Some previous studies have shown that increased stress hormone levels have beneficial effects on memory encoding; however, there is no clear consensus on which encoding-related processes are affected by stress hormones. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between interindividual differences in neuroendocrine response to acute…

The medial temporal lobe (MTL), including the hippocampus (HC), perirhinal cortex (PRC), and parahippocampal cortex (PHC), is central to memory formation. Reward enhances memory through interplay between the HC and substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SNVTA). While the SNVTA also innervates the MTL cortex and amygdala (AMY), their role in…

Working memory and recognition memory develop across adolescence, but the relationship between them is not fully understood. We investigated associations between n-back task performance and subsequent recognition memory in a community sample (8-30 yr, n = 150) using tasks from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD Study) to…

Visual imagery and mental reconstruction of scenes are considered core components of episodic memory retrieval. Individuals with absent visual imagery (aphantasia) score lower on tests of autobiographical memory, suggesting that aphantasia may be associated with differences in episodic and associative processing. In this online study, we tested…

The prefrontal cortex is larger than would be predicted by body size or visual cortex volume in great apes compared with monkeys. Because prefrontal cortex is critical for working memory, we hypothesized that recognition memory tests would engage working memory in orangutans more robustly than in rhesus monkeys. In contrast to working memory, the…

There has been considerable focus on investigating age-related memory changes in cognitively healthy older adults, in the absence of neurodegenerative disorders. Previous studies have reported age-related domain-specific changes in older adults, showing increased difficulty encoding and processing object information but minimal to no impairment in…

Humans and others primates are highly attuned to temporal consistencies and regularities in their sensory environment and learn to predict such statistical structure. Moreover, in several instances, the presence of temporal structure has been found to facilitate procedural learning and to improve task performance. Here we extend these findings to…

Recent studies have revealed that memory performance is better when participants have the opportunity to make a choice regarding the experimental task (choice condition) than when they do not have such a choice (fixed condition). These studies, however, used intentional memory tasks, leaving open the question whether the choice effect also applies…

It is commonly assumed that memories contribute to value-based decisions. Nevertheless, most theories of value-based decision-making do not account for memory influences on choice. Recently, new interest has emerged in the interactions between these two fundamental processes, mainly using reinforcement-based paradigms. Here, we aimed to study the…

According to dual-process theory, recognition memory performance draws upon two processes, familiarity and recollection. The relative contribution to recognition memory are commonly distinguished in humans by analyzing receiver-operating-characteristics (ROC) curves; analogous methods are more complex and very rare in animals but fast familiarity…

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized clinically by progressive motor dysfunction; overt parkinsonism is often preceded by prodromal symptoms including disturbances in the sleep-wake cycle. Up to 80% of patients with PD also develop dementia. In humans, there are three major apolipoprotein E isoforms: E2, E3, and E4. Increased rate of dementia…

In a 2014 issue of "Learning & Memory," Reagh and Yassa proposed that repeated encoding leads to semanticization and loss of perceptual detail in memory. We presented object images one or three times and tested recognition of targets and corresponding similar lures. Correct lure rejections after one in comparison to three exposures…

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is known to be critical for specific forms of long-term recognition memory, however the cellular mechanisms in the mPFC that underpin memory maintenance have not been well characterized. This study examined the importance of phosphorylation of cAMP responsive element binding protein (CREB) in the mPFC for…

Counterconditioning (CC) is a form of retroactive interference that inhibits expression of learned behavior. But similar to extinction, CC can be a fairly weak and impermanent form of interference, and the original behavior is prone to relapse. Research on CC is limited, especially in humans, but prior studies suggest it is more effective than…

It is widely accepted that associative recognition can be supported by familiarity through integrating more than two stimuli into a unit, but there are still three unsolved questions: (1) how unitization affects recollection-based associative recognition; (2) whether it is necessary to match the level of unitization (LOU) between original and…