Probing Event Structure in Children's Naturalistic Memory Using Representational Similarity Analysis of Scalp-Recorded EEG - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
From an early age, episodic memory supports critical functions such as decision-making in the present, future
thinking, development of the self, and social interaction. Episodic memory is not only highly vulnerable to
neurological insult, impairments are also prevalent in various neurodevelopmental disorders and
neuropsychiatric conditions. There are profound negative consequences for later academic outcomes and
socioemotional well-being associated with early disruption of episodic memory function but effective
interventions in are scarce. Given that structural and functional brain maturation provides key constraints on
memory function and their malleability to interventions, the neural basis of episodic memory development has
become an increasingly important field of study in recent years. However, pediatric neuroimaging studies that
bridge the gap between the highly controlled laboratory environment and real-life memory function are virtually
absent, thereby failing to provide guidance for effective interventions. Recent neuroimaging work in adults
shows great promise to overcome this limitation by utilizing novel tools to extract neural activity patterns from
electroencephaolographic (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals elicited during
perception and recall of complex, dynamic, and multi-sensory naturalistic events, such as filmed, written, or
spoken stories. The overall objective of the proposed project is to validate this new approach for the study of
naturalistic memory in the transition from early to middle childhood—an age period that is characterized by
rapid improvement in episodic memory function. Fifty 5-8-year-old children will view a 33-min movie clip and
then verbally recount its content. Capitalizing on the high temporal resolution of scalp EEG, this study aims to
replicate 3 key findings from previous work in adults: (1) Show that continuous experience is divided into
discrete events by identifying perceived boundaries between events as rapid shifts in the stability of EEG
activity patterns. Representational similarity analyses will be used to compare the stability of children’s brain
activity patterns within events vs. across event boundaries. Pattern similarity is predicted to be higher within
the same event than across different events. (2) Test whether boundary detection triggers rapid replay of just-
encoded events. Event reinstatement upon boundary detection will be quantified by comparing across-
boundary similarity for pre-boundary events that are later remembered vs. those that are later forgotten.
Relatively greater similarity is expected between pre- and post-boundary EEG patterns if the pre-boundary
event is later successfully recalled. (3) Establish to which extent movie viewing and later spoken recall elicit
similar patterns of event-specific EEG activity. Viewing-to-recall correlations of EEG patterns should be greater
for matching than nonmatching events. This research could aid the design of training interventions that account
for constraints on how children perceive, understand, and retrieve events in real-world settings and thus are
more likely to generalize to the academic and everyday cognitive domains they are intended to improve.
