Cortico-ocular coupling in the service of episodic memory formation

Popov, Tzvetan; Staudigl, Tobias

doi:10.1101/2022.11.09.515902

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…This suggests that low-level control of eye movements was not altered, but simply that our gaze canvases a wider area of the visual field when we naturally listen to a story. This result on gaze variation is consistent with a recent study, which shows that gaze variability (about a fixation cross) during pre-stimulus baseline correlated negatively with alpha power in the EEG 66 . Both alpha power and gaze variability were predictive of subsequent memory of the upcoming visual scene.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Narratives engage brain and body: bidirectional interactions during natural story listening

Madsen

Parra

2023

Preprint

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It is often said that the body and the mind are connected. Yet, direct evidence of a bidirectional link is elusive. We hypothesized a top-down effect of cognition on arousal, and predicted that auditory narratives will modulate eye movements, pupil size and heart rate. To test this we recorded peripheral signals and scalp potentials during auditory narratives. We find that auditory narratives increased variability of gaze position and entrained pupil size and heart rate. This is consistent with a top-down effect of cognition on autonomic function. We also hypothesized a bottom-up effect, whereby autonomic physiology affects arousal. Controlled breathing affected pupil size, and heart rate was entrained by controlled saccades. Additionally, fluctuations in heart rate preceded fluctuations of scalp potentials and pupil size. Together this suggests a bottom-up effect of peripheral autonomic function on central autonomic brain circuits. Thus, the brain-body connection appears to be a two-way street.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Narratives engage brain and body: bidirectional interactions during natural story listening

Madsen

Parra

2023

Preprint

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“…This stimulus information then travels to the hippocampus, where hippocampal theta power increases allow for mnemonic information to be integrated into a coherent memory trace via long‐term potentiation. More recently, alpha oscillations have also been associated with micro‐saccades and gaze toward to‐be‐encoded stimuli indicating that changes in alpha/beta power, especially in the visual cortex, could also be involved in memory formation (Popov & Staudigl, 2023; Staudigl et al, 2017). Therefore, there are theoretical and computational models backed by empirical evidence that indicate changes in theta and alpha/beta oscillations (~4–30 Hz) are involved in associative memory formation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theta and alpha oscillations in human hippocampus and medial parietal cortex support the formation of location‐based representations

Satish,

Keller,

Raza

et al. 2024

Hippocampus

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Our ability to navigate in a new environment depends on learning new locations. Mental representations of locations are quickly accessible during navigation and allow us to know where we are regardless of our current viewpoint. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research using pattern classification has shown that these location‐based representations emerge in the retrosplenial cortex and parahippocampal gyrus, regions theorized to be critically involved in spatial navigation. However, little is currently known about the oscillatory dynamics that support the formation of location‐based representations. We used magnetoencephalogram (MEG) recordings to investigate region‐specific oscillatory activity in a task where participants could form location‐based representations. Participants viewed videos showing that two perceptually distinct scenes (180° apart) belonged to the same location. This “overlap” video allowed participants to bind the two distinct scenes together into a more coherent location‐based representation. Participants also viewed control “non‐overlap” videos where two distinct scenes from two different locations were shown, where no location‐based representation could be formed. In a post‐video behavioral task, participants successfully matched the two viewpoints shown in the overlap videos, but not the non‐overlap videos, indicating they successfully learned the locations in the overlap condition. Comparing oscillatory activity between the overlap and non‐overlap videos, we found greater theta and alpha/beta power during the overlap relative to non‐overlap videos, specifically at time‐points when we expected scene integration to occur. These oscillations localized to regions in the medial parietal cortex (precuneus and retrosplenial cortex) and the medial temporal lobe, including the hippocampus. Therefore, we find that theta and alpha/beta oscillations in the hippocampus and medial parietal cortex are likely involved in the formation of location‐based representations.

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“…This paradigm compares neural activity during the encoding of trials that are later remembered to those that are forgotten. Studies have demonstrated that oscillatory activity, particularly event-related synchronization of mid-frontal theta (i.e., mid-frontal theta ERS) and desynchronization of parietal alpha (i.e., parietal alpha ERD), contribute to improved memory performance [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-stimulus Activity Mediates Event-Related Theta Synchronization and Alpha Desynchronization During Memory Formation in Healthy Aging

Strzelczyk,

Langer

2024

Preprint

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The capacity to learn is a key determinant for the quality of life but is known to decline to varying degrees with age. However, despite mounting evidence of memory deficits in older age, the neural mechanisms contributing to successful or impeded memory remain unclear. Previous research has primarily focused on memory formation through remembered versus forgotten comparisons, lacking the ability to capture the incremental nature of learning. Moreover, previous EEG studies have primarily examined oscillatory brain activity during the encoding phase, such as event-related synchronization (ERS) of mid-frontal theta and desynchronisation (ERD) of parietal alpha, while neglecting the potential influence of pre-stimulus activity. To address these limitations, we employed a sequence learning paradigm, where 113 young and 117 older participants learned a fixed sequence of visual locations through repeated observations (6423 sequence repetitions, 55 '944 stimuli). This paradigm enabled us to investigate mid-frontal theta ERS, parietal alpha ERD, and how they are affected by pre-stimulus activity during the incremental learning process. Behavioral results revealed that young subjects learned significantly faster than older subjects, in line with expected age-related cognitive decline. Successful incremental learning was directly linked to decreases of mid-frontal theta ERS and increases of parietal alpha ERD. Notably, these neurophysiological changes were less pronounced in older individuals, reflecting a slower rate of learning. Importantly, the mediation analysis revealed that in both age groups, mid-frontal pre-stimulus theta partially mediated the relationship between learning and mid-frontal theta ERS. Furthermore, the overall impact of learning on parietal alpha ERD was primarily driven by its positive influence on pre-stimulus alpha activity. Our findings offer new insights into the age-related differences in memory formation and highlight the importance of pre-stimulus activity in explaining post-stimulus responses during learning.

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Cortico-ocular coupling in the service of episodic memory formation

Cited by 5 publications

References 72 publications

Narratives engage brain and body: bidirectional interactions during natural story listening

Narratives engage brain and body: bidirectional interactions during natural story listening

Theta and alpha oscillations in human hippocampus and medial parietal cortex support the formation of location‐based representations

Pre-stimulus Activity Mediates Event-Related Theta Synchronization and Alpha Desynchronization During Memory Formation in Healthy Aging

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