Memory, consciousness and neuroimaging

• Published in: Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences Vol. 353; no. 1377; pp. 1861 - 1878
• Main Authors: Schacter, D. L., Buckner, R. L., Koutstaal, W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England The Royal Society 29.11.1998
• Subjects: Amnesia; Blood flow; Brain - anatomy & histology; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - physiology; Consciousness - physiology; Episodic Memory; Evoked Potentials; Frontal Lobes; Hippocampal Formation; Hippocampus; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Memory; Memory - physiology; Memory recall; Memory Retrieval; Mental Recall - physiology; Neuroimaging; Positron emission tomography; Prefrontal cortex; Priming; Tomography, Emission-Computed; Words
• ISSN: 0962-8436; 1471-2970
• DOI: 10.1098/rstb.1998.0338

Neuroimaging techniques that allow the assessment of memory performance in healthy human volunteers while simultaneously obtaining measurements of brain activity in vivo may offer new information on the neural correlates of particular forms of memory retrieval and their association with consciousness and intention. We consider evidence from studies with positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging indicating that priming, a form of implicit retrieval, is associated with decreased activity in various cortical regions. We also consider evidence concerning the question of whether two components of explicit retrieval-intentional or effortful search and successful conscious recollection- are preferentially associated with increased activity in prefrontal and medial temporal regions, respectively. Last, we consider recent efforts to probe the relation between the phenomenological character of remembering and neural activity. In this instance we broaden our scope to include studies employing event-related potentials and consider evidence concerning the neural correlates of qualitatively different forms of memory, including memory that is specifically associated with a sense of self, and the recollection of particular temporal or perceptual features that might contribute to a rich and vivid experience of the past.