Unlike animals, humans are born with very immature brains, but it is precisely this immaturity that enables them to learn throughout life.
Xiaoqian Chai, a professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University, has long been fascinated by the human brain, and especially by how memory is shaped. As part of her research, she is studying the default mode network (DMN), which is activated in the brain when thinking about oneself, daydreaming, recalling memories or having deep thoughts. The researcher’s goal is to understand the development process of this brain network and how it contributes to learning and memory during child development.
To investigate the functioning of the DMN, the researcher and her team used magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to observe the brains of adults and children as they performed a memory task. In one experiment, the scientists investigated whether associating an object with oneself could help to remember it. For half of the objects, the participants were asked if they liked the object or would like to own it, and the other half if the illustrated object was living or inanimate, the researchers found that participants were more likely to remember an object when they connected it to themselves. While less successful than adults, early school-age children were also more likely to remember objects they liked and wanted (or not), although the regions activated varied slightly. Between childhood and young adulthood, regions of the DMN showed increased activations related to memory associated with the self.
In another experiment, the team of scientists wanted to find out whether linking the information to oneself would result in better memory compared to linking about another person. This project also included thirty autistic children, to understand how their brains function during such tasks compared with their neurotypical counterparts. The researcher is continuing to demystify the workings of this brain network, discovered barely a decade ago.
References
Hilary Sweatman, C Paula Lewis-de los Angeles, Jiahe Zhang, Carlo de los Angeles, Noa Ofen, John D E Gabrieli, Xiaoqian J Chai, Development of the neural correlates of recollection, Cerebral Cortex, Volume 33, Issue 10, 15 May 2023, Pages 6028–6037, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhac481
Sweatman H, Lawrence R, Chai X. Development of self-referential effect on memory recollection. Child Development :93 (6), 1848-1859 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13826