Episodic memory, including autobiographical memory (AM) for our personal past, shows the earliest and steepest decline in healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). More recently, several lines of evidence have suggested that both remembering and imagining are supported by a constructive episodic memory system that allows the flexible recombination of details from past episodes into simulations of possible future events. Yet, there are scarce data on the cognitive and neural basis underlying AM and episodic simulation in healthy older adults or AD patients, which is a serious oversight to understanding abnormalities in the episodic memory system in aging. Moreover, patterns of decline in AM and episodic simulation may be due to separable underlying cognitive and neural changes in healthy aging vs. AD. Thus, better understanding these effects could help to differentiate healthy from pathological aging, and potentially contribute to biomarkers of disease. The goal of the proposed research is to elucidate the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying AM and episodic simulation in healthy aging vs. AD. In the first study, participants will recall past memories and novel future events under varying levels of retrieval support in order to distinguish the contribution of strategic retrieval vs. declarative memory deficits in each group. In the second study, participants will recall past memories and episodic simulations elicited by personal photographs in order to determine the impact of more effective retrieval cues on group differences. Finally, in the third study, resting state functional MRI and structural MRI will be combined to determine the neural correlates of AM and episodic simulations in healthy older adults vs. AD. Collectively, the proposed project will reveal the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying episodic simulation in AD and healthy older adults.

Public Health Relevance

Elucidating the relationship between memory and episodic simulation in AD has the potential to provide novel interventions for slowing impairment and subsequently improving quality of life. The proposed project aims to provide an empirical foundation that will be critical for future clinical interventions in this devastating disease.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F32)
Project #
5F32AG038079-03
Application #
8313981
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-F12A-E (20))
Program Officer
Silverberg, Nina B
Project Start
2010-09-01
Project End
2013-08-31
Budget Start
2012-09-01
Budget End
2013-08-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$52,190
Indirect Cost
Name
Harvard University
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
082359691
City
Cambridge
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02138
St Jacques, Peggy L; Montgomery, Daniel; Schacter, Daniel L (2015) Modifying memory for a museum tour in older adults: Reactivation-related updating that enhances and distorts memory is reduced in ageing. Memory 23:876-87
St Jacques, Peggy L; Grady, Cheryl; Davidson, Patrick S R et al. (2015) Emotional evaluation and memory in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. Neurocase 21:429-37
St Jacques, Peggy L; Olm, Christopher; Schacter, Daniel L (2013) Neural mechanisms of reactivation-induced updating that enhance and distort memory. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 110:19671-8
St Jacques, Peggy L; Schacter, Daniel L (2013) Modifying memory: selectively enhancing and updating personal memories for a museum tour by reactivating them. Psychol Sci 24:537-43
Schacter, Daniel L; Guerin, Scott A; St Jacques, Peggy L (2011) Memory distortion: an adaptive perspective. Trends Cogn Sci 15:467-74
St Jacques, Peggy L; Kragel, Philip A; Rubin, David C (2011) Dynamic neural networks supporting memory retrieval. Neuroimage 57:608-16