The cognitive neuroscience of remembering

Abstract

Remembering draws on a diverse array of cognitive processes to construct a representation that is experienced as a copy of the original past. The results of brain-imaging, neuropsychological and physiological studies indicate that distinct neocortical regions might interact with medial temporal lobe structures to reinstate a memory. Frontal regions mediate the strategic retrieval attempt and monitor its outcome, with dissociated frontal regions making functionally separate contributions to retrieval. Parietal and frontal regions might supply a signal that information is old during the process of retrieval, allowing us to perceive that reconstructed representations are memories, rather than the products of new stimuli in the environment. Domain-specific cortical regions are reactivated during vivid remembering and contribute to the contents of a memory. Here, we describe how these regions interact to orchestrate an act of remembering.