Examining the Relations Between Autobiographical Memory and Hippocampal Volume in 4- to 7-year-old Children

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Attention, Learning, Memory

Abstract

Childhood Amnesia, the phenomenon describing the scarcity of childhood memories prior to the age of 3-4 years was once believed to reflect the inability of young children to form and store new memories (e.g., Usher & Neisser, 1993). However, studies focusing on autobiographical memory, the recollection of experiences and events related to the self, have indicated that memories from as young as 2.5-years-old have been preserved in college-age participants (Wang et al., 2017). Although it is possible for early memories to stand the test of time, the majority of literature suggests that memories for life events become robust around 7 years of age (Bauer & Larkina, 2014). The mechanisms underlying this memory stabilization remain unclear. Neuroimaging studies have shown increased functional activation in bilateral hippocampi during an autobiographical memory retrieval task in 8-11-year-old children (Bauer et al., 2016). In children younger than 8 years, autobiographical memory has not been examined, though more general episodic memory has also been shown to rely on the hippocampus, as it is related to both function (e.g., Geng et al., 2019) and volume (e.g., Riggins et al., 2018). Because autobiographical memory is distinct from general episodic memory (Willoughby et al., 2012), the relation between autobiographical memory and the hippocampus in children younger than 8 years remains unclear. To fill this gap, the current study will draw upon an existing longitudinal sample of 200 children (100 female). Children completed autobiographical narratives and an MRI at two timepoints (ages 4 and 5 years OR 6 and 7 years). Autobiographical narratives were obtained for two parent-nominated events through an experimenter led interview with a free recall, prompted recall, and specific probes (who, what when, etc…). Narratives were transcribed using CLAN (MacWhinney, 2000) and scored via the Autobiographical Memory Interview (AMI), adapted from Levine and colleagues (2002). Hippocampal volume was obtained from a T1-weighted MRI scan (.9mm3) using Freesurfer and further refined with the Automated Segmentation Adapter Tool (ASAT; Riggins et al., 2017, Wang et al., 2010). Total hippocampal volume was then divided into subregions (head, body, and tail) using standard anatomical landmarks. Data for both timepoints are already collected; the autobiographical narratives are all transcribed, and all of timepoint one and most of timepoint two transcriptions (85%) have been coded for autobiographical details. After the last twelve transcriptions are coded, data analyses will be performed. Specifically, we will examine changes in memory for the events across the one-year time period for both 4- and 6-year-old children. We will then explore changes in hippocampal volume. Finally, we will explore associations between autobiographical memory and hippocampal subregion volume in the younger cohort compared to the older cohort and examine how this brain-behavior relation for the same event changes one year later. We anticipate differences between the younger and older cohorts as memory stability is likely less robust in the younger children than the older children, who are at the age where memories stabilize. Results of this study may help elucidate underlying neural mechanisms of autobiographical memory during its nascent stages.

Authors

• Jade Dunstan, University of Maryland - College Park
  Presenting Author

• Rylee Duncan, University of Maryland
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sanaa Amin, University of Maryland
  Non-Presenting Author

• Carli Fine, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tracy Riggins, University of Maryland - College Park
  Non-Presenting Author