What Exactly Is An Autobiographical Memory?

Remembering your very first childhood friend, remembering your favorite scent, how you were when you were younger and the different attitudes you have displayed throughout your life are inherent in an autobiographical memory. So can you imagine if you were to forget the people closest to you? How was your first kiss? Which are your favorite places? These are all examples of experiences stored in your autobiographical memory.

Today we are going to talk about this type of memory. First, we’ll talk about what it is and how it relates to your consciousness. Then we take a look at promising research on a potential treatment (or cure) for Alzheimer’s disease.

What does autobiographical memory mean?

Autobiographical memory has to do with personal experiences. It consists of memories that tell the story of your life. Consequently, it is the basis of your biography because they act as organizers for your experiences.

This memory system is the result of your interaction with the outside world, and what you do defines your autobiographical memory. According to Jose Maria Ruiz-Vargas, professor and researcher at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, autobiographical memories are characterized by:

• The relationship with the self. These memories contain information that helps shape and define who you are.
• Narrative structure. When you remember personal experiences, you do so by telling a story. Thus, the experience becomes a story during the memory process (Ruiz-Vargas, 2004, p. 10).
• Mental images. Autobiographical memories include visual images. They also include other sensory aspects, including hearing and smell.
• The emotional component. Emotions often make memories stronger and more intense.

Autobiographical memory is also related to time division. Access to the personal past does not take place in a uniform way. It varies from memory to memory, and it also depends on what stage of life you are in.

The divisions of autobiographical memory

There are two main elements in an autobiographical memory:

• Episodic. This is related to memories from your own past. In other words, memories associated with personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place.
• Semantically. These are memories associated with events that are repeated repetitively and past experiences that span long periods of time.

The following are some examples of an episodic autobiographical memory: “I remember the day I went swimming and saw a turtle for the first time”, or: “I remember when I was hospitalized for depression”. Semantic memories, on the other hand, would be something like, “When I was a kid, I used to visit my grandmother every Saturday.”

If you analyze both types of memory, you can see that an episodic autobiographical memory is related to subjective time. It allows you to relive past experiences through a time travel in the mind. In other words, it makes you feel like you are going through your experiences again, as a kind of mental journey through time. Semantic autobiographical memory, on the other hand, is more limited to a sense of familiarity.

Autobiographical memory research

These days, researchers are very interested in autobiographical memory. Especially since it is related to neurodegenerative diseases and post-traumatic stress.

In the case of Alzheimer’s disease, autobiographical memory is particularly affected. Through a series of studies, researchers have been able to see that the degenerative process is different depending on the type in question. They have also discovered that it happens at both normal and pathological aging.

When you remember your past, you have a thought connected to an episodic memory. The production of these memories is low when compared to the production of semantic memories. Most importantly, people with Alzheimer’s disease have a poor ability to recover episodic autobiographical moments.

To study autobiographical memory in people with Alzheimer’s, researchers are experimenting with the reminiscence process. In other words, they urge people to remember events and memories.

Memory trigger

El Haj, Fasotti and Allain (2012) have published the results of their study in the journal Consciousness and Cognition . They explored the involuntary nature of autobiographical memories triggered by music. Other researchers have also studied similar processes with memories triggered by images, videos and even smells.

In summary, the autobiographical memory is closely related to who you are because it is linked to your experiences, both in a general and detailed way. The way in which different things trigger an autobiographical memory changes depending on whether the aging process is normal or pathological.

People with Alzheimer’s disease also show a progressive loss of episodic autobiographical memory. There are several ongoing studies exploring this type of memory. We hope that the results of these studies will help to shed light on the way to find a cure for neurodegenerative diseases.