Two brain slices show different memory traits. Credit: Rotman Research Institute
Tendency to remember episodic details vs facts is reflected in intrinsic brain patterns. Why is it that some people have richly detailed recollection of past experiences (episodic memory), while others tend to remember just the facts without details (semantic memory)?
A research team from the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Health Sciences has shown for the first time that these different ways of experiencing the past are associated with distinct brain connectivity patterns that may be inherent to the individual and suggest a life-long ‘memory trait’.
“For decades, nearly all research on memory and brain function has treated people as the same, averaging across individuals,” said lead investigator Dr. Signy Sheldon. “Yet as we know from experience and from comparing our recollection to others, peoples’ memory traits vary. Our study shows that these memory traits correspond to stable differences in brain function, even when we are not asking people to perform memory tasks while in the scanner.”
METHOD: 66 healthy young adults (average age 24) completed an online questionnaire – the Survey of Autobiographical Memory (SAM) – describing how well they remember autobiographical events and facts. Their responses fell between the extremes seen in people with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) or Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory (SDAM) recently described by memory researchers. They they had their brains scanned with resting state fMRI.
The researchers focused on connections between the brain’s medial temporal lobes and other brain regions. The medial temporal lobes are well known to be fundamentally involved with memory function. Those with detailed richly-autobiographical memories had higher medial temporal lobe connectivity to regions at the back of the brain involved in visual processes, whereas those tending to recall the past in a factual manner (minus the rich details) showed higher medial temporal lobe connectivity to areas at the front of the brain involved in organization and reasoning.
Could certain memory traits be protective, delaying the manifestation of age-related cognitive decline in later years?
“With aging and early dementia, one of the first things that people notice is difficulty retrieving the details of events,” said Dr. Brian Levine. “Yet no one has looked at how this relates to memory traits. People who are used to retrieving richly-detailed memories may be very sensitive to subtle memory changes as they age, whereas those who rely on a factual approach may prove to be more resistant to such changes,” he said. Follow-up studies are now being conducted relating memory traits to personality, psychiatric conditions such as depression, performance on other cognitive measures, and genetics.
http://www.baycrest.org/news/what-is-your-memory-style/
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