Chapter 28 - The cognitive neuroscience of memory and consciousness

Summary

This chapter delineates the neural activity associated with conscious memories characterized by different degrees of retrieval content. It considers three lines of research that have examined aspects of the memory-related sensory/contextual activity and the associated subjective experience. The chapter attempts to separate explicit retrieval into separate components that can be grouped broadly into two categories: retrieval success and retrieval attempt. It discusses imaging experiments concerned with the distinction between remembering and knowing that examine how neural activity correlates with differing degrees or types of conscious experiences. The chapter considers recent work concerned with delineating the neural substrates of true versus false memories, where the role of sensory reactivation in the conscious experience of remembering has been examined in the context of questions concerning the accuracy of explicit retrieval. Neuropsychological studies have provided convergent evidence, particularly regarding the role of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) in both true and false recognition.