Program/Event
Arts and Research Showcase 2024
Abstract
Autobiographical memory plays a crucial role in shaping one’s identity and maintaining one’s sense of continuity from past to present. This study strove to deepen the understanding of the neural correlates underlying individual subjective experience of autobiographical memory. We recruited twenty healthy adult participants, who were asked to generate memory cues for both objects and locations from their present and early life (recent/remote). Participants were subsequently shown these cues and asked to recall the associated memory while in an fMRI scanner. Participants were finally asked to rate the memories on various subjective categories (i.e. arousal, frequency, importance, vividness)(behavioral ratings). Our hypotheses considered: 1) behavioral ratings would be greater for recent, than remote memories. 2) that there would be greater overall activation in the lateral prefrontal cortex, (LPFC) with earlier memories, compared to recent memories, due to increased effort. 3) additionally, that there would be more sensory cortical activity (e.g., ventral/dorsal visual stream) in recent memories, due to more recent activation. In terms of behavioral ratings, we confirmed out hypothesis; that recent memories tended to be rated higher in subjective categories than early memories. In terms of fMRI data, we found there was greater overall activation for location memory compared to object memory, as well as confirming our hypothesis for regarding: greater overall activation for recent memories compared to earlier memories. We additionally found that increased ratings for several factors, most significantly arousal, of recent memories may relate to increased functional connectivity between the LPFC, hippocampus and visual cortex. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found greater overall activation for LPFC during recent memory retrieval, as opposed to early memories; our findings suggesting that arousal may play a part in this increased activation for recent memories.
Recommended Citation
Peruski, Ava G. and Depue, Brendan E.
(2024)
"An fMRI Analysis of the Subjective Experience of Recent and Remote Autobiographical Memories,"
The Cardinal Edge: Vol. 2:
Iss.
2, Article 38.
Available at:
https://ir.library.louisville.edu/tce/vol2/iss2/38
