Neural Basis and Development of Relational Memory in Primates Öffentlichkeit

Blue, Shala Natasha (2013)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/bz60cw51n?locale=de
Published

Abstract

The current literature on the development of relational memory (i.e., memory for object-location and object-context relations) suggest these abilities improve with age during early and middle childhood which may coincide with maturational changes in the medial temporal lobe. Furthermore, previous studies in human and non-human primates indicate impairments in memory for object-location and object-context relations following damage to or transient inactivation of structures within the medial temporal lobe (i.e., specifically to the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex) in adulthood. However, primate studies of the effects of early selective damage to medial temporal lobe areas are few and inconclusive. Due to the paucity of information regarding the development of relational memory abilities across primate species and the development of underlying neural substrates, two separate studies using modified versions of the preferential looking task were conducted to measure the development of object-location and object-context relations. In the first study, children and adults viewed visual stimuli using an eye tracker and their propensity to attend to changes in the stimuli was measured. Findings suggest differences in both object-location and object-context relations as a function of age. Four-year-olds had considerable difficulty detecting object-location changes but not object changes, whereas 8-year-olds exhibited less difficulty detecting these changes. In addition, we observed differences in performance between male and female adults in the object-location condition, which support the literature on gender differences in object-location memory. In a second study, subjects were monkeys with neonatal perirhinal cortex lesions and sham-operations that were tested longitudinally. All animals, irrespective of lesion, had difficulty detecting changes in object-location relations even at 36 months of age but could readily detect object changes at all ages tested. These findings suggest a delayed maturation of memory for object-location relations and an early emergence of object memory. However, this research could not provide clear evidence for the role of the perirhinal cortex in the development of relational memory. Overall, the findings in humans and non-human primates suggest a long developmental time course for relational memory abilities across species.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS


NEURAL BASIS AND DEVELOPMENT OF RELATIONAL MEMORY
Chapter 1: General Introduction.....................................................1
Defining Relational Memory..............................................................2
Relational Processes in Declarative Memory........................................4
What Constitute Relations?...............................................................5
Relational Processes Across Species...................................................5
Development of Co-Occurring Relations..............................................6
Assessing Relational Memory in Development......................................9
Medial Temporal Lobe and Relational Memory.....................................13
Importance of Hippocampus in Relational Memory...............................14
Extra-Hippocampal Areas and Relational Memory................................15
Importance of Perirhinal Cortex in Object-Location Memory...................17
Amnesic Patients and Animal Lesions.................................................18
Neuroanatomical Development in Humans and Non-Humans..................20
Neuroanatomical Development of MTL...............................................22
Developmental Amnesia..................................................................24
Rationale for Current Study.............................................................26
Hypotheses...................................................................................29

Chapter 2: Development of Relational Memory in Humans...............30
Development of Relational Memory...................................................30
Spatial Relations: Object-Location Memory.........................................32
Can Scene Improve Memory for Object-Location Relations....................33
Object-Context Relations.................................................................35
Method........................................................................................38
Participants..................................................................................38
Materials.....................................................................................39
Stimuli........................................................................................39
Apparatus....................................................................................39
Preferential Looking Task................................................................40
Procedures...................................................................................41
Calibration...................................................................................41
Stimulus Presentation....................................................................42
Task Parameters and Statistical Analysis...........................................42
Experiment 1: Object-Location Relations (Importance of Background).....43
Object-Location (No Background).....................................................43
Object-in-Place.............................................................................44
Object-Control..............................................................................44
Object-Location (Scene).................................................................44
Object Rearrangement...................................................................45
Object Replacement.......................................................................45
Preliminary Analyses.....................................................................45
Experiment 1: Results....................................................................46
Object-Location (No Background).....................................................46
Novelty Preference........................................................................47
Object-in-Place.............................................................................47
Object-Control..............................................................................49
Object-in-Place/Object-Control Analyses............................................49
Object-Location (Scene)..................................................................49
Novelty Preference........................................................................49
Object Rearrangement....................................................................50
Object Replacement.......................................................................50
Object Rearrangement/Object Replacement Analyses...........................50
Experiment 1: Summary.................................................................51
Experiment 2: Object-Context Relations.............................................52
Experimental Condition...................................................................53
Control Conditions..........................................................................53
Experiment 2: Results....................................................................54
Object-Context Relations.................................................................54
Novelty Preference........................................................................54
Experiment 2: Summary.................................................................55
Chapter Discussion........................................................................56
Object-Location Relations (No Background)........................................56
Do Scenes Facilitate Object-Location Memory?....................................59
Scenes in Object Memory................................................................60
Scenes in Object-Location Memory....................................................61
Object-Context Relations.................................................................61
Conclusion....................................................................................66

Chapter 3: Does Damage to the Perirhinal Cortex Impact the

Development of Relational Memory Abilities in Monkeys?.................67
Importance of MTL in Relational Memory............................................68
Perirhinal Cortex and Relational Memory............................................68
Relational Memory and Development.................................................70
Method.........................................................................................72
Subjects........................................................................................72
MRI-Guided Surgical Procedure and Lesion Verification..........................73
Calculating Injection Site Coordinates.................................................74
Lesion Surgery...............................................................................74
Sham Surgery................................................................................75
Post-Surgical Treatment...................................................................75
Post-Surgical Scans and Lesion Verification.........................................75
Materials.......................................................................................76
Stimuli..........................................................................................76
Apparatus......................................................................................76
Conditions.....................................................................................77
Basic VPC Task...............................................................................77
VPC-Spatial-Location Task................................................................78
VPC-Object-in-Place Task.................................................................78
VPC-Object-Control Task..................................................................78
VPC Coding....................................................................................79
Task Parameters and Statistical Analyses............................................80
Behavioral Parameters.....................................................................80
Familiarization and Looking Time Analyses..........................................81
Novelty Preference Analyses.............................................................81
Results..........................................................................................82

Preliminary Analyses.......................................................................82
Viewing Parameters........................................................................82
Familiarization Time.......................................................................82
Total Looking Time.........................................................................83
Percent Looking at Novel.................................................................83
Development of Spatial Memory.......................................................84
VPC-Spatial-Location.......................................................................84
VPC-Object-in-Place........................................................................85
Development of Object Recognition Memory........................................85
VPC-Object-Control.........................................................................86
VPC-Object-in-Place/VPC-Object-Control Comparison.............................86
Extent of Lesion Analysis..................................................................87
Chapter Discussion..........................................................................87
Relational Memory Development.......................................................88
Medial Temporal Lobe and Development of Relational Memory................88
Perirhinal Cortex and Object-Location Relation.....................................92
Object Recognition Memory..............................................................93
Importance of Postnatal Development................................................95
Conclusion.....................................................................................96

Chapter 4: General Discussion.......................................................97
Object-Location Relations.................................................................97
Potential Differences in Processing.....................................................98
Object-Context Relations.................................................................100
Eye Movements and Processing........................................................101
Early MTL Damage and Relational Memory.........................................102
Conclusion...................................................................................104

References.................................................................................105


LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Average Familiarization Times across Tasks...........................133
Table 2: Average Total Looking Times across Tasks.............................134
Table 3: Familiarization Time by Task, Group, and Age........................135
Table 4: Total Looking Time by Task, Group, and Age..........................136

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Example of Stimuli Used For Preferential Looking Paradigm.....137
Figure 2: Eye Tracker Setup............................................................138
Figure 3: Schematic Representation of Task Sequence.........................139
Figure 4: Calibration Sequence........................................................140
Figure 5: Object-Location (No Background) Stimulus Presentation..........141
Figure 6: Object-Location (Scene) Stimulus Presentation......................142
Figure 7: Calculating Novelty Preference...........................................143
Figure 8: Object-Location (No Background): Mean Novel Image Preference.145
Figure 9: Object-Location (No Background): Mean Novel Object Preference.147
Figure 10: Object-Location (Scene): Mean Novel Object Preference.........149
Figure 11: Object-Context Relations Stimulus Presentation.....................150
Figure 12: Object-Context: Chance for Novel Image Preference..............152
Figure 13: Object-Context Relations: Mean Novel Image Preference........153
Figure 14: Representative Case of Perirhinal Cortex Lesion...................154
Figure 15: VPC-Spatial-Location Stimulus Presentation.........................156
Figure 16: VPC-Object-in-Place/Object-Control Stimulus Presentation......157
Figure 17: VPC Tasks.....................................................................158
Figure 18: VPC-Spatial-Location: Mean % Novel..................................160
Figure 19: VPC-Object-in-Place: Mean % Novel...................................161
Figure 20: VPC-Object-Control: Mean % Novel....................................162
Figure 21: VPC-Object-in-Place/Object-Control Analysis........................163

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