Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Recollections of one’s own past: the effects of aging and gender on the neural mechanisms of episodic autobiographical memory

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Anatomy and Embryology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Episodic autobiographical recollection is the most complex form of human memory. It relies on interactions between episodic memory, associated emotions, and a sense of self-continuity along the time axis of one’s personal life history. Evidence exists that autobiographical memory performance as well as its underlying brain mechanisms are influenced by genetic, physiological, psychological, situational, and social-cultural factors. In particular, age (normal cognitive aging as well as age of memories, as defined by the time interval elapsed since information encoding) and gender affect both the performance level and the neural substrates of autobiographical recollection. In this review, studies concerned with aging and gender effects on autobiographical memory are discussed with reference to other age- and gender-related influences on human cognition, as well as clinical data on demented patients. Both age and gender act upon the functional hemispheric lateralization of autobiographical recollection and the prefrontal, hippocampal and parahippocampal engagement in information processing. On the performance level, re-collective qualities such as episodic detail and emotional intensity of autobiographical memories are modulated by both factors. Although the effects of aging and gender on human brain function are built upon different genetic and physiological mechanisms, they influence at least in part the same neurofunctional and behavioral dimensions of autobiographical recollection. Interestingly, age- and gender-related specificities in the neural mechanisms of autobiographical recollection need not be reflected on the performance level.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Addis DR, Moscovitch M, Crawley AP, McAndrews MP (2004) Recollective qualities modulate hippocampal activation during autobiographical memory retrieval. Hippocampus 14:752–762

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Adinoff B, Devous MD, Best SE, Chandler P, Alexander D, Payne K, Harris TS, Williams MJ (2003) Gender differences in limbic responsiveness, by SPECT, following a pharmacologic challenge in healthy subjects. Neuroimage 18:697–706

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aggleton JP, Hunt PR, Rawlins JNP (1986) The effects of hippocampal lesions upon spatial and non-spatial tests of working memory. Behav Brain Res 19:133–146

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Anagostaras SG, Maren S, Fanselow MS (1999) Temporally graded retrograde amnesia of contextual fear after hippocampal damage in rats: within-subjects examination. J Neurosci 19:1106–1114

    Google Scholar 

  • Anstey KJ, Luszcz MA, Sanchez L (2001) A reevaluation of the common factor theory of shared variance among age, sensory function, and cognitive function in older adults. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Social Sci 56:3–11

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey TL, Rivara CB, Rocher AB, Hof PR (2004) The nature effects of cortical microvascular pathology in aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Neurol Res 26:573–578

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bak H, Antoun N, Balan KK, Hodges JR (2001) Memory lost, memory regained: neuropsychological findings and neuroimaging in two cases of paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis with radically different outcomes. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 71:40

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ballesteros S, Reales JM (2004) Intact haptic priming in normal aging and Alzheimer’s disease: evidence for dissociable memory systems. Neuropsychologia 42:1063–1070

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beatty WW, Salmon DP, Berstein N, Butters N (1987) Remote memories in a patient with amnesia due to hypoxia. Psychol Med 17:657–665

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Beatty WW, Salmon DP, Butters N, Heindel WC, Granholm EA (1988) Retrograde amnesia in patients with Alzheimer’s disease or Huntington’s disease. Neurobiol Aging 9:181–186

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bolhuis JJ, Stewart CA, Forrest EM (1994) Retrograde amnesia and memory reactivation in rats with ibotenate lesions to the hippocampus or subiculum. Q J Exp Psychol B 47:129–150

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Braak H, Braak E, Yilmazer D, de Vos RA, Jansen EN, Bohl J (1996) Pattern of brain destruction in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. J Neural Transm 103:455–490

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Braver TS, Barch DM (2002) A theory of cognitive control, aging cognition, and neuromodulation. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 26:809–817

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bowers D, Verfaellie M, Valenstein E, Heilman KM (1988) Impaired acquisition of temporal information in retrosplenial amnesia. Brain Cogn 8:47–66

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bunce D, Fratiglioni L, Small BJ, Winblad B, Bäckman L (2004) APOE and cognitive decline in preclinical Alzheimer disease and non-demented aging. Neuroloy 63:816–821

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Burke DM, Mackay DG (1997) Memory, language, and aging. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 352:1845–1856

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cabeza R (2002) Hemispheric asymmetry reduction in older adults: the HAROLD model. Psychol Aging 17:85–100

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cabeza R, Anderson ND, Houle S, Mangels JA, Nyberg L (2000) Age-related differences in neural activity during item and temporal-order memory retrieval: a positron emission tomography study. J Cogn Neurosci 12:197–206

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cabeza R, Dolcos F, Graham R, Nyberg L (2002) Similarities and differences in the neural correlates of episodic memory retrieval and working memory. Neuroimage 16:317–330

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cabeza R, Daselaar SM, Dolcos F, Prince SE, Budde M, Nyberg L (2004) Task-independent and task-specific age effects on brain activity during working memory, visual attention, and episodic retrieval. Cereb Cortex 14:364–375

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cahill L, McGaugh JL (1996) Modulation of memory storage. Curr Opin Neurobiol 6:237–242

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cahill L, McGaugh JL (1998) Mechanisms of emotional arousal and lasting declarative memory. Trends Neurosci 21:294–257

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cahill LR, Haier RJ, White NS, Fallon J, Kilpatrick L, Lawrence C, Potkin SG, Alkire MT (2001) Sex-related difference in amygdala activity during emotionally influenced memory storage. Neurobiol Learn Mem 75:1–9

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Calder AJ, Lawrence AD, Young AW (2001) Neuropsychology of fear and loathing. Nat Rev Neurosci 2:352–363

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Canli T, Desmond JE, Zhao Z, Gabrieli JD (2002) Sex differences in the neural basis of emotional memories. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99:10789–10794

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Carr L, Iacoboni M, Dubeau MC, Mazziotta J, Lenzi GL (2003) Neural mechanisms of empathy in humans: a relay from systems for imitation to limbic areas. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100:5497–5502

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chetelat G, Baron JC (2003) Early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease: contribution of structural neuroimaging. Neuroimage 18:525–541

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Craik FIM, Salthouse TA (2000) Handbook of aging and cognition II. Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis PJ (1999) Gender differences in autobiographical memory for childhood emotional experiences. J Pers Soc Psychol 76:498–510

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Derbyshire SW, Jones AK, Gyulai F, Clark S, Townsend D, Firestone LL (1997) Pain processing during three levels of noxious stimulation produces differential patterns of central activity. Pain 73:431–445

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • De Renzi E, Lecchelli F (1993) Dense retrograde amnesia, intact learning capability, and abnormal forgetting rate: a consolidation deficit? Cortex 29:449–466

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • De Vries GJ (2004) Minireview: sex differences in adult and developing brains: compensation, compensation, compensation. Endocrinology 145:1063–1068

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • De Vries GJ, Boyle PA (1998) Double duty for sex differences in the brain. Behav Brain Res 92:205–213

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Driscoll I, Hamilton DA, Petropoulos H, Yeo RA, Brooks WM, Baumgartner RN, Sutherland RJ (2003) The aging hippocampus: cognitive, biochemical, and structural findings. Cereb Cortex 13:1344–1351

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein CM, Sekino M, Yamaguchi K, Kamiya S, Ueno S (2002) Asymmetries of prefrontal cortex in human episodic memory effects: effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation on learning abstract patterns. Neurosci Lett 320:5–8

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein R, Kanwisher N (1998) A cortical representation of the local visual environment. Nature 389:598–601

    Google Scholar 

  • Eustache F, Piolino P, Giffard B, Viader F, de la Sayette V, Baron JC, Desgranges B (2004) ‘In the course of time’: a PET study of the cerebral substrates of autobiographical amnesia in Alzheimer’s disease. Brain 127:1549–1560

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fellgiebel A, Wille P, Müller MJ, Winterer G, Scheuurich A, Vucurevic G, Schmidt LG, Stoeter P (2004) Ultrastructural hippocampal and white matter alterations in mild cognitive impairment: a diffusion tensor imaging study. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord 18:101–108

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fink GR (2003) In search of one’s own past: the neural bases of autobiographical memories, editorial. Brain 126:1509–1510

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fink GR, Markowitsch HJ, Reinkemeier M, Bruckbauer T, Kessler J, Heiss WD (1996) Cerebral representation of one’s own past: neural networks involved in autobiographical memory. J Neurosci 16:4275–4282

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fitch RH, Bimonte HA (2002) Hormones, brain, and behavior: putative biological contributions to cognitive sex differences. In: McGillycuddy-De Lisi A, De Lisi R (eds) Biology, society, and behavior: the development of sex differences in cognition, vol 21. Ablex, Westport, CT, pp 55–91

  • Fujita F, Diener E, Sanvik E (1991) Gender differences in negative affect and well-being: the case for emotional intensity. J Pers Soc Psychol 61:427–434

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gainotti G, Almonti S, DiBetta AM, Silveri MC (1998) Retrograde amnesia in a patient with retrosplenial tumour. Neurocase 4:519–526

    Google Scholar 

  • Gathercole SE (1998) The development of memory. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 39:3–27

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gilboa A, Winocur G, Grady CL, Hevenor SJ, Moscovich M (2004) Remembering or past: functional neuroanatomy of recollection of recent and very remote personal events. Cereb Cortex 14:1214–1225

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grabowski TJ, Damasio H, Eichhorn GR, Tranel D (2003) Effects of gender on blood flow correlates of naming concrete entities. Neuroimage 20:940–954

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Graham KS, Lee AC, Brett M, Patterson K (2003) The neural basis of autobiographical and semantic memory: new evidence from three PET studies. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 3:234–254

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Greene JD, Hodges JR, Baddeley AD (1995) Autobiographical memory and executive function in early dementia of Alzheimer type. Neuropsychologia 33:1647–1670

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Greicius MD, Srivastava G, Reiss AL, Menon V (2004) Default-mode network activity distinguishes Alzheimer’s Disease from healthy aging: evidence from functional MRI. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:4637–4642

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gron G, Bittner D, Schmitz B, Wunderlich AP, Tomczak R, Riepe MW (2003) Variabilioty in memory performance in aged healthy individuals: an fMRI study. Neurobiol Aging 24:453–462

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grossman M, Wood W (1993) Sex differences in intensity of emotional experience: a social role interpretation. J Pers Soc Psychol 65:1010–1022

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Haist F, Bowden Gore J, Mao H (2001) Consolidation of human memory over decades revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Nat Neurosci 4:1139–1145

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Halpern DF (1992) Sex differences in cognitive abilities. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Heilman KM, Bowers D, Watson RT, Day A, Valenstein E, Hammond E, Duara R (1990) Frontal hypermetabolism and thalamic hypometabolism in a patient with abnormal orienting and retrosplenial amnesia. Neuropsychologia 28:161–169

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Helkala EL, Laulumaa V, Soininen H, Riekkinen PJ (1989) Different error pattern of episodic and semantic memory in Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease with dementia. Neuropsychologia 27:1241–1248

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Iadarola MJ, Berman KF, Zeffiro TA, Byas-Smith MG, Gracely RH, Max MB, Bennet GJ (1998) Neural activation during acute capsaicin-evoked pain and allodynia assessed with PET. Brain 121:931–947

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Insausti R, Amaral DG, Cowan WM (1987) The entorhinal cortex of the monkey II: cortical afferents. J Com Neurol 264:356–395

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Johannsen P, Jakobsen J, Gjedde A (2000) Statistical maps of cerebral blood flow deficits in Alzheimer’s disease. Eur J Neurol 7:385–392

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kansaku K, Yamaura A, Kitazawa S (2000) Sex differences in lateralization revealed in the posterior language areas. Cereb Cortex 10:866–872

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Killgore WD, Oki M, Yurgelun-Todd DA (2001) Sex-specific developmental changes in amygdala responses to affective faces. Neuroreport 12:427–433

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Killgore WD, Yurgelun-Todd DA (2001) Sex differences in amygdala activation during the perception of facial affect. Neuroreport 12:2543–2547

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Konishi S, Uchida I, Okuaki T, Machida T, Shirouzu I, Miyashita Y (2002) Neural correlates of recency judgement. J Neurosci 22:9549–9555

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer JH, Yaffe K, Lengenfelder J, Delis DC (2003) Age and gender interactions on verbal memory performance. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 9:97–102

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Labouvie-Vief G, Lumley MA, Jain E, Heinze H (2003) Age and gender differences in cardiac reactivity and emotion responses to emotional autobiographical memories. Emotion 3:115–126

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lanius RA, Williamson PC, Densmore M, Boksman K, Gupta MA, Neufeld RW, Gati JS, Menon RS (2001) Neural correlates of traumatic memories in posttraumatic stress disorder: a functional MRI investigation. Am J Psychiatry 158:1920–1922

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Laukka EJ, Jones S, Small BJ, Fratiglioni L, Bäckman L (2004) Similar patterns of cognitive deficits in the preclinical phases of vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 10:382–391

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lee ACH, Robbins TW, Owen AM (2003) Episodic memory meets working memory in the frontal lobe: functional neuroimaging studies of encoding and retrieval. Crit Rev Neurobiol 14:165–197

    Google Scholar 

  • Leube DT, Erb M, Grodd W, Bartels M, Kircher TT (2001) Differential activation in parahippocampal and prefrontal cortex during word and face encoding tasks. Neuroreport 12:2773–2777

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lévesque J, Eugène F, Joanette Y, Paquette V, Mensour B, Beaudoin G, Leroux JM, Bourgouin P, Beauregard M (2003) Neural Circuitry underlying voluntary suppression of sadness. Biol Psychiatry 53:502–510

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Levine B (2004) Autobiographical memory and the self in time: brain lesion effects, functional neuroanatomy, and lifespan development. Brain Cogn 55:54–68

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Levine B, Svoboda E, Hay JF, Winocur G, Moscovitch M (2002) Aging and autobiographical memory: dissociating episodic from semantic retrieval. Psychol Aging 17:677–689

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Light LL (1991) Memory and aging: four hypotheses for data. Annu Rev Psychol 42:333–376

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lindenberger U, Baltes PB (1994) Sensory functioning and intelligence in old age: a strong connection. Psychol Aging 9:339–355

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lustig C, Buckner RL (2004) Preserved neural correlates of priming in old age and dementia. Neuron 42:865–875

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lye TC, Piguet O, Grayson DA, Creasey H, Ridley LJ, Bennet HP, Broe GA (2004) Hippocampal size and memory function in the ninth and tenth decades of life: the Sydney older persons study. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 75:548–554

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald S, Uesiliana K, Hayne H (2000) Cross-cultural and gender differences in childhood amnesia. Memory 8:365–376

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Maddock RJ, Garrett AS, Buonocore MH (2001) Remembering familiar people: the posterior cingulate cortex and autobiographical memory retrieval. Neuroscience 104:667–676

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Maguire EA, Frith CD (2003a) Lateral asymmetry in the hippocampal response to the remoteness of autobiographical memories. J. Neurosci 23:5302–5307

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Maguire EA, Frith CD (2003b) Aging affects the engagement of the hippocampus during autobiographical memory retrieval. Brain 126:1511–1523

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Maguire EA, Frackowiak RSJ, Frith CD (1996) Learning to find your way: a role for the human hippocampal formation. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 263:1745–1750

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Maguire EA, Henson RNA, Mummery CJ, Frith CD (2001) Activity in prefrontal cortex, not hippocampus, varies parametrically with the increasing remoteness of memories. Neuroreport 12:441–444

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Malkova L, Mishkin M (2003) One-trial memory for object-place associations after separate lesions of hippocampus and posterior parahippocampal regions in the monkey. J Neurosci 23:1956–1965

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Maylor EA, Carter SM, Hallett EL (2002) Preserved olfactory cueing of autobiographical memories in old age. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci 57:41–46

    Google Scholar 

  • McClelland JL (1994) The organisation of memory A parallel distributed processing perspective. Rev Neurol 150:570–579

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McEwen BS, Alves SE, Bulloch K, Weiland NG (1998) Clinically relevant basic science studies on gender differences and sex hormone effects. Psychopharmacol Bull 34:251–259

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Meguro K, LeMestric C, Landeau B, Desgranges B, Eustache F, Baron JC (2001) Relations between hypometabolism in the posterior association neocortex and hippocampal atrophy in Alzheimer’s disease: a PET/MRI correlative study. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 71:315–321

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mekarski JE, Cutmore TR, Suboski W (1996) Gender differences during processing of the Stroop task. Percept Mot Skills 83:563–568

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Milner B, Corsi P, Leonard G (1991) Frontal-lobe contribution to recency judgements. Neuropsychologia 29:601–618

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Morcom AM, Good CD, Frackowiak RS, Rugg MD (2003) Age effects on the neural correlates of successful memory encoding. Brain 126:213–229

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nadel L, Moscovitch M (1997) Memory consolidation, retrograde amnesia, and the hippocampal complex. Curr Opin Neurobiol 7:217–227

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Niki K, Luo (2002) An fMRI study on the time-limited role of the medial temporal lobe in long-term topographical autobiographic memory. J Cogn Neurosci 14:500–507

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nilsson LG (2003) Memory function in normal aging. Acta Neurol Scand Suppl 179:7–13

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Park DC, Welsh RC, Marshuetz C, Gutchess AH, Mikels J, Polk TA, Noll DC, Taylor SF (2003) Working memory for complex scenes: age differences in frontal and hippocampal activations. J Cogn Neurosci 15:1122–1134

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Paulson PE, Minoshima S, Morrow TJ, Casey KL (1998) Gender differences in pain perception and patterns of cerebral activation during noxious heat stimulation. Pain 76:223–229

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Perner J, Ruffman T (1995) Episodic memory and autonoetic consciousness: developmental evidence and a theory of childhood amnesia. J Exp Child Psychol 516–548

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips ML, Young AW, Senior C, Brammer M, Andrew C, Calder AJ, Bullmore ET, Perrett DI, Rowland D, Williams SC, Gray JA, David AS (1997) A specific neural substrate for perceiving facial expressions of disgust. Nature 389:495–498

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Piefke M (2003) Neural correlates and contents of emotional autobiographical memory. Functional neuroimaging results and behavioral perspectives. Dissertation, University of Bielefeld

  • Piefke M, Weiss PH, Zilles K, Markowitsch HJ, Fink GR (2003) Differential remoteness and emotional tone modulate the neural correlates of autobiographical memory. Brain 126:650–668

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piefke M, Weiss PH, Markowitsch HJ, Fink GR (2005) Gender differences in the functional neuroanatomy of emotional episodic autobiographical memory. Hum Brain Mapp 24:313–324

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piolino P, Desgranges B, Benali K, Eustache F (2002) Episodic and semantic remote memory in aging. Memory 10:239–257

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piolino P, Desgranges B, Belliard S, Matuszewski V, Lalevee C, De la Sayette V, Eustache F (2003) Autobiographical memory and autonoetic consciousness: triple dissociation in neurodegenerative disease. Brain 126:2203–2219

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Postma A, Jager G, Kessels RPC, Koppeschaar HPF, van Honk J (2004) Sex differences for selective forms of spatial memory. Brain Cogn 54:24–34

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pruessner JC, Collins DL, Pruessner M, Evans AC (2001) Age and gender predict volume decline in the anterior and posterior hippocampus in early adulthood. J Neurosci 21:194–200

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pugh KR, Shaywitz BA, Shaywitz SE, Constable RT, Skudlarski P, Fulbright RK, Bronen RA, Fletcher RM, Shankweiler DP, Katz L, Gore JC (1996) Cerebral organization of component processes in reading. Brain 119:1221–1238

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Raz N (2000) Aging of the brain and its impact on cognitive performance: integration of structural and functional findings. In: Craik FIM, Salthouse TA (eds) Handbook of aging and cognition II. Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, pp 1–90

    Google Scholar 

  • Raz N, Gunning-Dixon FM, Head D, Dupuis JH, Acker JD (1998) Neuroanatomical correlates of cognitive aging: evidence from structural magnetic resonance imaging. Neuropsychology 12:95–114

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rempel-Clower NL, Zola SM, Squire LR, Amaral DG (1996) Three cases of enduring memory impairment after bilateral damage limited to the hippocampal formation. J Neurosci 16:5233–5255

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rinne JO, Portin R, Ruottinen H, Nurmi E, Bergman J, Haaparanta M, Solin O (2002) Cognitive impairment and the brain dopaminergic system in Parkinson disease: [18F]fluorodopa positron emission tomographic study. Arch Neurol 57:470–475

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossi S, Cappa SF, Babiloni C, Pasqualetti P, Miniussi C, Carducci F, Babiloni F, Rossini PM (2001) Prefrontal cortex in long-term memory: an “interference” approach using magnetic stimulation. Nat Neurosci 4:948–952

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ryan L, Nadel L, Keil K, Putnam K, Schnyer D, Trouard T, Moscovitch M (2001) The hippocampal complex and retrieval of recent and very remote memories: evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging in neurologically intact people. Hippocampus 11:707–714

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rybash JM, Monaghan BE (1999) Episodic and semantic contributions to older adults’ autobiographical recall. J Gen Psychol 126:85–96

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Salmon DP, Zola-Morgan S, Squire LR (1987) Retrograde amnesia following combined hippocampus-amygdala lesions in monkeys. Psychobiol 15:37–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Salthouse TA (1996) The processing speed theory of adult age differences in cognition. Psychol Rev 103:403–428

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sanfey AG, Rilling JK, Aronson JA, Nystrom LE, Cohen JD (2003) The neural basis of economic decision-making in the ultimatum game. Sci 300:1755–1758

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schroots JJ, van Dijkum C, Assink MH (2004) Autobiographical memory from a life span perspective. Int J Aging Hum Dev 58:69–85

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seidlitz L, Diener E (1998) Sex differences in the recall of affective experiences. J Pers Soc Psychol 74:262–271

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shimamura AP, Janowsky JS, Squire LR (1990) Memory for the temporal order of events in patients with frontal lobe lesions and amnesic patients. Neuropsychologia 28:803–813

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sluzenski J, Newcombe N, Ottinger W (2004) Changes in reality monitoring and episodic memory in early childhood. Dev Sci 7:225–245

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Small SA, Chawla MK, Buonocore M, Rapp PR, Barnes CA (2004) Imaging correlates of brain function in monkeys and rats isolates a hippocampal subregion differentially vulnerable to aging. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 101:7181–7186

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Squire LR (1992) Memory and the hippocampus: a synthesis from findings with rats, monkeys, and humans. Psychol Rev 99:195–231

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Squire LR, Knowlton BJ (2000) The medial temporal lobe, the hippocampus, and memory systems of the brain. In: Gazzaniga MS (ed) The new cognitive neurosciences. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 765–779

    Google Scholar 

  • Strange BA, Otten LJ, Josephs O, Rugg MD, Dolan RJ (2002) Dissociable human perirhinal, hippocampal, and parahippocampal roles during verbal encoding. J Neurosci 22:523–528

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sugiura M, Shah NJ, Zilles K, Fink GR (2005) Cortical representations of personally-familiar objects and places: functional organization of the human posterior cingulate cortex. J Cogn Neurosci (in press)

  • Suzuki M, Fujii T, Tsukiura T, Okuda J, Umetsu A, Nagasaka T, Mugikura S, Yanagawa I, Takahshi S, Yamadori A (2002) Neuraql Basis of temporal context memory: a functional MRI study. Neuroimage 17:1790–1796

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tataranni PA, Gautier JF, Chen K, Uecker A, Bandy D, Salbe AD, Pratley RE, Lawson M, Reiman EM, Ravussin E (1999) Neuroanatomical correlates of hunger and satiation in humans using positron emission tomography. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 96:4569–4574

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Teng E, Squire LR (1999) Memory for places learned long ago is intact after hippocampal damage. Nature 400:675–677

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tsukiura T, Fujii T, Takahashi T, Xiao R, Sugiura M, Okuda J, Iijima T, Yamadori A (2002) Medial temporal lobe activation during context-dependent relational processes in episodic retrieval: an fMRI study. Hum Brain Mapp 17:203–213

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tulving E (1972) Episodic and semantic memory. In: Tulving E, Donaldson W (eds) Organization of memory. Academic Press, New York, pp 381–403

    Google Scholar 

  • Tulving E (1983) Elements of episodic memory. Clarendon Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Tulving E (1995) Organization of memory: Quo vadis? In: Gazzaniga MS (ed) The cognitive neurosciences. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 839–847

    Google Scholar 

  • Vakil E, Blachstein H (1994) A supplementary measure in the Rey AVLT for assessing incidental learning of temporal order. J Clin Psychol 50:240–245

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vecchi T, Girelli L (1998) Gender differences in visuo-spatial processing: the importance of distinguishing between passive storage and active manipulation. Acta Psychol 99:1–16

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Veltman DJ, Serge A, Rombouts RB, Dolan RJ (2003) Maintenance versus manipulation in verbal working memory revisited: an fMRI study. Neuroimage 18:247–256

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wager TD, Phan KL, Liberzon I, Taylor SF (2003) Valence, gender, and latralization of functional brain anatomy in emotion: a meta-analysis of findings from neuroimaging. Neuroimage 19:513–531

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wang L, Swank JS, Glick IE, Gado MH, Miller MI, Morris JC, Csernansky JG (2003) Changes in hippocampal volume and shape across time distinguish dementia of the Alzheimer type from healthy aging. Neuroimage 20:667–682

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang Q (2001) Culture effects on adults’ earliest childhood recollection and self-description: implications for the relation between memory and the self. J Pers Soc Psychol 220–233

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiss PH, Marshall JC, Wunderlich G, Tellmann L, Halligan PW, Freund HJ, Zilles K, Fink GR (2000) Neural consequences of acting in near versus far space: a physiological basis for clinical dissociations. Brain 123:2531–2541

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • West RL (1996) An application of prefrontal cortex function theory to cognitive aging. Psychol Bull 120:272–292

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Westmacott R, Leach L, Freedman M, Moscovitch M (2001) Different patterns of autobiographical memory loss in semantic dementia and medial temporal lobe amnesia: a challenge to consolidation theory. Neurocase 7:37–55

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson D, Halligan P (2004) The relevance of behavioral measures for functional imaging studies of cognition. Nat Rev Neurosci 5:67–73

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Williams CL (1998) Estrogen effects on cognition across the life-span. Horm Behav 34:80–84

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Winocur G (1990) Anterograde and retrograde amnesia in rats with dorsal hippocampal or dorsomedial thalamic lesions. Behav Brain Res 38:145–154

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wisniewski AB (1998) Sexually-dimorphic patterns of cortical asymmetry, and the role for sex steroid hormones in determining cortical patterns of lateralization. Psychoneuroendocrinology 23:519–547

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zola-Morgan S, Squire LR (1990) The primate hippocampal formation: evidence for a time-limited role in memory storage. Science 250:288–290

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zola-Morgan S, Squire LR, Amaral DG (1986) Human amnesia and the medial temporal region: enduring memory impairment following a bilateral lesion to field CA1 of the hippocampus. J Neurosci 6:2959–2967

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

GRF is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG—KFO 112) and the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF—01lBC01G/MODKOG). MP is supported by the Hans Lungwitz Stiftung (HLS), Berlin and the START program of the RWTH Aachen.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Medicine, Research Center Jülich, Leo-Brand Str. 5, 52425, Jülich, Germany

    Martina Piefke & Gereon R. Fink

  2. Brain Imaging Center West, Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany

    Martina Piefke & Gereon R. Fink

  3. Department of Neurology—Cognitive Neurology, University Hospital Aachen, Rheinisch-Westfälische-Technische Hochschule (RWTH), Aachen, Germany

    Martina Piefke & Gereon R. Fink

Authors
  1. Martina Piefke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gereon R. Fink
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martina Piefke.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Piefke, M., Fink, G.R. Recollections of one’s own past: the effects of aging and gender on the neural mechanisms of episodic autobiographical memory. Anat Embryol 210, 497–512 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-005-0038-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-005-0038-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation