Memory and the developing brain: From description to explanation with innovation in methods

Abstract

Recent advances in human cognitive neuroscience show great promise in extending our understanding of the neural basis of memory development. We briefly review the current state of knowledge, highlighting that most work has focused on describing the neural correlates of memory in cross-sectional studies. We then delineate three examples of the application of innovative methods in addressing questions that go beyond description, towards a mechanistic understanding of memory development. First, structural brain imaging and the harmonization of measurements across laboratories may uncover ways in which the maturation of the brain constrains the development of specific aspects of memory. Second, longitudinal designs and sophisticated modeling of the data may identify age-driven changes and the factors that determine individual developmental trajectories. Third, recording memory-related activity directly from the developing brain presents an unprecedented opportunity to examine how distinct brain structures support memory in real time. Finally, the growing prevalence of data sharing offers additional means to tackle questions that demand large-scale datasets, ambitious designs, and access to rare samples. We propose that the use of such innovative methods will move our understanding of memory development from a focus on describing trends to explaining the causal factors that shape behavior.

Socioeconomic Disadvantage, Chronic Stress, and Hippocampal Subfield Development in Children

“…Although hippocampal volume has been associated with memory in children and adolescents, 4 in our study, total hippocampal volume and hippocampal subfield volume were not significantly associated with episodic memory task performance in children. These findings may be partially attributable to differences in these associations across development.…”

“…These findings may be partially attributable to differences in these associations across development. 4 Indeed, structural hippocampal development continues through childhood and adolescence. 12,13 The hippocampus develops in an inverted U-shaped trajectory across childhood and adolescence, with volumetric increases during childhood and into early adolescence and plateauing then decreases during late adolescence.…”

“…Socioeconomic disadvantage has been consistently associated with smaller volume in the hippocampus, 3 a subcortical structure crucial to learning and memory 4 and strongly implicated in psychiatric disorders including depression. 5 The hippocampus is particularly vulnerable to the effects of chronic stress.…”

Recognition Memory in Noonan Syndrome

“…From a developmental perspective, there is documented evidence of age-related increases in tasks of memory recognition that require few contextual details and protracted development (i.e., gains continuing after middle childhood) than on tasks that require retention of detailed information [ 28 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. Researchers have highlighted the importance of related cognitive functions, as working memory, metacognition and mnemonic strategies [ 44 ], in explaining individual differences in memory performance.…”

Educational fMRI: From the Lab to the Classroom

“…However, despite these new developments, fMRI is still not seen as a tool of choice by researchers interested in educational topics because it is (1) an expensive technique with high running costs, (2) not portable, (3) not easy to use on young school-aged participants, (4) not flexible enough for large-scale studies or when simultaneous parallel acquisitions in multiple participants are of interest, (5) limited in terms of paradigm designs that can be delivered within a typical scanning environment, and (6) restricted to looking inside the brain while the participant is lying still in a tube, which is not ideal for the typical educational context with active students moving in class. Nevertheless, the unparalleled look inside the brain that fMRI can bring, outweighs these limitations; see for instance recent review about the potential of fMRI in extending our understanding of the neural basis of memory development (Ofen et al, 2019).…”