A smartphone intervention that enhances real-world memory and promotes differentiation of hippocampal activity in older adults

Abstract

The act of remembering an everyday experience influences how we interpret the world, how we think about the future, and how we perceive ourselves. It also enhances long-term retention of the recalled content, increasing the likelihood that it will be recalled again. Unfortunately, the ability to recollect event-specific details and reexperience the past tends to decline with age. This decline in recollection may reflect a corresponding decrease in the distinctiveness of hippocampal memory representations. Despite these well-established changes, there are few effective cognitive behavioral interventions that target real-world episodic memory. We addressed this gap by developing a smartphone-based application called HippoCamera that allows participants to record labeled videos of everyday events and subsequently replay, high-fidelity autobiographical memory cues. In two experiments, we found that older adults were able to easily integrate this noninvasive intervention into their daily lives. Using HippoCamera to repeatedly reactivate memories for real-world events improved episodic recollection and it evoked more positive autobiographical sentiment at the time of retrieval. In both experiments, these benefits were observed shortly after the intervention and again after a 3-mo delay. Moreover, more detailed recollection was associated with more differentiated memory signals in the hippocampus. Thus, using this smartphone application to systematically reactivate memories for recent real-world experiences can help to maintain a bridge between the present and past in older adults.

Episodic-semantic linkage for $1000: New semantic knowledge is more strongly coupled with episodic memory in trivia experts

“…Our task also showcases the utility of the "museum" for studying memory in the lab. Although psychologists have increasingly used naturalistic paradigms for studying and measuring episodic memory (e.g., Chow & Rissman, 2017;Martin et al, 2022;Nielson et al, 2015), they have tended to study semantic memory via relatively more impoverished paradigms like object-name associations or contextless general knowledge questions, perhaps in part because of a historical push to dissociate episodic and semantic memory (Duff et al, 2020). Such experimental control may come at the cost of capturing how episodic and semantic memory interact in the real world.…”

Beyond memory: The transcendence of episodic narratives.

“…Some technologies emphasise sharing an entire event (e.g., "https://hippo camera.com" Martin et al, 2022); others facilitate sharing snippets of memories in "bite-size" messages (e.g., X, formerly known as Twitter) or pictures (e.g., Instagram or BeReal) or through devices that capture more naturalistic conversation (Wank et al, 2020). It is not yet clear how such differences in sharing will alter the landscape of episodic narration-both in terms of how such experiences are later remembered or re-experienced (see important work in aging by Martin et al, 2022), and how those memories affect feelings of social connection and well-being. As evident in other fields and famously suggested by the Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan, it might be that "the medium is the message" (McLuhan, 1964).…”

Towards an ecologically valid naturalistic cognitive neuroscience of episodic memory and event cognition: A literature review and synthesis

“…This can lead to conscious behaviors that may not accurately reflect everyday life (Bruun and Stentoft, 2019). Additionally, if the lifelog camera requires human intervention to record events (Martin et al, 2022), it creates a different version of selection bias (which was also the problem with diary studies).…”