Neuroscience: Memory modification without catastrophe.

Adaptive behaviour is supported by changes in neuronal networks. Insight into maintaining these memories - preventing their catastrophic loss - despite further network changes occurring due to novel learning is provided in a new study.

Hippocampal neurons code individual episodic memories in humans.

The hippocampus is an essential hub for episodic memory processing. However, how human hippocampal single neurons code multi-element associations remains unknown. In particular, it is debated whether each hippocampal neuron represents an invariant element within an episode or whether single neurons bind together all the elements of a discrete episodic memory.

Developmental changes in individual alpha frequency: Recording EEG data during public engagement events.

Statistical power in cognitive neuroimaging experiments is often very low. Low sample size can reduce the likelihood of detecting real effects (false negatives) and increase the risk of detecting non-existing effects by chance (false positives). Here, we document our experience of leveraging a relatively unexplored method of collecting a large sample size for simple electroencephalography (EEG) studies: by recording EEG in the community during public engagement and outreach events.

Correction: Stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with slow rTMS enhances verbal memory formation.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.

Stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with slow rTMS enhances verbal memory formation.

Encoding of episodic memories relies on stimulus-specific information processing and involves the left prefrontal cortex. We here present an incidental finding from a simultaneous EEG-TMS experiment as well as a replication of this unexpected effect. Our results reveal that stimulating the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) with slow repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) leads to enhanced word memory performance.

Investigating the role of phase-synchrony during encoding of episodic memories using electrical stimulation.

The multi-sensory nature of episodic memories indicates that communication between a multitude of brain areas is required for their effective creation and recollection. Previous studies have suggested that the effectiveness of memory processes depends on theta synchronization (4 Hz) of sensory areas relevant to the memory. This study aimed to manipulate theta synchronization between different sensory areas in order to further test this hypothesis.

Entraining neurons via noninvasive electric stimulation improves cognition.

Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS) is a method that injects rhythmic currents into the human brain via electrodes attached to the scalp of a participant. This technique allows researchers to control naturally occurring brain rhythms and study their causal relevance for cognition. Recent findings, however, cast doubts on the effectiveness of tACS to stimulate the brain and its mode of action.

Directional coupling of slow and fast hippocampal gamma with neocortical alpha/beta oscillations in human episodic memory.

Episodic memories hinge upon our ability to process a wide range of multisensory information and bind this information into a coherent, memorable representation. On a neural level, these 2 processes are thought to be supported by neocortical alpha/beta desynchronization and hippocampal theta/gamma synchronization, respectively. Intuitively, these 2 processes should couple to successfully create and retrieve episodic memories, yet this hypothesis has not been tested empirically.

Native and non-native listeners show similar yet distinct oscillatory dynamics when using gestures to access speech in noise.

Listeners are often challenged by adverse listening conditions during language comprehension induced by external factors, such as noise, but also internal factors, such as being a non-native listener. Visible cues, such as semantic information conveyed by iconic gestures, can enhance language comprehension in such situations. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG) we investigated whether spatiotemporal oscillatory dynamics can predict a listener's benefit of iconic gestures during language comprehension in both internally (non-native versus native listeners) and externally (clear/degraded speech) induced adverse listening conditions.