5 research outputs found
Harriet Anna Kennedy papers, W.0117
No full textAbstract: Notebook of poems written by Harriet Anna Kennedy between 1863-1864. A letter and a small collection of later poems written by Kennedy and members of her extended family are also included.Scope and Content Note: This ninety-six page notebook contains a collection of poems written by Harriet Anna Kennedy, the wife of plantation owner Warren Eason Kennedy. Writing under the pseudonyms "Crazy Carrie" and "Carrie Carlton," Kennedy describes her daily life in Greensboro, Alabama, in a series of satirical poems. Written between April 1863 and March 1864, the poems provide insight into Kennedy's views on marriage, family, and her medical treatment. The views that Kennedy expresses, especially on marriage, are often negative. In one poem, "Answer to 'The old maid's lament,'" Kennedy advises her niece to remain unmarried, writing "I do not hesitate to say that if you marry you will your husband hate!" In her poems, Kennedy describes frequent hardships, including food shortages that affect the family.The collection also includes a letter and three pages of poetry that are not bound in the notebook. The poems are addressed to Kennedy's daughter, Bettie Eborn and includes poems written by Kennedy and others. The letter, dated July 26, 1903, is a condolence letter dated July 26, 1903. The letter was addressed to Corinne Eborn, the wife of Bettie Eborn's son Benjamin F. Eborn, and was written shortly after the death of Corinne's daughter Mary.Note: There is some question as to the true identity of Crazy Carrie. The author might have been Bettie Eborn, daughter of Harriet Anna Kennedy.Biographical/Historical Note: The daughter of Robert Lanier and Edith Pearce, Harriet Anna Lanier was born on August 4, 1817, in Pitt, North Carolina. She married Warren Eason Kennedy (1813-1882) on November 18, 1833. Census records compiled in 1850 and 1860 list Kennedy as a plantation owner living in Greensboro, Alabama
Increasing explicit sequence knowledge by odor cueing during sleep in men but not women
No full textSleep consolidates newly acquired memories. Beyond stabilizing memories, sleep is thought to reorganize memory representations such that invariant structures, statistical regularities and even new explicit knowledge are extracted. Whereas increasing evidence suggests that the stabilization of memories during sleep can be facilitated by cueing with learning-associated stimuli, the effect of cueing on memory reorganization is less well understood. Here we asked whether olfactory cueing during sleep enhances the generation of explicit knowledge about an implicitly learned procedural memory task. Subjects were trained on a serial reaction time task (SRTT) containing a hidden 12-element sequence in the presence of an odor. During subsequent sleep, half of the subjects were re-exposed to the odor during periods of slow wave sleep (SWS), while the other half received odorless vehicle. In the next morning, subjects were tested on their explicit knowledge about the underlying sequence in a free recall test and a generation task. Although odor cueing did not significantly affect overall explicit knowledge, differential effects were evident when analyzing male and female subjects separately. Explicit sequence knowledge, both in free recall and the generation task, was enhanced by odor cueing in men, whereas women showed no cueing effect. Procedural skill in the SRTT was not affected by cueing, neither in men nor in women. These findings suggest that olfactory memory reactivation can increase explicit knowledge about implicitly learned information, but only in men. Hormonal differences due to menstrual cycle phase and/or hormonal contraceptives might explain the lacking effect in women
Transcranial slow oscillation stimulation during NREM sleep enhances acquisition of the radial maze task and modulates cortical network activity in rats
No full textSlow wave sleep, hallmarked by the occurrence of slow oscillations (SO), plays an important role for the consolidation of hippocampus-dependent memories. Transcranial stimulation by weak electric currents oscillating at the endogenous SO frequency (SO-tDCS) during post-learning sleep was previously shown by us to boost SO activity and improve the consolidation of hippocampus-dependent memory in human subjects. Here, we aimed at replicating and extending these results to a rodent model. Rats were trained for 12 days at the beginning of their inactive phase in the reference memory version of the radial arm maze. In a between subjects design, animals received SO-tDCS over prefrontal cortex or sham stimulation within a time frame of 1 hour during subsequent non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Applied over multiple daily sessions SO-tDCS impacted cortical network activity as measured by EEG and behavior: At the EEG level, SO-tDCS enhanced post-stimulation upper delta (2-4 Hz) activity whereby the first stimulations of each day were preferentially affected. Furthermore, commencing on day 8, SO-tDCS acutely decreased theta activity indicating long-term effects on cortical networks. Behaviorally, working memory for baited maze arms was enhanced up to day 4, indicating enhanced consolidation of task-inherent rules, while reference memory errors did not differ between groups. Taken together, we could show here for the first time an effect of SO-tDCS during NREM sleep on cognitive functions and on cortical activity in a rodent model
tACS phase locking of frontal midline theta oscillations disrupts working memory performance
No full textFrontal midline theta (FMT) oscillations (4-8Hz) are strongly related to cognitive and executive control during mental tasks such as memory processing, arithmetic problem solving or sustained attention. While maintenance of temporal order information during a working memory (WM) task was recently linked to FMT phase, a positive correlation between FMT power, WM demand and WM performance was shown. However, the relationship between these measures is not well understood, and it is unknown whether purposeful FMT phase manipulation during a WM task impacts FMT power and WM performance. Here we present evidence that FMT phase manipulation mediated by transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) can block WM demand-related FMT power increase and disrupt normal WM performance. Methods: 20 healthy volunteers were assigned to one of two groups (group A, group B) and performed a 2-back task across a baseline block (block 1) and an intervention block (block 2) while 275-sensor magnetoencephalography (MEG) was recorded. After no stimulation was applied during block 1, participants in group A received tACS oscillating at their individual FMT frequency over the prefrontal cortex (PFC) while group B received sham stimulation during block 2. After assessing and mapping phase locking values (PLV) between the tACS signal and brain oscillatory activity across the whole brain, FMT power and WM performance were assessed and compared between blocks and groups. Results: During block 2 of group A but not B, FMT oscillations showed increased PLV across task-related cortical areas underneath the frontal tACS electrode. While WM task-related FMT power increase (FMTpower) and WM performance were comparable across groups in block 1, tACS resulted in lower FMTpower and WM performance compared to sham stimulation in block 2. Conclusion: tACS-related manipulation of FMT phase can disrupt WM performance and influence WM task-related FMT power increase. This finding may have important implications for the treatment of brain disorders such as depression and attention deficit disorder associated with abnormal regulation of FMT activity or disorders characterized by dysfunctional coupling of brain activity, e.g. epilepsy, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease
State-dependencies of learning across brain scales
Get PDFLearning is a complex brain function operating on different time scales, from milliseconds to years, which induces enduring changes in brain dynamics. The brain also undergoes continuous ‘spontaneous’ shifts in states, which, amongst others, are characterized by rhythmic activity of various frequencies. Besides the most obvious distinct modes of waking and sleep, wake-associated brain states comprise modulations of vigilance and attention. Recent findings show that certain brain states, particularly during sleep, are essential for learning and memory consolidation. Oscillatory activity plays a crucial role on several spatial scales, for example in plasticity at a synaptic level or in communication across brain areas. However, the underlying mechanisms and computational rules linking brain states and rhythms to learning, though relevant for our understanding of brain function and therapeutic approaches in brain disease, have not yet been elucidated. Here we review known mechanisms of how brain states mediate and modulate learning by their characteristic rhythmic signatures. To understand the critical interplay between brain states, brain rhythms, and learning processes, a wide range of experimental and theoretical work in animal models and human subjects from the single synapse to the large-scale cortical level needs to be integrated. By discussing results from experiments and theoretical approaches, we illuminate new avenues for utilizing neuronal learning mechanisms in developing tools and therapies, e.g. for stroke patients and to devise memory enhancement strategies for the elderly
