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Orianne JF, Eustache F. Collective memory: between individual systems of consciousness and social systems. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1238272. [PMID: 37901083 PMCID: PMC10603192 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1238272] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2023] [Accepted: 09/19/2023] [Indexed: 10/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Following a long period of neglect, research on different facets of collective memory is now developing apace in the human and social sciences, as well as at their interface with psychology and neuroscience. This resolutely multidisciplinary renewal of interest in memory sciences has given rise to a plethora of concepts with diverse meanings (e.g., social frameworks of memory, collective, shared, collaborative, social memory). The purpose of the present study was to provide a conceptual overview from a historical perspective, and above all to clarify concepts that are often used interchangeably, even though they refer to very different realities. Based on recent research in psychology and neuroscience, we use the concept of collective memory to refer to the operations of individual systems of consciousness. Collective memory is not the memory of a collective, but that of its individual members, either as members of social groups (shared memory) or as participants in social interactions (collaborative memory). Drawing on the contributions of contemporary sociology, we show that social memory is not collective memory, as it refers not to individual systems of consciousness, but to social systems. More specifically, it is the outcome of communication operations which, through redundancy and repetition, perform a continuous and selective re-imprinting of meaning that can be used for communication. Writing, printing and the new communication technologies constitute the three historical stages in the formation and development of an autonomous social memory, independent of living memories and social interactions. In the modern era, mass media fulfill an essential function of social memory, by sorting between forgetting and remembering on a planetary scale. When thinking about the articulation between collective memory and social memory, the concept of structural coupling allows us to identify two mechanisms by which individual systems of consciousness and social systems can interact and be mutually sensitized: schemas and scripts, and social roles. Transdisciplinary approach spearheads major methodological and conceptual advances and is particularly promising for clinical practice, as it should result in a better understanding of memory pathologies, including PTSD, but also cognitive disorders in cancer (chemobrain) or in neurodegenerative diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean-François Orianne
- Center for Research and Sociological Interventions (CRIS), Social Science Research Institute (IRSS), Liège University, Liège, Belgium
- Neuropsychology and Imaging of Human Memory (NIMH) Research Unit, GIP Cyceron, INSERM U1077, Caen University Hospital, PSL, EPHE, Caen University, Caen, France
| | - Francis Eustache
- Neuropsychology and Imaging of Human Memory (NIMH) Research Unit, GIP Cyceron, INSERM U1077, Caen University Hospital, PSL, EPHE, Caen University, Caen, France
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Rouhani N, Stanley D, Adolphs R. Collective events and individual affect shape autobiographical memory. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2221919120. [PMID: 37432994 PMCID: PMC10629560 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2221919120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2022] [Accepted: 06/06/2023] [Indexed: 07/13/2023] Open
Abstract
How do collective events shape how we remember our lives? We leveraged advances in natural language processing as well as a rich, longitudinal assessment of 1,000 Americans throughout 2020 to examine how memory is influenced by two prominent factors: surprise and emotion. Autobiographical memory for 2020 displayed a unique signature: There was a substantial bump in March, aligning with pandemic onset and lockdowns, consistent across three memory collections 1 y apart. We further investigated how emotion, using both immediate and retrieved measures, predicted the amount and content of autobiographical memory: Negative affect increased recall across all measures, whereas its more clinical indices, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder, selectively increased nonepisodic recall. Finally, in a separate cohort, we found pandemic news to be better remembered, surprising, and negative, while lockdowns compressed remembered time. Our work connects laboratory findings to the real world and delineates the effects of acute versus clinical signatures of negative emotion on memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina Rouhani
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA91125
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA91125
| | - Damian Stanley
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA91125
- Derner School of Psychology, Adelphi University, New York, NY11530
| | | | - Ralph Adolphs
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA91125
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA91125
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The anterior thalamic nuclei: core components of a tripartite episodic memory system. Nat Rev Neurosci 2022; 23:505-516. [PMID: 35478245 DOI: 10.1038/s41583-022-00591-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Standard models of episodic memory focus on hippocampal-parahippocampal interactions, with the neocortex supplying sensory information and providing a final repository of mnemonic representations. However, recent advances have shown that other regions make distinct and equally critical contributions to memory. In particular, there is growing evidence that the anterior thalamic nuclei have a number of key cognitive functions that support episodic memory. In this article, we describe these findings and argue for a core, tripartite memory system, comprising a 'temporal lobe' stream (centred on the hippocampus) and a 'medial diencephalic' stream (centred on the anterior thalamic nuclei) that together act on shared cortical areas. We demonstrate how these distributed brain regions form complementary and necessary partnerships in episodic memory formation.
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Neural, psychological, and social foundations of collective memory: Implications for common mnemonic processes, agency, and identity. PROGRESS IN BRAIN RESEARCH 2022; 274:1-30. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2022.07.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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Lund AE, Russell C. What is the relationship between collective memory and metacognition? PROGRESS IN BRAIN RESEARCH 2022; 274:31-70. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2022.07.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Toward new memory sciences: The Programme 13-Novembre. PROGRESS IN BRAIN RESEARCH 2022; 274:177-201. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2022.07.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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Geometric models reveal behavioural and neural signatures of transforming experiences into memories. Nat Hum Behav 2021; 5:905-919. [PMID: 33574605 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01051-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2018] [Accepted: 01/08/2021] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Abstract
How do we preserve and distort our ongoing experiences when encoding them into episodic memories? The mental contexts in which we interpret experiences are often person-specific, even when the experiences themselves are shared. Here we develop a geometric framework for mathematically characterizing the subjective conceptual content of dynamic naturalistic experiences. We model experiences and memories as trajectories through word-embedding spaces whose coordinates reflect the universe of thoughts under consideration. Memory encoding can then be modelled as geometrically preserving or distorting the 'shape' of the original experience. We applied our approach to data collected as participants watched and verbally recounted a television episode while undergoing functional neuroimaging. Participants' recountings preserved coarse spatial properties (essential narrative elements) but not fine spatial scale (low-level) details of the episode's trajectory. We also identified networks of brain structures sensitive to these trajectory shapes.
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Levine SM, Schwarzbach JV. Individualizing Representational Similarity Analysis. Front Psychiatry 2021; 12:729457. [PMID: 34707520 PMCID: PMC8542717 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.729457] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2021] [Accepted: 09/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Representational similarity analysis (RSA) is a popular multivariate analysis technique in cognitive neuroscience that uses functional neuroimaging to investigate the informational content encoded in brain activity. As RSA is increasingly being used to investigate more clinically-geared questions, the focus of such translational studies turns toward the importance of individual differences and their optimization within the experimental design. In this perspective, we focus on two design aspects: applying individual vs. averaged behavioral dissimilarity matrices to multiple participants' neuroimaging data and ensuring the congruency between tasks when measuring behavioral and neural representational spaces. Incorporating these methods permits the detection of individual differences in representational spaces and yields a better-defined transfer of information from representational spaces onto multivoxel patterns. Such design adaptations are prerequisites for optimal translation of RSA to the field of precision psychiatry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seth M Levine
- Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Jens V Schwarzbach
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
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Carew TJ, Ramaswami M. The Neurohumanities: An Emerging Partnership for Exploring the Human Experience. Neuron 2020; 108:590-593. [PMID: 33242428 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.10.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Neuroscience has an extraordinary opportunity to investigate issues historically addressed by the arts, humanities, and social sciences. As a guide, we suggest three features of meaningful progress in the collaborative field, the neurohumanities, which we illustrate through a discussion of "neural schemas."
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas J Carew
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.
| | - Mani Ramaswami
- Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, School of Genetics and Microbiology, Smurfit Institute of Genetics and School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin-2, Ireland; National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, Bangalore 560065, India.
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Abstract
Human cultures store memories in large distributed assemblies composed of individual brains, intragenerational and intergenerational interacting brains, social constructs, and artifacts. Neuroscience, social sciences, and the humanities can benefit mutually from combining their distinctive methodologies in investigating the cultural engram.
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Anderson AJ, McDermott K, Rooks B, Heffner KL, Dodell-Feder D, Lin FV. Decoding individual identity from brain activity elicited in imagining common experiences. Nat Commun 2020; 11:5916. [PMID: 33219210 PMCID: PMC7679397 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19630-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2019] [Accepted: 10/19/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Everyone experiences common events differently. This leads to personal memories that presumably provide neural signatures of individual identity when events are reimagined. We present initial evidence that these signatures can be read from brain activity. To do this, we progress beyond previous work that has deployed generic group-level computational semantic models to distinguish between neural representations of different events, but not revealed interpersonal differences in event representations. We scanned 26 participants' brain activity using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging as they vividly imagined themselves personally experiencing 20 common scenarios (e.g., dancing, shopping, wedding). Rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach to generically model scenarios, we constructed personal models from participants' verbal descriptions and self-ratings of sensory/motor/cognitive/spatiotemporal and emotional characteristics of the imagined experiences. We demonstrate that participants' neural representations are better predicted by their own models than other peoples'. This showcases how neuroimaging and personalized models can quantify individual-differences in imagined experiences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew James Anderson
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA.
- Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA.
| | - Kelsey McDermott
- Elaine C. Hubbard Center for Nursing Research on Aging, School of Nursing, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA
- Neuroscience, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
| | - Brian Rooks
- Elaine C. Hubbard Center for Nursing Research on Aging, School of Nursing, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA
| | - Kathi L Heffner
- Elaine C. Hubbard Center for Nursing Research on Aging, School of Nursing, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA
- Division of Geriatrics and Aging, Department of Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA
| | - David Dodell-Feder
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA
- Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA
| | - Feng V Lin
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA
- Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA
- Elaine C. Hubbard Center for Nursing Research on Aging, School of Nursing, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA
- Department of Neurology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA
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Remembering together. Nat Hum Behav 2019; 4:132-133. [PMID: 31844273 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-019-0789-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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