Recent neural imaging studies using fMRI and MVPA seem to indicate that the brain has a strategy of adjusting for reduced memory performance by substituting familiarity for recall, and abstractions for concreteness when memory recovery begins to fail. Current memory tests do not specify which types of memory respond and so can't always detect gradual loss of recall. It should be possible to use the results of fMRI and MVPA to tune memory tests to be more specific, if this is possible, it might be practical to detect early signs of failure in Memory Complainers, and determine from them if the subject is experiencing early symptoms of schizophrenia, or dementia, and in doing so, allow the medical system to intervene earlier with more appropriate treatments.
A more effective memory test, would also allow Memory Complainers to be quickly screened to determine if they are showing signs of compensation for loss of retrieval, which would allow further testing to be done to determine why the symptom exists if compensation is found, and psychological counseling suggested if it is not.
I don't know that MVPA and fMRI are needed to directly address this question, but in general, the application of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience should allow for the development for more sensitive and specific tests for memory dysfunction in disorders like schizophrenia. As an example, my collaborators and I developed the RISE measure, based on our previous fMRI work. RISE separately assesses recollection and familiarity, associative recognition, and manipulates encoding processes in an easily administered, reliable paradigm. We validated this measure in a large scale multisite study of schizophrenia patients (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22124089), and I think it could be applied to identify subtle deficits in individuals with memory complaints.
RISE, that would be Relational and Item Specific Encoding task?
And you say, that you didn't need MVPA to design it.
Well, good, it sounds like it is early days yet and you are still working on making it an international test regimen. Using your fMRI studies to test whether primary language tests in different languages test the same parts of the brain.
Dear Graeme, yes that is the paradigm. Also, the paradigm was based on a univariate fMRI study, not on an MVPA study. In my opinion, the potential of MVPA has not adequately been harnessed to validate novel measures of cognition, although this is a topic that my lab and others (esp. Ken Norman's lab) is working on.
Finally, to respond to your last concern, the RISE task uses visual object stimuli, so it can be used with non-English speaking populations. It also is being examined in a new fMRI study of schizophrenia patients, although that data is not yet published. It would indeed be interesting to look at whether the same measure is associated with activation of the same areas in non-native english speakers.
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