Episodic memory, or the ability to remember past events with specific detail, is central to the human experience and is related to learning and adaptive functioning in a variety of domains. In typically developing children, episodic memory improves emerges during infancy and improves during early childhood and beyond. Despite remarkable early episodic memory skills, most early recollections are lost to infantile amnesia, individuals' inability to recall events occurred in the first 2 or 3 years of life. Developmental processes within the hippocampus are hypothesized to be primarily responsible for both the early emergence of episodic memory in children and the loss of early recollections due to infantile amnesia. However, these hypotheses are based on non-human models and in-vivo investigations in early human development have been significantly limited by the methodological challenge of acquiring neuroimaging data, particularly task-related functional neuroimaging data, from young children. Recent studies in adults have highlighted that the hippocampus is involved in the acquisition of the initially arbitrary association between new words and their referents, a capacity markedly impaired in hippocampal amnesia. We propose to leverage the remarkable word-learning skills in infants and toddlers to explore whether neural substrates of memory for words can be used as a marker of early episodic memory. The proposed research will explore new methods to test hippocampal structure and function in infants and toddlers ages 18 to 30 months, a period during which episodic memory improves, hundreds of words are being learned, but infantile amnesia operates. Relevance to Public Health: Healthy episodic memory provides a foundation for the emergence and development of autobiographical memory, continuity of self from past to future, and is associated with intellectual ability and academic achievement. The development of episodic memory is impaired following even mild forms of acquired neurological insult, mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression, and neurodevelopmental disorders; language acquisition is additionally impaired in a number of disorders underscoring that a characterization of memory and vocabulary development is key to understanding adaptive functioning in various populations of children.

Public Health Relevance

Episodic memory, the ability to remember past events in specific detail, is a fundamental aspect of cognition supporting children's capacity to face daily challenges (such as remembering to turn in one's homework), form autobiographical memories, and learn in the classroom. The hippocampus is a brain structure that is critical for episodic memory and is thought to play a fundamental role in early memory development. The proposed research will explore new approaches to examine hippocampal structure and function in healthy infants and toddlers between 18 and 30 months of age, elucidating the neural mechanisms that underlie typical episodic memory improvement and its relations to word learning.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Exploratory/Developmental Grants (R21)
Project #
1R21HD098700-01
Application #
9733658
Study Section
Cognition and Perception Study Section (CP)
Program Officer
Miller, Brett
Project Start
2019-03-15
Project End
2021-02-28
Budget Start
2019-03-15
Budget End
2020-02-29
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2019
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California Davis
Department
Neurology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
047120084
City
Davis
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
95618