Review
Functional neuroimaging of autobiographical memory

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Functional neuroimaging studies of autobiographical memory have grown dramatically in recent years. These studies are important because they can investigate the neural correlates of processes that are difficult to study using laboratory stimuli, including: (i) complex constructive processes, (ii) recollective qualities of emotion and vividness, and (iii) remote memory retrieval. Constructing autobiographical memories involves search, monitoring and self-referential processes that are associated with activity in separable prefrontal regions. The contributions of emotion and vividness have been linked to the amygdala and visual cortex respectively. Finally, there is evidence that recent and remote autobiographical memories might activate the hippocampus equally, which has implications for memory-consolidation theories. The rapid development of innovative methods for eliciting personal memories in the scanner provides the opportunity to delve into the functional neuroanatomy of our personal past.

Introduction

Autobiographical memory (AM) is what is usually meant by the term ‘memory’ – the ability to remember past events from one's own life. The number of functional neuroimaging studies that investigate AM has increased rapidly in recent years. The results of these studies expand functional neuroimaging studies of laboratory memory (LM) in at least three domains. First, AM studies can inform our understanding of the complex constructive nature of AM retrieval, which is difficult to capture in the retrieval of simple laboratory stimuli. Second, AM studies can investigate recollective qualities of event memories that are often difficult to study in LM, such as emotion and vividness. Third, AM studies can investigate the retrieval of remote memories, which cannot be created in the laboratory but which is a crucial issue for theories of memory consolidation. This review focuses on the importance of functional neuroimaging investigations of AM with respect to these three domains.

Section snippets

Constructing autobiographical memories

Although AMs are often retrieved involuntarily [1], functional neuroimaging studies of AM have focused on voluntary retrieval processes that involve control operations interacting with different forms of memory. For example, try to remember the last time you had Chinese food. Unless the event occurred recently, recovering an AM requires a protracted and effortful memory search process guided by semantic knowledge about the world (e.g. Chinese restaurants in your city) and about your own life

Recollective qualities of autobiographical memory: emotion and vividness

AMs are ideal for investigating the contribution of emotion and vividness to the neural correlates of event memory because they often involve rich emotional content and vivid sensory details [19], which are qualities that are typically absent in LMs. Functional neuroimaging studies of emotion in AM have found that, in contrast to the typical left-lateralized activation pattern for neutral AMs, emotional AMs tend to elicit right-lateralized or bilateral activations 20, 21, 22, 23, consistent

The remoteness of autobiographical memory: implications for memory-consolidation models

One of the main strengths of functional neuroimaging of AM is that it enables the study of the neural correlates of remote memories, which cannot be created in the laboratory, and recent memories, which is a crucial issue for current models of memory consolidation. According to the standard consolidation model (SCM), the hippocampus has a time-limited role in the storage and retrieval of AMs, whereby memories become independent from the hippocampus and dependent upon neocortical areas following

Concluding remarks

Functional neuroimaging studies of AM can help to clarify the network of components that orchestrate the recovery and conscious experience of our personal past. Following a retrieval cue, memory search processes, which are mediated by left lateral PFC and interact with self-referential processes via medial PFC, lead to retrieval of a spatiotemporally specific event. Recollection, which is mediated by the hippocampus and the retrosplenial cortex, is enhanced by emotional processing in the

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank David C. Rubin for helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

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