Clinical trial NCT06442670: Understanding New Semantic Memory Learnings Across the Lifespan
Official title: Understanding New Semantic Memory Learnings Across the Lifespan
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Conditions: Neurodevelopmental Changes (Childhood, Ageing)
Keywords: Semantic memory
Childhood
Ageing
EEG
Lead sponsor: University Hospital, Caen
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Besancon
First posted: 2024-06-04
Enrollment: 200
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 6
Maximum age (years): 80
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Observational model: CASE_CONTROL
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Healthy volunteers

Brief summary: The aim of this research is to specify the changes in brain connectivity (i.e. EEG phase synchronisation between brain regions) associated with semantic learning between individuals belonging to different age groups.

Detailed description: Semantic memory is a crucial concept in cognitive science. It has long been conceptualised as a static, amodal memory system containing knowledge about the world, concepts and symbols. Although recourse to this concept is inevitable, the mechanisms, both cognitive and neurobiological, that govern it are far from being elucidated. There are many debates and controversies in this fundamental field of cognitive science, and more specifically around the question of the acquisition and formation of knowledge in semantic memory. The literature on the development of semantic memory during ontogeny is full of contradictions.

A review of this literature highlights the many unanswered questions surrounding semantic memory. How quickly is information encoded and then consolidated into a format that justifies the term semantic knowledge? What are the neural bases underlying the formation of knowledge in semantic memory? How does semantic knowledge evolve through new episodes? How do these mechanisms evolve during ontogeny? To what extent can some semantic learning be preserved from cognitive ageing? In the face of these many questions, the literature highlights the lack of tasks enabling semantic memory to be approached in an operational manner and the need to specify the cerebral mechanisms involved at different ages of life.

The general hypotheses that will be tested as part of the ULIS project are as follows:

1. New semantic learning is possible independently of episodic memory processes.
2. This learning differs according to the age of the participants.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Non-opposition by the participant or those exercising parental authority in the case of minors
* French language fluency (assessed by the investigating team)
* Absence of global cognitive deficit attested by a score on the MOCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment) scale greater than or equal to 26/30 (test carried out at inclusion).

Exclusion Criteria:

* Person subject to a guardianship, curatorship or safeguard of justice measure
* Non affiliation to a social security scheme

Primary outcomes:
measure: EEG Phase synchrony differences between age groups
timeFrame: Through study completion, an average of 2 years
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Behavioral performance differences between age groups (semantic memory task)
timeFrame: through study completion, an average of 2 years
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: University Hospital, Caen
name: Clémence Tomadesso
role: STUDY_CHAIR
References: