Gender differences in the functional neuroanatomy of emotional episodic autobiographical memory - PubMed (original) (raw)

Comparative Study

Gender differences in the functional neuroanatomy of emotional episodic autobiographical memory

Martina Piefke et al. Hum Brain Mapp. 2005 Apr.

Abstract

Autobiographical memory is based on interactions between episodic memory contents, associated emotions, and a sense of self-continuity along the time axis of one's life. The functional neuroanatomy subserving autobiographical memory is known to include prefrontal, medial and lateral temporal, as well as retrosplenial brain areas; however, whether gender differences exist in neural correlates of autobiographical memory remains to be clarified. We reanalyzed data from a previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment to investigate gender-related differences in the neural bases of autobiographical memories with differential remoteness and emotional valence. On the behavioral level, there were no significant gender differences in memory performance or emotional intensity of memories. Activations common to males and females during autobiographical memory retrieval were observed in a bilateral network of brain areas comprising medial and lateral temporal regions, including hippocampal and parahippocampal structures, posterior cingulate, as well as prefrontal cortex. In males (relative to females), all types of autobiographical memories investigated were associated with differential activation of the left parahippocampal gyrus. By contrast, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was activated differentially by females. In addition, the right insula was activated differentially in females during remote and negative memory retrieval. The data show gender-related differential neural activations within the network subserving autobiographical memory in both genders. We suggest that the differential activations may reflect gender-specific cognitive strategies during access to autobiographical memories that do not necessarily affect the behavioral level of memory performance and emotionality.

(c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Gender‐specific relative increases in neural activity (for 10 males and 10 females) associated with the joint experimental memory conditions versus baseline. The local maxima of areas of statistically significant relative increases in neural activity (P < 0.001, uncorrected) are superimposed on MRI sections of the male and the female group mean 3‐D structural image normalized into the standard stereotactic space defined by Talairach and Tournoux [1988] to depict the functional anatomy of the activations and their relationship to the underlying structural anatomy. In males (relative to females), there is increased neural activity in the left parahippocampal gyrus (A). By contrast, females exhibit greater activation in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and insular cortex than do males (B). R, right; L, left; A, anterior; P, posterior.

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