Sheldon Signy, Fenerci Can, Gurguryan Lauri
Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Front Syst Neurosci. 2019 Jan 29;13:4. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2019.00004. eCollection 2019.
Autobiographical memory retrieval involves constructing mental representations of personal past episodes by associating together an array of details related to the retrieved event. This construction process occurs flexibly so that the event details can be associated together in different ways during retrieval. Here, we propose that differences in how this association occurs support a division in autobiographical remembering. We first review theories of autobiographical memory organization that suggest that episodic details of an experience are processed along a gradient of abstraction. This organization allows for the same autobiographical event to be recalled as either a conceptualized or perceptually-based episodic memory. We then use neuroimaging evidence to show how this division within episodic autobiographical memory is also present in the brain, both at a network level and within the hippocampus. Specifically, we suggest that the anterior and posterior hippocampus are obligatorily tuned towards constructing conceptual vs. perceptual episodic representations of autobiographical memories. Finally, we discuss the directive purpose of this proposed division of episodic remembering by reviewing decision scenarios that benefit from recalling the past as a conceptual vs. a perceptual episode. Conceptual remembering is useful to guide ambiguous decisions that have yet to be encountered whereas perceptual remembering is useful to guide decisions for well-structured tasks that have been previously experienced. We emphasize that the ability to shift between conceptual and perceptual forms of remembering, by virtue of hippocampal specialization, during decision-making and other memory-guided actions is the key to adaptive behavior.
自传体记忆提取涉及通过将与所提取事件相关的一系列细节关联起来，构建个人过去经历的心理表征。这个构建过程是灵活的，以便在提取过程中事件细节能够以不同方式关联在一起。在此，我们提出这种关联方式的差异支持了自传体记忆的一种划分。我们首先回顾自传体记忆组织的理论，这些理论表明一次经历的情节细节是沿着抽象梯度进行加工的。这种组织方式使得同一个自传体事件能够被回忆为概念化的或基于感知的情节记忆。然后我们利用神经成像证据来展示这种情节性自传体记忆中的划分在大脑中是如何在网络层面以及海马体内呈现的。具体而言，我们认为海马体的前部和后部必然分别倾向于构建自传体记忆的概念性与感知性情节表征。最后，我们通过回顾一些决策场景来讨论这种提议的情节记忆划分的指导目的，这些决策场景受益于将过去回忆为概念性情节还是感知性情节。概念性记忆有助于指导尚未遇到的模糊决策，而感知性记忆有助于指导针对先前经历过的结构良好任务的决策。我们强调，在决策和其他记忆引导行动过程中，凭借海马体的特化，在概念性和感知性记忆形式之间进行转换的能力是适应性行为的关键。
