrontal cortex. The musicians performed better as reflected in reaction times and error rates. Musicians also had larger BOLD responses than non-musicians in neuronal networks that sustain attention and cognitive control, including regions of the lateral prefrontal cortex, lateral parietal cortex, insula, and putamen in the right hemisphere, and bilaterally in the posterior dorsal prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate gyrus. The relationship between the task performance and the magnitude of the BOLD response was more positive in musicians than in non-musicians, particularly during the most difficult working memory task. The results confirm previous findings that neural activity increases during enhanced working memory performance. The results also suggest that superior working memory task performance in musicians rely on an enhanced ability to exert sustained cognitive control. This cognitive benefit in musicians may be a consequence of focused musical training.     

The Tyrosine Phosphatase STEP Is Involved in Age-Related Memory Decline

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The Right Frontopolar Cortex Is Involved in Visual-Spatial Prospective Memory

The involvement of frontopolar cortex in mediating prospective memory processes has been evidenced by various studies, mainly by means of neuroimaging techniques. Recently, one transcranial magnetic stimulation study documented that transient inhibition of left Brodmann Area (BA) 10 impaired verbal prospective memory. This result raises the issue of whether the BA 10 involvement in prospective memory functioning may be modulated by the physical characteristics of the stimuli used. The present study aimed to investigate the role of the frontopolar cortex in visual-spatial PM by means of the application of inhibitory theta-burst stimulation. Twelve volunteers were evaluated after inhibitory theta-burst stimulation over left BA 10, right BA10 and CZ (control condition). In the prospective memory procedure, sequences of four spatial positions (black squares) each were presented. During the inter-sequence delay, subjects had to reproduce the sequence in the observed order (ongoing task forward) or the reverse order (backward). At the occurrence of a target position, subjects had to press a key on the keyboard (prospective memory score). Recall and recognition of the target positions were also tested. We found that prospective memory accuracy was lower after theta-burst stimulation over right BA10 than CZ (p<0.01), whereas it was comparable in left BA10 and CZ conditions. No significant difference was found among the three conditions on recall and recognition of target positions and on ongoing task performance. Our findings provide a novel strong evidence for a specific involvement of right frontopolar cortex in visual-spatial prospective memory. In the context of previous data providing evidence for left BA 10 involvement in verbal prospective memory, our results also suggest material-specific lateralization of prospective memory processes in BA 10.