04.03.2022Zoom Talk by Dr. Laura Meine

Anticipation of reward has been shown to en-hance incidental encoding of episodic memories. Neuroimaging evidence suggests that this mem-ory-enhancement effect is partly driven by mod-ulated interactions between the medial temporal lobe and the dopaminergic midbrain. These brain regions and the corresponding memory and re-ward systems are susceptible to stressful experi-ence and generally undergo developmental changes, yet research in children is lacking. Dis-advantaged socioeconomic background is com-monly associated with higher stress experiences in children. We aimed at replicating the effect of reward anticipation-mediated memory enhance-ment reported in adults with 6 and 7-year-old children, and test for modulations of the effect with family income, parent’s perceived stress, and child’s hair cortisol using an fMRI design. Consistent with previous research, reward antici-pation was related to activations in striatum, thal-amus, and supplementary motor area and en-hanced episodic memory performance. Interest-ingly, this memory enhancement was particu-larly evident in children from lower income fam-ilies. However, no such modulatory effects were found for parental stress or child’s hair cortisol. Our results extend research on reward anticipa-tion and memory interactions to a younger age group and point to differential effects driven by family income that deserve further investigation.

Zoom-Link: https://uzh.zoom.us/j/65494925495?pwd=eXVSQXhsbmZFenRmUVFhYkxYZ1RxQT09

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