%0 Journal Article
%T Memory and Self¨CNeuroscientific Landscapes
%A Hans J. Markowitsch
%J ISRN Neuroscience
%D 2013
%R 10.1155/2013/176027
%X Relations between memory and the self are framed from a number of perspectives¡ªdevelopmental aspects, forms of memory, interrelations between memory and the brain, and interactions between the environment and memory. The self is seen as dividable into more rudimentary and more advanced aspects. Special emphasis is laid on memory systems and within them on episodic autobiographical memory which is seen as a pure human form of memory that is dependent on a proper ontogenetic development and shaped by the social environment, including culture. Self and episodic autobiographical memory are seen as interlocked in their development and later manifestation. Aside from content-based aspects of memory, time-based aspects are seen along two lines¡ªthe division between short-term and long-term memory and anterograde¡ªfuture-oriented¡ªand retrograde¡ªpast-oriented memory. The state dependency of episodic autobiographical is stressed and implications of it¡ªfor example, with respect to the occurrence of false memories and forensic aspects¡ªare outlined. For the brain level, structural networks for encoding, consolidation, storage, and retrieval are discussed both by referring to patient data and to data obtained in normal participants with functional brain imaging methods. It is elaborated why descriptions from patients with functional or dissociative amnesia are particularly apt to demonstrate the facets in which memory, self, and personal temporality are interwoven. 1. Introduction In this review I will stress the importance of memory for a healthy self and will point to constituents that are necessary to develop and maintain an integrated interplay between information processing and self-development. Data from neurological and psychiatric patients will be used to demonstrate the challenges this interplay undergoes when somatic and psychic prerequisites are impaired or altered. Furthermore, a modern view on memory systems and processes is provided. From this data it will be concluded that there is an intimate relation between autobiographical memory and the self [1]. The data will also reveal that the self is constituted of a number of features and therefore goes beyond memory as such [2¨C7]. 2. Memory Is of Survival Value and Constitutes the Essence of a Personality Memory constitutes an essential feature of our personality. This was already stated in 1870 in a booklet by Hering [8] (which in 1895 was translated into English [9]). He wrote on page 12 (my translation): Memory connects innumerable single phenomena into a whole, and just as the body would be scattered like
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.neuroscience/2013/176027/