IntroductionMajor depressive disorder (MDD) and trauma‐related disorders are associated with deficits in remembering the past and imagining the future (i.e., episodic simulation). We examined parental bonding and neuropsychological performance in relation to episodic simulation in trauma‐exposed patients with recurrent MDD.MethodsTrauma‐exposed patients with MDD (n = 21) and matched controls (n = 20) completed a future‐oriented Autobiographical Interview, the Parental Bonding Instrument, and a standardized neuropsychological battery.ResultsPatients with major depressive disorder generated fewer episodic details for future neutral events compared to controls. Although higher reported levels of maternal care were associated with increased specificity of negative future events among the patient group, higher maternal overprotection was related to decreased specificity of negative and positive future events. Higher levels of performance on measures of intelligence, verbal memory, executive functioning, and sustained attention were associated with increased specificity of future events.ConclusionsMaternal relations during childhood and neuropsychological performance are related to the specificity of episodic simulation in adult patients with MDD. Childhood experience continues to influence memory performance into adulthood.

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Understanding the rules that govern neuronal dynamics throughout the brain to subserve behavior and cognition remains one of the biggest challenges in neuroscience research. Recent technical advances enable the recording of increasingly larger neuronal populations to produce increasingly more sophisticated datasets. Despite bold and important open‐science and data‐sharing policies, these datasets tend to include unique data acquisition methods, behaviors, and file structures. Discrepancies between experimental protocols present key challenges in comparing data between laboratories and across different brain regions and species. Here, we discuss our recent efforts to create a standardized and high‐throughput research platform to address these issues. The McGill‐Mouse‐Miniscope (M3) platform is an initiative to combine miniscope calcium imaging with standardized touchscreen‐based animal behavioral testing. The goal is to curate an open‐source and standardized framework for acquiring, analyzing, and accessing high‐quality data of the neuronal dynamics that underly cognition throughout the brain in mice, marmosets, and models of disease. We end with a discussion of future developments and a call for users to adopt this standardized approach.

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