The relationship between autobiographical memory, cognition, and emotion in older adults: a review

ABSTRACT

Over the past 30 years, the concept of “autobiographical memory” has been highlighted in numerous behavioral and neuroanatomical studies. Importantly, episodic autobiographical memory, an aspect of autobiographical memory, has been shown to decrease with age but can be improved by training. Autobiographical memory is deeply associated with the default mode network (especially posterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex), which is particularly interesting in the context of better understanding the relationship between autobiographical memory, cognition, and emotion in older adults. This article provides an overview of the behavioral and neuroanatomical characteristics of autobiographical memory, as well as its relationship with the default mode network, cognition, emotion, and aging. This article also provides an overall review of autobiographical memory training.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging
• autobiographical memory
• cognition
• emotion
• depression

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea Grant [NRF-2016R1C1B1015930] to Kee-Hong Choi.