Hippocampal subfield volumes and memory discrimination in the developing brain.

ABSTRACT

The ability to keep distinct memories of similar events is underpinned by a type of neural computation called pattern separation (PS). Children typically report coarse-grained memories narratives lacking specificity and detail. This lack of memory specificity is illustrative of an immature or impaired PS. Despite its importance for the ontogeny of memory, data regarding the maturation of PS during childhood is still scarce. PS is known to rely on the hippocampus, particularly on hippocampal subfields DG and CA3. In this study, we used a memory discrimination task, a behavioral proxy for PS, and manually segmented hippocampal subfields volumes in the hippocampal body in a cohort of 26 children aged from 5 to 12 years. We examined the association between subfields volumes and memory discrimination performance. The main results were (1) we showed age-related differences of memory discrimination suggesting a continuous increase of memory performance during early to late childhood. (2) We evidenced distinct associations between age and the volumes of hippocampal subfield, suggesting distinct developmental trajectories. (3) We showed a relationship between memory discrimination performance and the volumes of CA3 and subiculum. Our results further confirm the role of CA3 in memory discrimination, and suggest to scrutinize more closely the role of the subiculum. Overall, we showed that hippocampal subfields contribute distinctively to PS during development.