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Selene Cansino

Publications and source records attributed to Selene Cansino.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Incidental and intentional encoding in young and elderly adults.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in young and elderly adults during the performance of an incidental encoding task (subjects were unexpectedly given a recognition test) followed by an intentional task (subjects expected the recognition test). Both tasks consisted of an encoding stage in which subjects classified words (natural/artificial) and a recognition stage in which they indicated whether the words were old (presented during the encoding stage) or new. In both groups and tasks, the ERPs, during encoding, differed as a function of subsequent recognition: the old words correctly recognized generated greater amplitude potentials than the incorrect ones. The memory processes expressed by these ERPs are preserved in elderly adults, independently of whether the information is incidentally or intentionally encoded.

Adult↗

Tonotopic cortical representation of periodic complex sounds.

Most of the sounds that are biologically relevant are complex periodic sounds, i.e., they are made up of harmonics, whose frequencies are integer multiples of a fundamental frequency (Fo). The Fo of a complex sound can be varied by modifying its periodicity frequency; these variations are perceived as the pitch of the voice or as the note of a musical instrument. The center frequency (CF) of peaks occurring in the audio spectrum also carries information, which is essential, for instance, in vowel recognition. The aim of the present study was to establish whether the generators underlying the 100 m are tonotopically organized based on the Fo or CF of complex sounds. Auditory evoked neuromagnetic fields were recorded with a whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) system while 14 subjects listened to 9 different sounds (3 Fo x 3 CF) presented in random order. Equivalent current dipole (ECD) sources for the 100 m component show an orderly progression along the y-axis for both hemispheres, with higher CFs represented more medially. In the right hemisphere, sources for higher CFs were more posterior, while in the left hemisphere they were more inferior. ECD orientation also varied as a function of the sound CF. These results show that the spectral content CF of the complex sounds employed here predominates, at the latency of the 100 m component, over a concurrent mapping of their periodic frequency Fo. The effect was observed both on dipole placement and dipole orientation.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Brain activity underlying encoding and retrieval of source memory.

Neural activity elicited during the encoding and retrieval of source information was investigated with event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (efMRI). During encoding, 17 subjects performed a natural/artificial judgement on pictures of common objects which were presented randomly in one of the four quadrants of the display. At retrieval, old pictures were mixed with new ones and subjects judged whether each picture was new or old and, if old, indicated in which quadrant it was presented at encoding. During encoding, study items that were later recognized and assigned a correct source judgement elicited greater activity than recognized items given incorrect judgements in a variety of regions, including right lateral occipital and left prefrontal cortex. At retrieval, regions showing greater activity for recognized items given correct versus incorrect source judgements included the right hippocampal formation and the left prefrontal cortex. These findings indicate a role for these regions in the encoding and retrieval of episodic information beyond that required for simple item recognition.

Adult↗