| In the current studies, musical cues were used to elicit memories from multiple levels of specificity. Musical cues allowed for construction of emotional memories that had low levels of prior retrieval. Owing largely to the use of music, memories from varying levels of specificity were retrieved, allowing for comparison of the characteristics and neural correlates of retrieval. Subjects rated vividness, intensity, and re-experiencing greater for specific compared to general memories (Experiments 1 & 2). Additionally, these memories were associated with increased activation in regions within the autobiographical memory network, such as the hippocampus and sensory regions (Experiment 2). Other regions within the network, such as the medial prefrontal cortex, were activated during all autobiographical conditions. These results suggest that regions in the autobiographical network may be involved in different processes during retrieval, some being engaged during all autobiographical construction conditions and others being preferentially engaged during construction of event-specific memories. |
