Relations between neural structures and children's self-derivation of new knowledge through memory integration

Abstract

Accumulation of semantic or factual knowledge is a major task during development. Knowledge builds through direct experience and explicit instruction as well as through productive processes that permit derivation of new understandings. In the present research, we tested the neural bases of the specific productive process of self-derivation of new factual knowledge through integration of separate yet related episodes of new learning. The process serves as an ecologically valid model of semantic knowledge accumulation. We tested structure/behavior relations in 5- to 8-year-old children, a period characterized by both age-related differences and individual variability in self-derivation, as well as in the neural regions implicated in memory integration, namely the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. After controlling for the variance in task performance explained by age, sex, verbal IQ, and gray-matter volume (medial prefrontal cortex, mPFC, only), we observed relations between right mPFC thickness and memory for information explicitly taught to the children as well as the new information they self-derived; relations with the volume of the right hippocampus approached significance. This research provides the first evidence of the neural substrate that subserves children's accumulation of knowledge via self-derivation through memory integration, an empirically demonstrated, functionally significant learning mechanism.

Keywords: Hippocampus; Learning; Memory integration; Prefrontal cortex; Self-derivation.

Fig. 1

Schematic representation of the structure of the paradigm used to test self-derivation through memory integration, from the stem-fact presentation through the test phase. In the test phase, children were asked forced-choice questions only for items they failed to answer correctly in the open-ended phase of testing.

Fig. 2

Partial regression plot showing association between right hippocampal volume and A) open-ended integration fact performance, and B) open-ended stem fact recall.

Fig. 3

Partial regression plots showing associations between right mPFC thickness (green and yellow) and A) total integration fact performance (open-ended plus forced choice), B) open-ended stem fact recall; and associations between right rostral anterior cingulate thickness (yellow) and C) total integration fact performance (open-ended plus forced choice) and D) open-ended stem fact recall.