Episodic memory and recognition are influenced by cues' sensory modality: comparing odours, music and faces using virtual reality.

Most everyday experiences are multisensory, and all senses can trigger the conscious re-experience of unique personal events embedded in their specific spatio-temporal context. Yet, little is known about how a cue's sensory modality influences episodic memory, and which step of this process is impacted. This study investigated recognition and episodic memory across olfactory, auditory and visual sensory modalities in a laboratory-ecological task using a non-immersive virtual reality device.

Personal familiarity of music and its cerebral effect on subsequent speech processing.

Despite the obvious personal relevance of some musical pieces, the cerebral mechanisms associated with listening to personally familiar music and its effects on subsequent brain functioning have not been specifically evaluated yet. We measured cerebral correlates with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while composers listened to three types of musical excerpts varying in personal familiarity and self (familiar own/composition, familiar other/favorite or unfamiliar other/unknown music) followed by sequences of names of individuals also varying in personal familiarity and self (familiar own/own name, familiar other/close friend and unfamiliar other/unknown name). Listening to music with autobiographical contents (familiar own and/or other) recruited a fronto-parietal network including mainly the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the supramarginal/angular gyri and the precuneus.

Incorporation of fragmented visuo-olfactory episodic memory into dreams and its association with memory performance.

The question of a possible link between dream content and memory consolidation remains open. After a comprehensive review of the literature, we present novel findings from an experiment testing whether the incorporation of recently learned stimuli into dream reports is associated with improved post-sleep memory performance. Thirty-two high dream recallers freely explored new visuo-olfactory episodes for 3 consecutive days.

Effects of preference and sensory modality on behavioural reaction in patients with disorders of consciousness.

Background: Reliable evaluation of patients with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) or in a minimally conscious state (MCS) remains a major challenge. It has been suggested that the expression of residual cerebral function could be improved by allowing patients to listen to their favourite music. However, the potential effect of music on behavioural responsiveness, as well as the effect of preferred stimuli in other sensory modalities (e.

"What-Where-Which" Episodic Retrieval Requires Conscious Recollection and Is Promoted by Semantic Knowledge.

Episodic memory is defined as the conscious retrieval of specific past events. Whether accurate episodic retrieval requires a recollective experience or if a feeling of knowing is sufficient remains unresolved. We recently devised an ecological approach to investigate the controlled cued-retrieval of episodes composed of unnamable odors (What) located spatially (Where) within a visual context (Which context).