An Event-Related Potential Analysis of Coding Processes in Human Memory

doi:10.1016/S0079-6123(08)61686-6

Progress in Brain Research

Volume 54, 1980, Pages 655-660

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(08)61686-6 Get rights and content

Publisher Summary

This chapter discusses an event-related potential (ERP) analysis of coding processes in human memory. The endogenous ERPs have been shown to vary in the context of learning and memory tasks. For example, several lines of evidence indicate that the contingent negative variation (CNV) and P300 components reflect the processes of acquisition and retention in short term memory situations. One question to emerge from these results is the extent to which ERP changes can be related to retention over the longer term, i.e., in situations where memory is not tested immediately on every trial. It would be of interest to observe the extent to which ERPs reflect the level of perceptual processing at acquisition, and how such processing manifests itself in memory performance. Phonemic encodings yield intermediate performance. An ancillary finding is that words yielding a “yes” response to a query are better remembered than those yielding a “no” response in phonemic and semantic levels of processing. These effects have been obtained in a number of other experiments and represent a robust behavioral phenomenon with which to test the utility of ERPs as indices of learning and memory.

References (8)

N. Adam et al.
Late components of the visual evoked potential to search in short-term memory.
Electroenceph. Clin. Neurophysiol.
(1978)
F.I.M. Craik et al.
Levels of processing: a framework for memory research.
J. verbal Learn. verbal Behav.
(1972)
W.T. Roth et al.
The contingent negative variation during a memory retrieval task.
Electroenceph. Clin. Neurophysiol.
(1975)
W.T. Roth et al.
The timing of CNV resolution in a memory retrieval task.
Biol. Psychol.
(1978)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (17)

Dynamic changes in prefrontal cortex involvement during verbal episodic memory formation
2017, Biological Psychology
Citation Excerpt :
Laying down new memories involves a set of complex neural processes. The classical approach to the study of the neural basis of memory formation is to measure brain activity for an event during a learning or study phase, and to analyse this activity as a function of whether the event will be remembered or forgotten in a subsequent memory phase (subsequent memory procedure, Sanquist, Rohrbaugh, Syndulko, & Lindsley, 1980). Several event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalographic (EEG) studies used this approach to reveal the network of brain regions implicated in successful memory formation (for early reviews, Friedman & Johnson, 2000; Paller & Wagner, 2002).
During encoding, the neural activity immediately before or during an event can predict whether that event will be later remembered. The contribution of brain activity immediately after an event to memory formation is however less known. Here, we used repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) to investigate the temporal dynamics of episodic memory encoding with a focus on post-stimulus time intervals. At encoding, rTMS was applied during the online processing of the word, at its offset, or 100, 200, 300 or 400 ms thereafter. rTMS was delivered to the left ventrolateral (VLPFC) or dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). VLPFC rTMS during the first few hundreds of milliseconds after word offset disrupted subsequent recognition accuracy. We did not observe effects of DLPFC rTMS at any time point. These results suggest that encoding-related VLPFC engagement starts at a relatively late processing stage, and may reflect brain processes related to the offset of the stimulus.
Challenging the error-likelihood model with a recognition paradigm: An electrophysiological study
2011, Biological Psychology
Citation Excerpt :
In both conditions, correctly identified new words (correct rejections) as compared to correctly identified old words (hits) were associated with an increased N400 which was followed by a decreased late positive component (LPC, see Figs. 1 and 2). This pattern resembles the old/new effect as shown by others (Donaldson and Rugg, 1999; Düzel et al., 1997, 1999; Fabiani and Donchin, 1995; Paller et al., 1998; Papagno and Baddeley, 1997; Rugg et al., 1996, 1998a,b; Rugg and Nagy, 1989; Sanquist et al., 1980; Warren, 1980), which was more pronounced for the high risk condition. As within the present data, an earlier onset latency of the old new effect for hits was observed before (Rodriguez-Fornells et al., 2004).
The error-likelihood model (ELM) postulates that activity of the anterior cingulate cortex is not only modulated by the commitment of an error but is rather dependent on the perceived ELM within task context. In this event-related potential (ERP) study we challenge these assumptions with a word-recognition paradigm. While learning phases were constant, ELM was modulated during recognition by varying the ratio of old and new words: old and new words had the same probability in low-risk sessions and the number of new words was tripled in high-risk sessions. Response-locked ERPs of correct yes-responses compared to no-responses revealed two different components with fronto-central distributions. The first negativity (time-range of the error-related negativity) elicited differentiations between yes- and no-responses. Yes-responses in high-risk compared to low-risk sessions resulted in an enlarged negativity. These results support the ELM which states that the activation of the anterior cingulate cortex is also modulated by the participant's perceived likelihood to commit an error and not the correctness of the response per se.
Human brain potentials of spatial location encoding into memory
1994, Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology
Event-related potentials (ERP) were elicited by little vertical bars located randomly in 1 of 4 positions (top, bottom, left or right) relative to a central fixation point. There were 4 experimental conditions requiring the subjects either to press a button if the stimulus was in the target location, count the number of stimuli appearing in the target location, look at the stimuli passively or memorize the location of the stimulus. The interstimulus interval was 2 sec for all tasks. In the memory condition subjects had to consider stimuli as pairs, memorize the location of the first stimulus of every pair and press a button if the second stimulus was in the same location. Our results indicate that ERPs corresponding to the memorization and retention of spatial location are different from those of the other 3 tasks in the presence of a long duration negativity mainly distributed bilaterally over O1, O2, T5 and T6 electrodes. This negativity seems to develop gradually several milliseconds before stimulus onset, reaches its highest value when the spatial location is assumed to be analyzed, and continues with uniform scalp distribution until the end of the recording (822 msec after stimulus onset).
Brain potentials in a memory-scanning task. III. Potentials to the items being memorized
1989, Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology
Cerebral potentials evoked by items presented for memorization in a memory-scanning task were recorded from subjects ranging in age from 18 to 86 years old. Subjects were divided into younger (average age = 29 years) and older groups (average age = 66 years). Both verbal (digits) and non-verbal (musical notes) stimuli were used. Digits were presented in the auditory as well as the visual modality, and notes were presented acoustically. Potentials are described in terms of their scalp distribution, latency, and amplitude and are compared between the young and old subjects.
Potentials evoked by the memorized items consisted of a positive (P50–90), negative (N100–150), positive (P185–225) sequence in the first 250 msec following stimulus onset. A sustained potential shift then followed whose amplitude differed with the items being memorized. The shift was positive in the parietal region being largest (5 μV) with verbal items presented visually and slightly smaller (3 μV) with non-verbal auditory stimuli (the notes); in contrast, verbal auditory digits were not associated with a detectable sustained parietal potential shift. In the frontal recordings there was a sustained potential shift accompanying all stimulus types, which was more negative in the young subjects. The amplitude of these sustained potential shifts differed as a function of the position of the item in the memorized set.
These results provide electrophysiological evidence of brain activity during memorization that varies with the items being processed as well as differing between young and old subjects.
Cerebrovascular accident alters P300 event-related potential characteristics
1986, Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology
P300 event-related potentials to counted (target) and uncounted (background) visual stimuli were recorded from subjects who had sustained either a right or a left middle cerebral artery cerebrovascular accident (CVA) and from appropriate normal control subjects. Subjects were asked to count target stimuli and to ignore non-target stimuli. Standard measurements of the amplitude and latency of P300 components as well as intercorrelations among P300 wave forms from 3 brain regions (Fz, Cz, Pz) were collected. Amplitudes of N1-P2 and N2-P3 components as well as overall amplitude of the ERP wave form were reliably reduced by a CVA, but component latencies were not significantly affected.
The amplitude reduction associated with a CVA cannot be simply interpreted as evidence for reduced cognitive efficiency because overall amplitudes and intercorrelations between brain regions of CVA patients were reduced for both counted and uncounted stimuli. The intercorrelations between brain regions were particularly reduced if the CVA was localized in the right hemisphere. For CVA patients, reduced component amplitudes may reflect decreased cortical intercommunication associated with damage to subcortical brain structures.
Neural mechanisms of arousal, attention, and information processing
2021, Psychology Library Editions: Neuropsychology

View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text

An Event-Related Potential Analysis of Coding Processes in Human Memory

Publisher Summary

Electroenceph. Clin. Neurophysiol.

J. verbal Learn. verbal Behav.

Electroenceph. Clin. Neurophysiol.

Biol. Psychol.