Functional neuroimaging of autobiographical memory.
Date
2010
Author
Advisors
Rubin, David C
Cabeza, Roberto E
LaBar, Kevin S.
Strauman, Timothy J.
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Abstract
Autobiographical memory (AM) refers to memory for events from our own personal past.
Functional neuroimaging studies of AM are important because they can investigate the
neural correlates of processes that are difficult to study using laboratory stimuli,
including: complex constructive processes, subjective qualities of memory retrieval,
and remote memory. Three functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies are
presented to examine these important contributions of AM. The first study investigates
the neural correlates of temporal-order memory for autobiographical events using a
novel photo paradigm. Participants took photographs at many campus locations over
a period of several hours, and the following day they were scanned while making temporal-order
judgments to pairs of photographs from different locations. It was found that temporal-order
decisions associated with recollection recruited left prefrontal (PFC) and left posterior
parahippocampal cortex, whereas temporal-order decisions relying on familiarity recruited
greater activity in the right PFC.
The second study examines self-projection, the capacity to re-experience the personal
past and to mentally infer another person’s perspective. A novel camera technology
was used to examine self-projection by prospectively generating dynamic visuospatial
images taken from a first-person perspective. Participants were literally asked to
self-project into the personal past or into the life of another person. Self-projection
of one’s own past self recruited greater ventral medial PFC (mPFC), and self-projection
of another individual recruited dorsal mPFC. Activity in ventral vs. dorsal mPFC was
also sensitive to the ability to relive or understand the perspective taken on each
trial. Further, task-related functional connectivity analysis revealed that ventral
mPFC contributed to the medial temporal lobe network linked to memory processes, whereas
dorsal mPFC contributed to the frontoparietal network linked to controlled processes.
The third study focuses on the neural correlates underlying age-related differences
in the recall of episodically rich AMs. Age-related attenuation in the episodic richness
of AM was linked to reductions in activity elicited during elaboration. Age effects
on AM were more pronounced during elaboration than search, with older adults showing
less sustained recruitment of the hippocampus and ventrolateral PFC for less episodically
rich AMs. Further, there was an age-related reduction in the top-down modulation
of the PFC on the hippocampus by episodic richness, possibly reflecting fewer controlled
processes operating on the recovery of information in the hippocampus. Ultimately,
the goal of all memory research is to understand how memory operates in the real-world;
the present research highlights the important contribution of functional neuroimaging
studies of AM in attaining this goal.
Type
DissertationDepartment
Psychology and NeurosciencePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/2445Citation
St. Jacques, Peggy L. (2010). Functional neuroimaging of autobiographical memory. Dissertation, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/2445.Collections
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