Effects of exploring a novel environment on memory across the lifespan

Abstract

Exploration of a novel environment has been shown to promote memory formation in healthy adults. Studies in animals have suggested that such novelty-induced memory boosts are mediated by hippocampal dopamine. The dopaminergic system is known to develop and deteriorate over the lifespan, but so far, the effects of novelty on memory across the lifespan have not yet been investigated. In the current study, we had children, adolescents, younger, and older adults (n = 439) explore novel and previously familiarized virtual environments to pinpoint the effects of spatial novelty on declarative memory in humans across different age groups. After exploration, words were presented while participants performed a deep or shallow encoding task. Incidental memory was quantified in a surprise test. Results showed that participants in the deep encoding condition remembered more words than those in the shallow condition, while novelty did not influence this effect. Interestingly, however, children, adolescents and younger adults benefitted from exploring a novel compared to a familiar environment as evidenced by better word recall, while these effects were absent in older adults. Our findings suggest that the beneficial effects of novelty on memory follow the deterioration of neural pathways involved in novelty-related processes across the lifespan.

Developmental and age differences in visuomotor adaptation across the lifespan

“…Participants were part of a larger study that examined novelty effects on learning and was conducted at Science Live , an innovative research program of the NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands which gives visitors the opportunity to volunteer to participate in scientific research. Results regarding the novelty manipulation have been reported elsewhere (Ruitenberg et al, 2022 ; Schomaker et al, 2022 ); here, we present novel findings and only analyze data from participants in the control group (i.e., 253 individuals not subjected to the novelty manipulation). Written informed consent was obtained from all participants or their parents in the case of minors.…”

“…As part of the larger study, participants performed a battery involving different tasks including the exploration of two virtual environments. Participants in the present study all explored the same virtual environment twice and were not exposed to novelty; they thus served as control subjects for the overall study (Ruitenberg et al, 2022 ; Schomaker et al, 2022 ). They subsequently performed a word-learning task, the motor adaptation task, and a landmark memory task (for details and results regarding the word learning and landmark tasks, see Schomaker et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Participants in the present study all explored the same virtual environment twice and were not exposed to novelty; they thus served as control subjects for the overall study (Ruitenberg et al, 2022 ; Schomaker et al, 2022 ). They subsequently performed a word-learning task, the motor adaptation task, and a landmark memory task (for details and results regarding the word learning and landmark tasks, see Schomaker et al, 2022 ). The entire experimental procedure took about 20–25 min per participant, and the visuomotor adaptation task approximately 3 min.…”

Differential effects of expectancy on memory formation in young and older adults

“…It improves goal‐directed behavior (Düzel et al, 2010), enhances attention (Sokolov, 1963) and memory encoding (Cen et al, 2021; Schomaker, 2019; Steiger et al, 2022). Importantly, the underlying brain structures, including substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA) and medial temporal lobe (MTL), are known to degenerate during healthy aging (Backman et al, 2006; Bunzeck et al, 2007; Fearnley & Lees, 1991) often with negative consequences on learning and memory (Schomaker et al, 2022). However, and in contrast to theoretical accounts (Düzel et al, 2010), in a recent study the positive effects of novelty on recognition memory were stable in older humans (Steiger et al, 2022).…”

Spatiotemporal analysis of gene expression in the human dentate gyrus reveals age-associated changes in cellular maturation and neuroinflammation

“…The dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus (HPC) is important for many cognitive processes [1][2][3][4][5][6] , which mature and decline over development and aging 7 . For example, the ability to form long term memories does not begin until early childhood 8,9 , while cognitive decline begins in late adulthood [10][11][12] and accelerates in age-related dementias such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) 13,14 .…”