La mémoire épisodique donne la capacité de voyager mentalement dans son propre passé. En cela,elle permet de faire fi du temps qui passe pour pouvoir revivre des événements passés. Ce travail dethèse évalue l’hypothèse selon laquelle la mémoire épisodique et la sensation de revivre un événementpassé (i.e., conscience autonoëtique) sont basées sur une fluence dans la reconstruction de l’épisode,reconstruction impliquant une mise à jour égocentrée. Cette proposition est développée dans le modèlede Gomez et collaborateurs (Gomez, Rousset & Baciu, 2009) qui propose que la mise à jourégocentrée permette de ré-instancier un point de vue spatialisé égocentré sur l’évènement remémoré.Ce travail de thèse a amené de nouveaux arguments en faveur de ce modèle, en évaluant à la foisl’approche attributionnelle de la mémoire épisodique et le lien fonctionnel entre la mise à jourégocentrée en ligne et la mémoire épisodique. Une première série d’études met en évidence uneinfluence de la fluence du processus de mise à jour égocentrée sur la conscience autonoëtique.L’augmentation artificielle de la fluence de mise à jour égocentrée, lors de la reconnaissance,augmente le sentiment de conscience autonoëtique et ce uniquement lorsque la reconnaissanceimplique une reconstruction. Une seconde série d’études permet de mettre en évidence un effetd’interférence du processus de mise à jour égocentrée en ligne sur la récupération épisodique.Actualiser sa position dans l’espace lors d’un déplacement a beau être un processus automatique, celaralentit spécifiquement le rappel de source. Enfin, une étude impliquant des patients atteints de lamaladie d’Alzheimer, met en évidence une dissociation entre les compétences en mise à jourégocentrée chez ces patients. Ces résultats sont discutés dans le cadre du modèle de Gomez etcollaborateurs et en regard d’une conception incarnée et située de la cognition. / Episodic memory makes it possible to mentally travel back in our own past; it breaks the law of theunidirectionality of time, and allows us to mentally relive past events. The main goal of this work wasto investigate whether episodic memory and the subjective feeling of reliving a past event (i.e.,autonoetic consciousness) arise from the fluency of the reconstruction process of the event. Thisreconstruction would involve the process of egocentric spatial updating with self-motion. Thishypothesis was first developed in Gomez and colleagues' model (Gomez, Rousset, & Baciu, 2009) thatsuggests that egocentric updating re-instances an egocentric spatial point of view on the rememberedevent. The present work brings additional behavioral evidences to this model by assessing both theconception of attributional episodic memory and the functional link between online egocentricupdating with self-motion and episodic memory. A first set of studies showed that enhancingartificially the fluency of the egocentric updating process, during the recognition phase, increasedautonoetic consciousness. Moreover, such phenomenon only happened when recognition involved areconstruction process. A second set of studies showed that performing an online egocentric updatingwith self-motion interfered with remembering. Although the updating of its own position though selfmotionis automatic, it specifically slows down source recall. Finally, a last study showed adissociation between preservations of and deficits of egocentric spatial updating abilities in patientssuffering from Alzheimer's disease. The results of these studies are discussed in the context of Gomezand colleagues' model, and in terms of embodied and situated cognition.

Les troubles cognitifs constituent incontestablement une des caractéristiques les plus invalidantes de la schizophrénie et sont fortement corrélés aux perturbations de la vie quotidienne et de l’insertion socioprofessionnelle des patients. Différents programmes de remédiation cognitive ont vu le jour ces dernières années. S’ils semblent être le corollaire destroubles cognitifs, leurs bénéfices sur le statut fonctionnel des patients restent peu convaincants à ce jour. En cause : la non prise en compte de la double hétérogénéité des troubles cognitifs et des plaintes des patients. L’alternative proposée à ces études consiste à travailler selon la méthodologie des cas unique ou multiple en partant du pragmatisme des plaintes des patients, pour mettre en oeuvre des interventions centrées sur les activités spécifiques de la vie quotidienne mettant en jeu les aspects fonctionnels altérés. L’objectif de cette thèse a été d’étudier l’efficacité d’une telle démarche. Deux prises en charge individualisées et une prise en charge de groupe ont été élaborées. Une première étude visait à optimiser la réalisation des activités particulières de la vie professionnelle du sujet à travers l’accroissement de l’efficacité de deux sous-composantes de la Mémoire de Travail ; les deux autres études se sont focalisées sur les aspects exécutifs de la mémoire épisodique verbale et ont inclus une stratégie organisationnelle de l’encodage visant à promouvoir les opérations de compréhension et de structuration de l’information, dans le but d’optimiser la réalisation d’activités de la vie quotidienne (lectures, conversations, sorties culturelles, suivi de programmes TV). Les résultats témoignent de l’efficacité et de la spécificité de chacune de ces interventions. Un suivi à long terme a permis d’objectiver une stabilité dans le maintien des acquis et un transfert durable des différents apprentissages dans la vie professionnelle et quotidienne d’un des sujets. / Cognitive impairment is undeniably one of the most debilitating characteristics of schizophrenia, and is also highly correlated with everyday-life, social and professional integration difficulties found in patients. Many cognitive remediation programs have been created in the last few years. However, if they seem to be corollary of cognitive dysfunction, their effects on patients’ functional status seem less convincing. This is not surprising since the double heterogeneity found in cognitive impairments and patients’ complaints is not taken into account. Our alternative to these studies consists of focusing on single and multiple-case studies, and to design functionally-driven interventions specifically suited to everyday-life difficulties patients complain of. The aim of this thesis is therefore to evaluate the efficiency of this framework through individualized and group interventions. Our first study aimed at improving the patient’s ability to perform specific tasks at work via an increased efficiency of two Working Memory sub-components (mental load and management of interferences); the following two studies focused on executive aspects involved in verbal episodic memory. These two studies included an organizational strategy, which aimed at facilitating comprehension and structuration of information, in order to optimize their participation in every-day life activities (reading, conversations, cultural activities, watching TV shows or films). Our results show that these interventions are efficient and specific. Long-term assessments also suggest that the improvements are stable over time, an

[pt] A interface entre a neuropsicologia e a psicopatologia vem sendo muito estudada. No entanto, há ainda uma grande demanda de caracterização de processamento de cada função cognitiva em pacientes com transtorno de pânico (TP). Neste trabalho, visou-se verificar se há diferenças de desempenho neuropsicológico entre adultos com TP e controles saudáveis. Participaram deste estudo 30 adultos, 15 com TP diagnosticado pelo MINI (versão 5.0) e 15 controles saudáveis emparelhados por escolaridade, idade, nível sociodemográfico e habilidades intelectuais. Administraram-se os instrumentos NEUPSILIN, discurso narrativo e fluências verbais da Bateria MAC, subtestes do WAIS-III, Wisconsin, Hayling, Teste das Trilhas, Teste dos Sinos, Teste Stroop, RAVLT e Buschke. Os escores médios foram comparados pelo teste não-paramétrico Mann-Whitney (p é menor ou igual a 0,05). Encontraram-se diferenças significativas no processamento de componentes executivos: velocidade de processamento, iniciação, inibição, assim como nas memórias episódica e de trabalho. Mais estudos são necessários com amostras clínicas maiores e mais homogêneas, controlando-se depressão e agorafobia. / [en] Nevertheless there is still a great demand of process characterization of each cognitive function on patients with panic disorder (PD). In this study we tried to verify if there are differences in the neuropsychological performance between adults with PD and a healthy control group. 30 adults took part on this study, 15 with diagnosed PD and 15 healthy control subjects, matched by school years, age, sociodemographic level and intellectual abilities. A neuropsychological test battery was administered including the NEUPSILIN, narrative speech and verbal fluency of MAC battery, WAIS-III subtests, Wisconsin, Hayling, Trail-Making test, Stroop, RAVLT, Buschke and Bells Cancellation Test. The median scores were compared using the non-parametric Mann-Whitney (p less than or equal to 0,05). We found significant differences on executive components: processing speed, initiation, inhibition, episodic and working memory. Further enquires are necessary, with a larger and more homogeneous samples, and controls for depression and agoraphobia.

Submitted by (edna.saturno@ufrpe.br) on 2016-07-05T14:54:25Z No. of bitstreams: 3 Gustavo Taboada Soldati1.pdf: 4429431 bytes, checksum: 4db1e556df4347e336fe94fcc8e35b05 (MD5) Gustavo Taboada Soldati2.pdf: 4667278 bytes, checksum: 564bba0ca135f321f3bb0d5a7e2dc40a (MD5) Gustavo Taboada Soldati3.pdf: 2980859 bytes, checksum: ce88793465834891bdb2bfb7c76e06c4 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-05T14:54:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 Gustavo Taboada Soldati1.pdf: 4429431 bytes, checksum: 4db1e556df4347e336fe94fcc8e35b05 (MD5) Gustavo Taboada Soldati2.pdf: 4667278 bytes, checksum: 564bba0ca135f321f3bb0d5a7e2dc40a (MD5) Gustavo Taboada Soldati3.pdf: 2980859 bytes, checksum: ce88793465834891bdb2bfb7c76e06c4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-05 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / The current study falls into the Cultural Evolutionary Theory's theoretical framework, which recognizes culture as cybernetic systems able to shift its traits frequency by following the same darwinian assumptions. The main objective of this study is to understand part of the mechanisms that guarantee medical system's cultural evolution in three social groups with different characteristics. In the first chapter, an analytical description of those Cultural Evolutionary Theory's assumptions, its review and main investigative questions are shown. Still a discussion about research which were concern in understand local ecological knowledge is presented as well as an attempt to attach Cultural Evolutionary Theory and Ethnobotany. In the second chapter, a review about the main methods used to evaluate cultural systems' temporal and special developments by analyzing its principal contributions and limitations is exhibited. By assuming that medical systems are illness factual episodesbased, it is argued that construction of methodologies which are used in knowledge transmission's investigation must be based in the concept of episodic memory. The third chapter presents a general description of cultural and physical contexts from those three actual research partner communities and also highlights characteristics which allow those communities insertion in a social and environmental variability gradient. The fourth chapter analyzes plants local system from a structural point of view and argues that this set of knowledge has an episodic nature. This specific dynamics builds mechanisms that guarantee local knowledge adaptedness, specially for allowing future-focused behaviors which guarantee a better behavioral adequacy. Finally, the fifth chapter analyzes knowledge individual production and transmission of information in the three investigated groups. It was hipothesized that situations within a greater social and environmental variability would stimulate knowledge production and the horizontal way of transmission. However, these two hypothesis were not confirmed by the presented data. It is believed that the medicinal plants dynamics of use, which is based in using security, influences the transmission of knowledge by "how", "when", "whom" and "in what context" it happens. The last chapter, using cladistic analyses, evaluated if different strategies of knowledge transmission produce cognitive systems with different structures. It was found that transfer routes influences the distribution of knowledge but not diversity. Vertical transmission is the process responsible for spatial dynamics of local knowledge of plants. / O presente estudo se insere dentro do arcabouço teórico da Teoria da Evolução Cultural, que reconhece as culturas como sistemas cibernéticos capazes de alterar a frequência de seus traços seguindo as mesmas premissas darwinianas. Seu principal objetivo é compreender parte dos mecanismos que garantem a evolução cultural do sistema médico em três grupos sociais com características distintas. No primeiro capítulo apresenta-se uma descrição analítica dos pressupostos da Teoria da Evolução Cultural, suas críticas e principais perguntas investigativas. Ainda é apresentada uma discussão sobre as pesquisas que se preocuparam em compreender a transmissão do conhecimento ecológico local, bem como uma tentativa de aproximar a Teoria da Evolução Cultural e a Etnobotânica. No Segundo capítulo, é exposta uma revisão dos principais métodos empregados para avaliar o desenvolvimento especial e temporal dos sistemas culturais analisando suas principais contribuições e limitações. Assumindo que os sistemas médicos são baseados em episódios concretos de adoecimento, defende-se que a estruturação das metodologias empregadas para investigação da transmissão do conhecimento deve se basear no conceito de memória episódica. O terceiro capítulo apresenta uma descrição geral dos contextos físico e cultural das três comunidades parceiras da presente pesquisa, evidenciando as características que permitem enquadra-las em um gradiente de variabilidade ambiental e social. O quarto capítulo analisa o sistema local de plantas do ponto de vista estrutural e argumenta que este conjunto de saberes tem uma natureza episódica. Esta dinâmica específica constrói mecanismos que garantem a adaptabilidade do conhecimento local, especialmente por permitir comportamentos voltados ao futuro, os quais garantem uma melhor adequação comportamental. O quinto capítulo analisa a produção individual do conhecimento e a transmissão de informações nos três grupos investigados. Hipotetizou-se que as situações de maior variabilidade ambiental e social estimulariam a produção de conhecimento e a via horizontal de transmissão. Entretanto, estas duas hipóteses não foram corroboradas pelos dados. Acredita-se que a dinâmica de uso das plantas medicinais, que é baseada na segurança de uso, influencia “como”, “quando”, “de quem” e “em qual contexto” os conhecimento são transmitidos. O último capítulo, utilizandose ferramentas cladísticas, avaliou se diferentes estratégias de transmissão de conhecimento produzem sistemas cognitivos com estruturas distintas. Verificou-se que vias de transferência influencia a distribuição do conhecimento, mas não a diversidade. A transmissão vertical foi o processo responsável pela dinâmica espacial do conhecimento local sobre plantas.

INTRODUÇÃO: As bases neurofisiológicas do declínio cognitivo associado ao envelhecimento normal ainda não são adequadamente conhecidas. Estudos sobre conectividade funcional cerebral estimada através de imagens por ressonância magnética funcional durante o repouso têm identificado diminuições de conectividade dentro da rede de modo padrão (default mode network) em idosos e correlações entre desempenho cognitivo e conectividade funcional. Há evidências de que idosos apresentam maior dificuldade em recuperar informações episódicas de eventos autobiográficos mas não existem investigações sobre a relação entre tal função cognitiva e conectividade de repouso. Além disso, estudos desta área geralmente não têm utilizado entrevista psiquiátrica para seleção da amostra, apesar de transtornos psiquiátricos apresentarem alta prevalência, serem subdiagnosticados e afetarem o funcionamento cerebral. OBJETIVOS: caracterizar as mudanças de conectividade funcional de repouso associadas a idade e a desempenho cognitivo, em especial à função de memória autobiográfica, em uma amostra de adultos de diferentes idades e livres de deficiências cognitivas e de transtornos psiquiátricos. MÉTODOS: adultos jovens, de meia idade e idosos sem transtornos cognitivos ou psiquiátricos foram selecionados através de avaliação neuropsicológica e entrevista psiquiátrica estruturada. Quantificamos o desempenho em recuperar informações episódicas de eventos autobiográficos. Conectividade funcional cerebral foi estimada a partir de imagens de ressonância magnética funcional adquiridas durante o repouso vigil, utilizando um atlas de 278 regiões englobando todo o cérebro. As relações entre conectividade e idade e conectividade e desempenho cognitivo foram avaliadas através do método dos quadrados parciais mínimos. RESULTADOS: em uma amostra de 59 adultos (19 jovens, 20 de meia idade e 20 idosos), idade apresentou correlação negativa com desempenho cognitivo geral, mas sua relação com memória autobiográfica não foi significativa. Caracterizamos um padrão de conectividade associado ao envelhecimento caracterizado por aumento difuso de magnitude de correlações positivas entre diferentes circuitarias, diminuições de magnitude de anticorrelação envolvendo principalmente as conexões entre a rede de modo padrão e as redes atencionais e uma perda de correlações positivas intra-circuitarias, especialmente dentro do sistema visual e da rede de modo padrão. Não identificamos um padrão de conectividade associado a desempenho cognitivo geral ou autobiográfico. DISCUSSÃO: idade mostrou-se negativamente correlacionada com desempenho cognitivo geral. Os resultados sugerem que o efeito do envelhecimento sobre memória autobiográfica seja de menor tamanho e/ou sujeito a maiores variações entre estudos. O padrão de mudanças de conectividade associado ao envelhecimento que encontramos inclui os achados mais comumente descritos na literatura (diminuições de conectividade intra-circuitaria) mas também abrange mudanças funcionais mais amplas (aumentos difusos de correlação positiva e ! ! xii perdas de anticorrelação). Estes achados estão em linha com a hipótese de que o cérebro sofre um processo de desdiferenciação durante o envelhecimento no qual há perda de diversidade funcional. CONCLUSÃO: Na presente amostra não identificamos relação entre desempenho em memória autobiográfica e idade. Envelhecimento normal, inclusive em voluntários sem transtornos mentais, está associado a um aumento difuso de correlações positivas entre diferentes circuitarias, a perdas focais de anticorrelação, especialmente entre a rede de modo padrão e as redes atencionais e a uma redução de conectividade dentro da rede de modo padrão e da rede visual / INTRODUCTION: The neurophysiological basis of the cognitive decline associated with aging is not yet known. Brain functional connectivity studies using functional magnetic resonance images acquired during rest have shown that aging is associated with decreases in connectivity within the default mode network. Moreover, cognitive performance has been associated with resting functional connectivity. There is evidence that older adults present worse performance during retrieval of episodic information from autobiographical events but there is no investigation regarding the relationship between functional connectivity at rest and this cognitive function. Moreover, studies in this field have not applied a structured psychiatric interview to select the sample, although it is known that psychiatric disorders present high prevalence, are underdiagnosed and are associated with functional abnormalities. OBJECTIVES: to characterize changes in resting-state functional connectivity associated with age and cognitive performance, especially with autobiographical memory, in adults from different ages, free of cognitive deficits and psychiatric disorders. METHODS: using a neuropsychological evaluation and a structured psychiatric interview we selected a sample of young, middle aged and elderly adults free of cognitive and psychiatric disorders. We measured the performance to recover episodic information from autobiographical events. Brain functional connectivity was estimated from resting-state functional magnetic resonance images acquired during rest, using a whole-brain 278-region atlas. We used partial least squares to characterize the relationships between connectivity and age and connectivity and cognitive performance. RESULTS: in a sample of 59 adults (19 young, 20 middle aged and 20 elderly), age was negatively correlated with general cognitive performance but its relationship with autobiographical memory was not statistically significant. The pattern of connectivity changes associated with aging was characterized by a diffuse increase in the magnitude of positive correlations between different networks, decreases in magnitude of anticorrelations (especially between the default mode network and the attentional networks) and a loss of within-network positive correlations (mainly within the visual system and the default mode network). We did not find a pattern of connectivity associated with general cognitive performance or with autobiographical memory. DISCUSSION: age was negatively correlated with general cognitive performance. The results suggest that the effect of age on autobiographical memory is smaller and/or present greater between-study variability. The age-related pattern of changes in connectivity found in this study includes the most commonly reported findings in the literature (decreases in withinnetwork connectivity) but it also contains broader functional changes (diffuse increases in positive correlations and losses of anticorrelations). These findings are in accordance with the hypothesis that the brain undergoes dedifferentiation processes during aging with loss of functional diversity. CONCLUSION: in our sample, we could not identify a significant relationship between age and autobiographical memory. Normal aging, even in individuals with no mental disorder, is associated with an increase in positive correlations between different brain networks, focal losses of anticorrelations (especially between the default mode network and the attentional networks) and reductions in connectivity within the default mode network and the visual system

Introdução: A memória prospectiva (MP) refere-se a um conjunto de habilidades cognitivas que permitem lembrar-se de uma intenção a desempenhar no futuro, no momento adequado. Essa função é pouco avaliada em baterias neuropsicológicas que avaliam pessoas com epilepsia. Objetivo: Estudamos o impacto da cirurgia para epilepsia sobre a MP, componente prospectivo, em pessoas submetidas a lobectomia temporal unilateral para controle de epilepsia refratária ao tratamento clínico. Métodos: Comparamos o desempenho de MP em pessoas com epilepsia associada à esclerose mesial temporal à esquerda (EMTE) ou direita (EMTD) com dois grupos controles. Um grupo foi composto por indivíduos sem epilepsia (controles normais), e o outro por pessoas com epilepsia secundária à EMT, submetidos a avaliação e reavaliação neuropsicológica, sem intervenção cirúrgica (grupo clínico para controle teste/reteste). Resultados: Avaliamos 42 indivíduos sem epilepsia, 20 do grupo clínico (controle teste/reteste) e 39 do grupo cirúrgico (pré e pósoperatório). Comparamos o desempenho entre grupos e também a variação de desempenho individual, pelo índice de mudança confiável. Os grupos não diferiram em idade, escolaridade e quociente de inteligência. Na avaliação inicial, observou-se rebaixamento no desempenho em MP nos grupos clínico e cirúrgico (p < 0,01) (efeito lesão), sem diferença entre os grupos EMTE ou EMTD (efeito lateralidade). Para o grupo cirúrgico, observamos acentuada (p < 0,01) redução de crises e leve, porém significativa, redução de carga de drogas antiepilépticas pós-operatória. Observamos estabilidade em reteste de MP, declínio de memória verbal para o grupo EMTE e estabilidade de memória verbal e visual para o grupo EMTD. Conclusão: Embora exista um sistema de evocação compartilhado entre a MP e a memória episódica, a ressecção de estruturas temporais mesiais acometidas patologicamente não provoca declínio adicional em MP, mesmo quando se observou declínio de memória verbal no grupo EMTE. O comportamento dissociado de declínio de memória verbal para o grupo EMTE e preservação de MP após cirurgia de epilepsia sugere diferentes papeis das estruturas temporais mesiais nestes sistemas de memória. O papel do acometimento de estruturas extratemporais e de estruturas temporais não mesiais na MP em pacientes com EMT deverá ser melhor elucidado em estudos futuros / Introduction: Prospective memory (PM) refers to a set of cognitive abilities that allow recall of a previous intention to perform in the future, in the appropriate setting. This function is not usually evaluated in neuropsychological batteries used to evaluate people with epilepsy. Objective: We evaluated the impact of epilepsy surgery on the prospective component of PM, in people undergoing unilateral temporal lobectomy to treat medically refractory epilepsy. Methods: We compared performance in PM in people with left or right mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) in the pre and postoperative periods with that of two control groups. One group was composed of people without epilepsy (normal controls), and another group was composed of people with epilepsy associated with mesial temporal sclerosis that underwent neuropsychological testing and retesting without undergoing surgery (clinical test/retest control group). Results: We studied 42 people without epilepsy, 20 clinical controls (test/retest group), and 39 patients that underwent epilepsy surgery (pre and postoperative testing). We compared groups performances and changes in individual performances with the reliable change index. Groups did not differ in age, education, and intelligence quotient. We found decreased preoperative PM performance for the clinical and surgical groups (p < 0.01) (lesion effect), without a difference between right and left groups (laterality effect). Postoperatively, there was a significant (p < 0.01) decrease in number of seizures, a small, but significant reduction in antiepileptic drug load, stable prospective memory, verbal and visual memory for right mesial temporal sclerosis, and decreased verbal memory in the left mesial temporal sclerosis group. Conclusion: In spite of a shared evocation system for episodic and prospective memory, resection of pathologically involved mesial temporal structures does not impact on prospective memory performance, even in the setting verbal memory decline in the left MTS group.The finding of dissociated verbal memory decline and PM stability after epilepsy surgery suggests a different role of mesial temporal lobe structures in these memory systems. The role of extratemporal and nonmesial temporal lobe structures in prospective memory in MTS patients should be evaluated in future studies

La conception de la mémoire adaptative défend l’idée selon laquelle la mémoire humaine a évolué, pendant toute l’histoire de l’Homme, de sorte à résoudre des problèmes adaptatifs spécifiques (e.g., trouver de la nourriture, se protéger des prédateurs). De nombreuses recherches soutiennent cette conception en montrant, par exemple, que nous mémorisons mieux les informations quand nous les traitons relativement à notre propre survie (Nairne, Thompson, & Pandeirada, 2007). Récemment, un nouvel effet mnésique est venu renforcer cette approche fonctionnelle de la mémoire : l’effet animé. Il correspond à une meilleure mémorisation des entités animées (entités vivantes, capables de se déplacer de façon autonome, e.g., bébé, sauterelle) comparativement aux entités inanimées (entités non vivantes, e.g., bouilloire, corde). Cet effet serait dû à la plus grande importance des entités animées que de celle inanimées pour la survie et/ou la reproduction. Traiter ces entités de façon privilégiée a été primordiale pour la survie de nos ancêtres, et en conséquence, pour l’évolution de l’espèce humaine. Dans ce travail de thèse, nous nous sommes focalisés sur l'effet animé en mémoire épisodique afin de mieux comprendre les mécanismes proximaux qui le sous-tendent et ses conditions d’apparition. Ainsi nos principaux résultats ont-ils permis d’établir que l’effet animé en mémoire est : (1) lié au processus de remémoration (rappel conscient de détails contextuels) ; (2) indépendant des ressources cognitives disponibles ; (3) en partie sous tendu par de l’imagerie mentale et (4) modérément modulé par le contexte d’encodage. / According to the adaptive memory view, human memory was shaped in the distant past to remember fitness relevant information (e.g., finding food, protecting ourselves from predators). An increasing number of studies favor this view, by showing that information related to to survival is memorized better than information not related to survival (Nairne, Thompson, & Pandeirada, 2007). Recently, a new type of findings further supports this functional approach of memory: animacy effects, that is to say the observation that animates (living things able of independent movements; e.g., baby, grasshopper) are remembered better than inanimates (non-living things e.g., teakettle, rope). One account of this memory effect has been that animates are of greater importance for survival and/or reproduction. In effect, knowing how to interact with animates was crucial for the survival of our ancestors, and thus, for the evolution of our species. In this work, our main purposes were to identify some proximate mechanisms underpinning animacy effects in episodic memory as well as the contexts in which these effects are observed. Taken overall, our findings accord with the claim that animacy effects in memory are: (1) linked to recollection (conscious recall of contextual details); (2) independent of cognitive resources; (3) partially underpinned by mental imagery and (4) to some extent modulated by encoding context.

Ce travail de thèse s’intéresse à la Théorie de l’Esprit (TdE) dans les stades précoces de la maladie d’Alzheimer (MA) et le Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). La TdE est un processus central de la cognition sociale permettant d’inférer les états mentaux d’autrui et de nous adapter aux interactions sociales auxquelles nous sommes confrontés chaque jour. Des travaux ont mis en évidence un déficit de TdE chez le patient MA mais son authenticité reste discutée et celui-ci est attribuer aux autres troubles cognitifs des patients. Par ailleurs, une seule étude à ce jour s’était intéressée à la TdE chez le patient MCI, laissant un champ d’étude inexploré malgré l'intérêt de cet état pour le diagnostic précoce des pathologies dégénératives. Ce travail a pour but d’approfondir les données existantes sur le fonctionnement de la TdE dans la MA et le MCI et présente également l’ambition d’évaluer, pour la première fois dans ces populations, la TdE au plus près de son fonctionnement quotidien dans une tâche impliquant le patient dans une vraie interaction sociale. Les résultats montrent que les patients présentent bien un déficit de TdE y compris sur la tâche immersive, suggérant que ce déficit est observable dans des situations proches de la vie quotidienne. Les patients présentent également un déficit sur une tâche plus classique de TdE, la nature de leurs erreurs témoignant de l’authenticité de ce déficit. Ce travail tend donc à confirmer la présence d’un dysfonctionnement de la TdE dans les stades débutants de la MA et dans le MCI. Ce déficit est précoce, authentique et observé pour la première fois dans une situation d’interaction sociale réelle. / This work investigates Theory of Mind (ToM) ability in early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). ToM is a core feature of social cognition allowing us to infer and understand other’s mental states (i.e. beliefs, intentions, knowledge), in order to adapt our behavior in everyday social interactions. Previous works evidenced ToM deficit in AD patients, but the authenticity of this deficit is still debated and is attributed to other cognitive dysfunctions of patients. Moreover, only one study investigated ToM in MCI. This area thus requires further investigation since MCI represents an interesting concept for early diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders. The purpose of this work is to further investigate ToM functioning in both AD and MCI with the ambition to evaluate for the first time ToM in close-to-everyday conditions with a task involving the patient in a real interaction. Results show that patients present ToM impairment even in a real interactive task suggesting that this deficit is noticeable in naturalistic conditions closed to everyday interactions. Patients also present difficulties in a classical ToM task, the nature of their errors suggesting genuine ToM difficulties. This work therefore confirms the presence of a ToM impairment in early AD and MCI. This impairment is precocious, authentic and is observed for the first time in a real social interaction.

Recollection, the process by which an item provokes the retrieval of associated information stored in the brain, is a key component of recognition memory. It is explored in this thesis through the use of a paradigm designed to allow the neural correlates of amount recalled to be identified through parametric fMRI analysis. A series of experiments were carried out during the development and optimisation of this paradigm in order to ensure that the various demands of this analysis were met. Subsequently this paradigm was applied during an fMRI experiment which provided data from both the encoding and retrieval stages of recollection.Whilst the development work was chiefly concerned with producing a suitable task design for the parametric fMRI analysis, these experiments provided some interesting results in their own right. The task design, which required participants to associate multiple item types within a story context, showed that there are significant differences in the frequency with which different stimuli are recollected. Participants were found to be particularly poor at recollecting faces whilst words were also shown to be recollected less frequently than either object or animal picture stimuli. A possible explanation for these differences may be related to the picture superiority effect although eye-tracking data collected from these experiments demonstrates large differences in viewing behaviour between different target stimulus types which is not correlated with later recall success. The amount of time participants spend engaging with the highly contextual scene item does predict later recall success.The fMRI analysis (Chapter 5) carried out during the encoding and retrieval stages of recollection found a variety of regions exhibiting a positive linear relationship with recollection at both these stages. This result provides support for the cortical reinstatement hypothesis of recollection despite the fact that the hippocampus only showed parametric modulation of activity during retrieval. It is proposed that parahippocampal activity during encoding and retrieval supports the recollection of contextual information whilst the same pattern of activity in parietal regions related to recollection may reflect the reinstatement of the global image of the story created during the encoding task.

La mémoire épisodique correspond à la reviviscence consciente d'expériences personnelles ancrées dans un contexte spécifique. Ce travail de thèse porte sur l'étude des processus cognitifs et des mécanismes neuronaux du rappel épisodique chez l'Homme. Les souvenirs rappelés par les odeurs sont plus détaillés et plus émotionnels que ceux évoqués par d'autres modalités sensorielles. Ces spécificités expliquent pourquoi nous nous intéressons à l'évocation des souvenirs par des odeurs. Tout d'abord, une tâche comportementale novatrice est développée pour permettre l'étude contrôlée de la mémoire d'épisodes complexes constitués d'odeurs non familières (Quoi), localisées à des emplacements distincts (Où), d'un environnement visuel donné (Quel contexte). A l'aide de cette tâche, nous montrons que, lorsque les dimensions d'un épisode sont étroitement liées, la perception de l'odeur permet le rappel de l'ensemble du souvenir. Le rappel épisodique est essentiellement fondé sur des processus de recollection, la familiarité n'étant pas suffisante pour récupérer l'ensemble du souvenir. De plus, les odeurs associées à une émotion, quelle que soit leur valence, facilitent le rappel épisodique correct. Fonctionnellement, la mémoire épisodique est sous-tendue par un large réseau neuronal, constitué de régions typiquement impliquées dans la mémoire de laboratoire et la mémoire autobiographique. Les souvenirs corrects sont associés à un réseau neuronal différent des souvenirs incorrects, de la perception de l'odeur à la ré-expérience du souvenir. Des analyses de modularité indiquent que les interactions fonctionnelles au sein du réseau de la mémoire épisodique dépendent également de l'exactitude du souvenir. L'ensemble de ces travaux suggère que le rappel épisodique est un processus dynamique complexe, initié dès la perception des odeurs, et interdépendant d'autres systèmes de mémoire tels que les mémoires perceptive et sémantique / Episodic memory is the memory that permits the conscious re-experience of specific personal events and associated with a specific context. This doctoral research aims at investigating the cognitive processes and the neural bases of episodic retrieval in humans. Odor-evoked memories are known to be more detailed and more emotional than memories triggered by other sensorial cues. These specificities explain why we studied odor-evoked memories. First, a novel behavioral task has been designed to study in a controlled way the memory of complex episodes comprising unfamiliar odors (What), localized spatially (Where), within a visual context (Which context). From this approach, we suggest that when the binding between the episodes’ dimensions is strong, the odor perception evokes the whole episodic memory. The episodic retrieval is mainly based on recollection processes, the feeling of knowing being insufficient to induce complete memory recovery. Moreover, emotion carried by odors, whatever its valence, promote accurate episodic retrieval. Functionally, episodic memory is underpinned by a distributed network, constituted of regions typically found in laboratory and autobiographical memory approaches. Accurate memories are associated with a specific neural network, from odor perception to memory re-experience. Modularity analyses show that neural interactions within this network also depend on memory accuracy. Altogether, results of this research suggest that episodic retrieval is a dynamic and complex process, triggered by odors perception, closely linked to other memory systems such as perceptual and semantic memories