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Access Type
WSU Access
Date of Award
January 2023
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Noa Ofen
Abstract
Our ability to remember past experiences shows robust gains from childhood through young adulthood. However, the development of neurophysiological mechanisms of memory development is largely unknown. Intracranial EEG (iEEG) recordings in epilepsy patients provide excellent spatiotemporal resolution to investigate the development of neurophysiological mechanisms of memory formation. In the current study, I used intracranial EEG recordings to investigate the neurophysiological mechanisms that support memory formation for complex visual stimuli in the occipital cortex and medial temporal lobe (MTL). In Chapter 1, I reviewed the theories and empirical studies regarding the neurophysiological mechanisms of memory formation that motivated the current study. In Chapter 2, I investigated how alpha and theta oscillations support memory formation by facilitating information representation in the occipital cortex and MTL in the developing brain. I found memory-related high-frequency activity (HFA), a measure of brain activity with millisecond resolution, in both the occipital cortex and MTL. Through neural oscillation detection analysis, I found that alpha oscillations dominate the occipital cortex, and theta oscillations dominate MTL. Successful encoding of complex visual scenes was associated neurophysiological signatures of mnemonic representation, namely, HFA in the occipital cortex modulated by alpha oscillations, and HFA in MTL modulated by theta oscillations. In both occipital cortex and MTL I identified age-related increases in the modulation effects. These findings suggest that occipital alpha and MTL theta oscillations support memory formation in the developing brain. In Chapter 3, I investigated how alpha and theta oscillations underlie the interactions between the occipital cortex and MTL to support memory formation for complex visual stimuli. I found occipital-MTL memory-related oscillation phase synchrony, a measure of inter-regional communication, in both alpha and theta ranges. These findings indicate that alpha and theta oscillations support memory formation by facilitating inter-regional interaction in the developing brain. Through systemically and rigorous analyses, results from the current study provide important insights about the neurophysiological mechanisms of cognition and further our understanding of brain development.
Recommended Citation
Yin, Qin, "Occipitotemporal Alpha And Theta Dynamics Support Memory Formation In The Developing Brain" (2023). Wayne State University Dissertations. 3851.
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/3851