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Sketchpad Series

10-year remote memory evaluation of a verifiable event: Follow-up from the Saguenay Youth Study

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 30, 2025, 5:00 – 7:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Krista Mitchnick¹ (kmitchnick@research.baycrest.org), Louis Richer², Tomas Paus³, Brian Levine¹; ¹Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, Toronto, Canada, ²Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Montreal, Canada, ³University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada

Remote memory is typically assessed by probing public or personal events. While informative, these approaches assume similar exposure and processing of these events across participants. The present study assessed remote memory of a shared event with unprecedented control over event characteristics. Approximately 10 years ago, a two-generational study of adolescents and their parents (n= 1029 adolescents and 962 parents) was conducted, aimed at investigating the aetiology, early states, and trans-generational trajectories of common brain diseases. The participants in this Saguenay Youth Study (Quebec, Canada) were extensively phenotyped, including structural brain imaging, a full neuropsychological evaluation, mental health profiling, and various social (e.g., social economic status) and health (e.g., in utero nicotine exposure) factors. Approximately half (n = 446; ages 22-28) of these youth have recently participated in a 10-year follow-up, including structural brain imaging and both neurocognitive and mental health evaluations. Critically, they additionally completed a recognition memory test for events occurring as part of the initial study protocol. Responses to true/false questions and item confidence ratings allow the assessment of memory accuracy and memory type (i.e., recollection vs. familiarity). Results will also be compared to previous and current structural imaging (particularly medial temporal lobe regions), societal and health factors, and neuropsychological evaluations. Findings are anticipated to highlight covariance patterns between memory performance and regional brain volumes, as well as the extent to which classic neuropsychological tests of memory relate to real-world memory performance as measured by this novel assessment.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic