Relating changes in fronto-parietal networks to changes in control over memory: A longitudinal, cognitive neuroscience approach to memory development in childhood
Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
Final Report Abstract
Episodic memory, the ability to remember events situated in particular times and places in the past, allows us to re-experience events that happened from minutes to years ago, to interact with the surrounding world, and provides the foundation for autobiographical memory. The ability to remember past event and experiences improves dramatically during early and middle childhood. These improvements have been linked to increased control over memory encoding and retrieval as well as to improvements in metacognition, the ongoing monitoring and control of one’s own memories and thought processes. To date, little is known about which and how agegraded changes in brain structure and function support the development of mnemonic control and metacognition. The main objective of the research conducted during the present research fellowship was to investigate the neurocognitive mechanisms contributing to the development of mnemonic control and metacognitive monitoring during middle and late childhood. Several key findings emerged from this research. First, longitudinal analyses of metacognitive monitoring development between 7 and 12 years revealed that children’s ability to assess the accuracy of their memories continues to develop beyond early childhood and up to the adolescent years. Second, the development of metacognitive monitoring in this age range was supported by regional gray matter changes in the prefrontal cortex such that improvements in behavioral measures of metacognitive monitoring were larger in children who demonstrated greater thinning in the prefrontal cortex over time. Third, analyses of brain activity demonstrated that younger children (8 – 10 years) were less likely than older children (10 – 12 years) and adults to engage prefrontal areas when reporting uncertainty in the accuracy of their memories. Finally, among children, greater increase in prefrontal engagement in metacognitive monitoring over approximately 1.4 years was predicted by greater activity in the anterior insula at the initial measurement occasion, suggesting that neural mechanisms supporting performance monitoring and uncertainty signaling may promote the development of metacognitive monitoring and evaluation. Of note, insular activity and change in prefrontal activity predicted greater improvements in episodic memory, thereby highlighting the importance of these processes for memory functioning and development. Taken together, the research conducted during the research fellowships provides novel insights into the maturation of the structural and functional neural mechanisms supporting metacognitive monitoring and their contribution to memory development during middle and late childhood. Metacognitive monitoring processes are particularly important for guiding the ways in which we actively control and regulate our learning and memory. Thus, in a separate neuroimaging experiment with adults I examined how the neural mechanisms of metacognitive monitoring support and guide the flexible control of learning and retrieval. Understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms supporting the development of mnemonic control and metacognition can help design interventions that aim to improve specific aspects of these processes in order to foster the ability to regulate one’s learning and remembering, especially in child populations with known deficits in memory or behavioral regulation. Furthermore, educational environments may be particularly important for the development of monitoring and control, which in turn may affect individuals’ progress and academic achievement. Future research is needed to understand how start of formal schooling or different types of instruction may influence the ability to monitor and control one’s learning and remembering.
Publications
- Learning and memory. In B. Hopkins, E. Geangu, & S. Linkenauger (Eds.), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Child Development. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017. - 978-1107103412
Fandakova, Y., & Ghetti, S.
- The Importance of Knowing When You Don't Remember: Neural Signaling of Retrieval Failure Predicts Memory Improvement Over Time. Celebral Cortex Volume 28, Issue 1, 1 January 2018, Pages 90–102
Fandakova Y., Bunge, S. A., Wendelken, C., Hunter, L., Desautels, P, Lee, J. K., & Ghetti, S.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhw352)
