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Content-specific vulnerability of recent episodic memories in Alzheimer's disease

Grande, Xenia ; Berron, David LU ; Maass, Anne ; Bainbridge, Wilma A. and Düzel, Emrah (2021) In Neuropsychologia 160.
Abstract

Endel Tulving's episodic memory framework emphasizes the multifaceted re-experiencing of personal events. Indeed, decades of research focused on the experiential nature of episodic memories, usually treating recent episodic memory as a coherent experiential quality. However, recent insights into the functional architecture of the medial temporal lobe show that different types of mnemonic information are segregated into distinct neural pathways in brain circuits empirically associated with episodic memory. Moreover, recent memories do not fade as a whole under conditions of progressive neurodegeneration in these brain circuits, notably in Alzheimer's disease. Instead, certain memory content seem particularly vulnerable from the moment of... (More)

Endel Tulving's episodic memory framework emphasizes the multifaceted re-experiencing of personal events. Indeed, decades of research focused on the experiential nature of episodic memories, usually treating recent episodic memory as a coherent experiential quality. However, recent insights into the functional architecture of the medial temporal lobe show that different types of mnemonic information are segregated into distinct neural pathways in brain circuits empirically associated with episodic memory. Moreover, recent memories do not fade as a whole under conditions of progressive neurodegeneration in these brain circuits, notably in Alzheimer's disease. Instead, certain memory content seem particularly vulnerable from the moment of their encoding while other content can remain memorable consistently across individuals and contexts. We propose that these observations are related to the content-specific functional architecture of the medial temporal lobe and consequently to a content-specific impairment of memory at different stages of the neurodegeneration. To develop Endel Tulving's inspirational legacy further and to advance our understanding of how memory function is affected by neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, we postulate that it is compelling to focus on the representational content of recent episodic memories.

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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Alzheimer's disease, Episodic memory, Medial temporal lobe, Memorability, Memory representations
in
Neuropsychologia
volume
160
article number
107976
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85111747906
  • pmid:34314781
ISSN
0028-3932
DOI
10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107976
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
206c86a8-b338-4310-bb88-c99fe6539b0e
date added to LUP
2021-08-24 14:20:15
date last changed
2024-03-08 16:25:15
@article{206c86a8-b338-4310-bb88-c99fe6539b0e,
  abstract     = {{<p>Endel Tulving's episodic memory framework emphasizes the multifaceted re-experiencing of personal events. Indeed, decades of research focused on the experiential nature of episodic memories, usually treating recent episodic memory as a coherent experiential quality. However, recent insights into the functional architecture of the medial temporal lobe show that different types of mnemonic information are segregated into distinct neural pathways in brain circuits empirically associated with episodic memory. Moreover, recent memories do not fade as a whole under conditions of progressive neurodegeneration in these brain circuits, notably in Alzheimer's disease. Instead, certain memory content seem particularly vulnerable from the moment of their encoding while other content can remain memorable consistently across individuals and contexts. We propose that these observations are related to the content-specific functional architecture of the medial temporal lobe and consequently to a content-specific impairment of memory at different stages of the neurodegeneration. To develop Endel Tulving's inspirational legacy further and to advance our understanding of how memory function is affected by neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, we postulate that it is compelling to focus on the representational content of recent episodic memories.</p>}},
  author       = {{Grande, Xenia and Berron, David and Maass, Anne and Bainbridge, Wilma A. and Düzel, Emrah}},
  issn         = {{0028-3932}},
  keywords     = {{Alzheimer's disease; Episodic memory; Medial temporal lobe; Memorability; Memory representations}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Neuropsychologia}},
  title        = {{Content-specific vulnerability of recent episodic memories in Alzheimer's disease}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107976}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107976}},
  volume       = {{160}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}