Testing a dose-response effect of the visuospatial game Tetris on intrusive memories.

Tetris has been shown to reduce intrusions following exposure to experimentally induced and actual traumatic events. However, no study has systematically investigated whether multiple sessions of Tetris produce greater reductions in intrusions than a single session. In this study, 94 participants (58.

Equidistant Landmarks Fail to Produce the Blocking Effect in Spatial Learning Using a Virtual Water Maze Task with Healthy Adults: A Role for Cognitive Mapping?

Background/objectives: Cue competition is a feature of associative learning, whereby during learning, cues compete with each other, based on their relative salience, to influence subsequent performance. Blocking is a feature of cue competition where prior knowledge of a cue (X) will interfere with the subsequent learning of a second cue (XY). When tested with the second cue (Y) alone, participants show an impairment in responding.

Understanding Learning from EEG Data: Combining Machine Learning and Feature Engineering Based on Hidden Markov Models and Mixed Models.

Theta oscillations, ranging from 4-8 Hz, play a significant role in spatial learning and memory functions during navigation tasks. Frontal theta oscillations are thought to play an important role in spatial navigation and memory. Electroencephalography (EEG) datasets are very complex, making any changes in the neural signal related to behaviour difficult to interpret.

Theta oscillatory power decreases in humans are associated with spatial learning in a virtual water maze task.

Theta oscillations (4-8 Hz) in humans play a role in navigation processes, including spatial encoding, retrieval and sensorimotor integration. Increased theta power at frontal and parietal midline regions is known to contribute to successful navigation. However, the dynamics of cortical theta and its role in spatial learning are not fully understood.

Autobiographical Cerebral Network Activation in Older Adults Before and After Reminiscence Therapy: A Preliminary Report.

Introduction: Reminiscence therapy (RT), which engages individuals to evoke positive memories, has been shown to be effective in improving psychological well-being in older adults suffering from PTSD, depression, and anxiety. However, its impact on brain function has yet to be determined. This paper presents functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to describe changes in autobiographical memory networks (AMN) in community-dwelling older adults.

Landmark Distance Impacts the Overshadowing Effect in Spatial Learning Using a Virtual Water Maze Task with Healthy Adults.

Cue competition is a key element of many associative theories of learning. Overshadowing, an important aspect of cue competition, is a phenomenon in which learning about a cue is reduced when it is accompanied by a second cue. Overshadowing has been observed across many domains, but there has been limited investigation of overshadowing in human spatial learning.

Examining individual learning patterns using generalised linear mixed models.

Everyone learns differently, but individual performance is often ignored in favour of a group-level analysis. Using data from four different experiments, we show that generalised linear mixed models (GLMMs) and extensions can be used to examine individual learning patterns. Producing ellipsoids and cluster analyses based on predicted random effects, individual learning patterns can be identified, clustered and used for comparisons across various experimental conditions or groups.

Safety and feasibility of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation in mild cognitive impairment: VINCI-AD study protocol.

Background: Over 55 million adults are living with dementia globally, which is projected to reach 157 million by 2050. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a syndrome of memory impairment with intact activities of daily living, may precede dementia by several years. Around 5-15% of individuals with MCI convert to dementia annually.

Predicting conversion of patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment to Alzheimer's disease using bedside cognitive assessments.

Introduction: Patients diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) often go on to develop dementia, however many do not. Although cognitive tests are widely used in the clinic, there is limited research on their potential to help predict which patients may progress to Alzheimer's disease (AD) from those that do not.

Methods: MCI patients (n = 325) from the longitudinal Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI-2) dataset were tracked across a 5 year period.

Preservation of long-term memory in older adults using a spaced learning paradigm.

How much information we retain depends on type/schedule of training. It has been widely acknowledged that spaced learning is advantageous compared to massed learning for cognitively healthy young adults and should be considered an educational standard. Literature would suggest that the spacing effect is preserved with age, though it is unclear whether this effect translates to more ecologically valid concepts such as face-name associations, which are particularly susceptible to deterioration with age.

"The Wandering Nerve Linking Heart and Mind" - The Complementary Role of Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation in Modulating Neuro-Cardiovascular and Cognitive Performance.

The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the human body, providing afferent information about visceral sensation, integrity and somatic sensations to the CNS brainstem nuclei to subcortical and cortical structures. Its efferent arm influences GI motility and secretion, cardiac ionotropy, chonotropy and heart rate variability, blood pressure responses, bronchoconstriction and modulates gag and cough responses palatine and pharyngeal innervation. Vagus nerve stimulation has been utilized as a successful treatment for intractable epilepsy and treatment-resistant depression, and new non-invasive transcutaneous (t-VNS) devices offer equivalent therapeutic potential as invasive devices without the surgical risks.

Spatial Recognition Memory: Differential Brain Strategic Activation According to Sex.

Human spatial memory research has significantly progressed since the development of computerized tasks, with many studies examining sex-related performances. However, few studies explore the underlying electrophysiological correlates according to sex. In this study event-related potentials were compared between male and female participants during the performance of an allocentric spatial recognition task.

Virtual Morris water maze: opportunities and challenges.

The ability to accurately recall locations and navigate our environment relies on multiple cognitive mechanisms. The behavioural and neural correlates of spatial navigation have been repeatedly examined using different types of mazes and tasks with animals. Accurate performances of many of these tasks have proven to depend on specific circuits and brain structures and some have become the standard test of memory in many disease models.

Older Users of a Befriending Service in Ireland and the Maintenance of Personal Autonomy during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

In the Republic of Ireland (RoI), COVID-19 public health guidelines have been most restrictive for people aged 70 and over. Such individuals are most likely to avail of befriending services offered by a network of Irish organisations. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of COVID-19 guidelines on befriending service users, and to develop recommended adaptations to befriending services compatible with such guidelines.

Hippocampal and prefrontal contributions to memory retrieval: Examination of immediate early gene, NMDA receptor and environmental interactions.

Animals can use a range of strategies to recall important locations. These include simple stimulus-response strategies and more complex spatial (place) strategies, which are thought to have distinct neural substrates. The hippocampus-and NMDA receptor activation therein-is considered to be crucial for spatial, but not response strategies.

NavWell: A simplified virtual-reality platform for spatial navigation and memory experiments.

Being able to navigate, recall important locations, and find the way home are critical skills, essential for survival for both humans and animals. These skills can be examined in the laboratory using the Morris water maze, often considered the gold standard test of animal navigation. In this task, animals are required to locate and recall the location of an escape platform hidden in a pool filled with water.

The complexities of behavioural assessment in neurodegenerative disorders: A focus on Alzheimer's disease.

Rodent models of human diseases that accurately and reproducibly capture their pathology are key tools in furthering our understanding of the mechanisms behind these diseases and in the development of novel treatment approaches. However, pre-clinical studies in rodents are often criticised for the relative lack of replication and success upon translation to humans. Animal models of neurodegenerative diseases (and other CNS conditions) are very complex, often with multifactorial inputs into their development and progression.

Comparable walking gait performance during executive and non-executive cognitive dual-tasks in chronic stroke: A pilot study.

Background: Falls are a serious problem among stroke survivors due to subsequent injuries, recovery setbacks, dependence, and mortality. A growing body of dual-task (DT) studies suggests a role of executive functions in gait control and falls, particularly in subacute stroke. However, few studies have compared distinct executive and non-executive tasks, nor their effects on chronic stroke gait.

A novel control condition for spatial learning in the Morris water maze.

Background: Assessing markers of neural activity in rodent behavioural tasks benefits from meaningful comparison with matched control conditions. The Morris water maze is a widely used learning and memory task, but currently implemented control conditions are not optimal.

New Method: We created a novel control condition involving random escape platform placement for each trial, while increasing the frequency of platforms throughout the training period.

Understanding the role of distance, direction and cue salience in an associative model of landmark learning.

Navigation and spatial memory relies on the ability to use and recall environmental landmarks relative to important locations. Such learning is thought to result from the strengthening of associations between the goal location and environmental cues. Factors that contribute to the strength of this association include cue stability, saliency and cue location.

Autobiographical memory, the ageing brain and mechanisms of psychological interventions.

Elucidating the impact of healthy cognitive ageing and dementia on autobiographical memory (AM) may help deepen our theoretical understanding of memory and underlying neural changes. The distinction between episodic and semantic autobiographical memory is particularly informative in this regard. Psychological interventions, particularly those involving reminiscence or music, have led to differential effects on episodic and semantic autobiographical memory.

Efficiency: an underlying principle of learning?

Learning is essential. It allows animals to change circumstances, deal with new situations and adapt to environments. Here, we argue that learning, at behavioral and neural levels, involves efficiency, reflected in metabolic cost reductions.

Temporal dynamics of immediate early gene expression during cellular consolidation of spatial memory.

The consolidation of newly acquired memories on a cellular level is thought to take place in the first few hours following learning. This process is dependent on de novo protein synthesis during this time, which ultimately leads to long-term structural and functional neuronal changes and the stabilisation of a memory trace. Immediate early genes (IEGs) are rapidly expressed in neurons following learning, and previous research has suggested more than one wave of IEG expression facilitates consolidation in the hours following learning.

The effect of NMDA-R antagonism on simultaneously acquired local field potentials and tissue oxygen levels in the brains of freely-moving rats.

Non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonists are known to induce psychosis-like symptoms in rodents. Administration of such compounds cause behavioural effects such as memory impairment and hyperlocomotion. Additionally, drugs such as phencyclidine (PCP), ketamine and MK-801 all cause distinctive increases in striatal local field potential (LFP) in the high frequency oscillation (HFO) band in the power spectrum (140-180 Hz).

Differential expression of immediate early genes Zif268 and c-Fos in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex following spatial learning and glutamate receptor antagonism.

The objective of this study was to examine the effects of NMDAR and AMPAR antagonism on the expression of Zif268 and c-Fos in the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex during spatial memory encoding in rats trained in the Morris water maze. NMDAR inhibition impaired navigation and significantly attenuated expression of Zif268, but not c-Fos, in area CA1. AMPAR channel blockade had little effect on learning or IEG expression.