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The neural correlates of specific versus general autobiographical memory construction and elaboration.

ABSTRACT: We examined the neural correlates of specific (i.e., unique to time and place) and general (i.e., extended in or repeated over time) autobiographical memories (AMs) during their initial construction and later elaboration phases. The construction and elaboration of specific and general events engaged a widely distributed set of regions previously associated with AM recall. Specific (vs. general) event construction preferentially engaged prefrontal and medial temporal lobe regions known to be critical for memory search and retrieval processes. General event elaboration was differentiated from specific event elaboration by extensive right-lateralized prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity. Interaction analyses confirmed that PFC activity was disproportionately engaged by specific AMs during construction, and general AMs during elaboration; a similar pattern was evident in regions of the left lateral temporal lobe. These neural differences between specific and general AM construction and elaboration were largely unrelated to reported differences in the level of detail recalled about each type of event.

SUBMITTER: Holland AC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3253625 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The neural correlates of specific versus general autobiographical memory construction and elaboration.

Holland Alisha C AC Addis Donna Rose DR Kensinger Elizabeth A EA

Neuropsychologia 20110723 12

We examined the neural correlates of specific (i.e., unique to time and place) and general (i.e., extended in or repeated over time) autobiographical memories (AMs) during their initial construction and later elaboration phases. The construction and elaboration of specific and general events engaged a widely distributed set of regions previously associated with AM recall. Specific (vs. general) event construction preferentially engaged prefrontal and medial temporal lobe regions known to be crit ...[more]

PMID: 21803063

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Project description:Autobiographical memory (AM) underlies the formation and temporal continuity over time of personal identity. The few studies on sex-related differences in AM suggest that men and women adopt different cognitive or emotional strategies when retrieving AMs. However, none of the previous works has taken into account the distinction between episodic autobiographical memory (EAM), consisting in the retrieval of specific events by means of mental time travel, and semantic autobiographical memory (SAM), which stores general personal events. Thus, it remains unclear whether differences in these strategies depend on the nature of the memory content to be retrieved. In the present study we employed functional MRI to examine brain activity underlying potential sex differences in EAM and SAM retrieval focusing on the differences in strategies related to the emotional aspects of memories while controlling for basic cognitive strategies. On the behavioral level, there was no significant sex difference in memory performances or subjective feature ratings of either type of AM. Activations common to men and women during AM retrieval were observed in a typical bilateral network comprising medial and lateral temporal regions, precuneus, occipital cortex as well as prefrontal cortex. Contrast analyses revealed that there was no difference between men and women in the EAM condition. In the SAM condition, women showed an increased activity, compared to men, in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, inferior parietal and precentral gyrus. Overall, these findings suggest that differential neural activations reflect sex-specific strategies related to emotional aspects of AMs, particularly regarding SAM. We propose that this pattern of activation during SAM retrieval reflects the cognitive cost linked to emotion regulation strategies recruited by women compared to men. These sex-related differences have interesting implications for understanding psychiatric disorders with differential sex prevalence and in which one of key features is overgenerality in AM.

Project description:FMRI studies of autobiographical memory (AM) retrieval typically ask subjects to retrieve memories silently to avoid speech-related motion artifacts. Recently, some fMRI studies have started to use overt (spoken) retrieval to probe moment-to-moment retrieved content. However, the extent to which the overt retrieval method alters fMRI activations during retrieval is unknown. Here we examined this question by eliciting unrehearsed AMs during fMRI scanning either overtly or silently, in the same subjects, in different runs. Differences between retrieval modality (silent vs. narrated) included greater activation for silent retrieval in the anterior hippocampus, left angular gyrus, PCC, and superior PFC, and greater activation for narrated retrieval in speech production regions, posterior hippocampus, and the DLPFC. To probe temporal dynamics, we divided each retrieval period into an initial search phase and a later elaboration phase. The activations during the search and elaboration phases were broadly similar regardless of modality, and these activations were in line with previous fMRI studies of AM temporal dynamics employing silent retrieval. For both retrieval modalities, search activated the hippocampus, mPFC, ACC, and PCC, and elaboration activated the left DLPFC and middle temporal gyri. To examine content-specific reactivation during retrieval, the timecourse of narrated memory content was transcribed and modeled. We observed dynamic activation associated with object content in the lateral occipital complex, and activation associated with scene content in the retrosplenial cortex. The current findings show that both silent and narrated AMs activate a broadly similar memory network, with some key differences, and add to current knowledge regarding the content-specific dynamics of AM retrieval. However, these observed differences between retrieval modality suggest that studies using overt retrieval should carefully consider this method's possible effects on cognitive and neural processing.

Dataset Information

The neural correlates of specific versus general autobiographical memory construction and elaboration.

Publications

The neural correlates of specific versus general autobiographical memory construction and elaboration.

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