Skip to main content
European Commission logo print header

Emergence and decline of constructive memory – Life-span changes in a common brain network for imagination and episodic memory

Objectif

The creation of personal, episodic memory from a previous experience is a remarkably complex process, which substantially differs from the processes leading to non-personal knowledge and memory about the world, so-called semantic memory. The act of remembering an episodic event is as much an act of creation as an act of reproduction. Modality-specific memory items are assembled through a re-construction process that allows us to re-experience the episode in rich details. Recent research has shown that recall of episodes and imagination of the future depends on a common core brain network. Early damage to this network will dramatically affect the development of personal memories, effectively preventing the creation of a vivid personal past, while leaving general cognitive development relatively intact. Still, no attempts have been made to study how development and subsequent aging of constructive memory, the arguably most relevant form of memory for daily life-function, is determined by structural and functional properties of the brain. I propose to study how characteristics of the brain determine the development of the ability to form episodic memories in childhood, and how the same factors contribute to the decline in episodic memory function experienced by most healthy elderly. The aim of the current proposal is to understand how maturation and aging of the brain networks for reconstructive memory impacts the ability to form and re-experience ones past. To address this aim, we will study children (4-10 years), adolescents (11-19 years), young adults (20-30 years) and elderly (60-80 years), 100 participants in each group, with repeated cognitive testing and brain scanning with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The children will be examined annually, yielding four examinations, while the other participants will be examined bi-annually, yielding to examinations within the project period.

Appel à propositions

ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Voir d’autres projets de cet appel

Régime de financement

ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant

Institution d’accueil

UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Contribution de l’UE
€ 1 499 088,00
Adresse
PROBLEMVEIEN 5-7
0313 Oslo
Norvège

Voir sur la carte

Région
Norge Oslo og Viken Oslo
Type d’activité
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Contact administratif
Birgitte Bøgh-Olsen (Ms.)
Chercheur principal
Anders Martin Fjell (Prof.)
Liens
Coût total
Aucune donnée

Bénéficiaires (1)