Ricerc@Sapienza

Autobiographical memory comprises both decontextualized personal semantics and contextualized episodic memories. It allows for the development and maintenance of our unique personal identity and self-awareness, namely autonoetic consciousness. More specifically, episodic autobiographical memory refers to the ability to recollect and re-experience events of our own life occurring at a particular time and place. Memory deficit is the hallmark for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and it is strictly linked to tau- and amyloid-related hippocampal atrophy; however, memory deficit in AD may have its root in subtle alteration of spatial and temporal processing in prodromal stage of AD, such as Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD). Indeed, representation of space and time may be altered before the clinical onset of the memory impairment. These reports are consistent with early atrophy of brain structures of context association and memory, namely parahippocampal, perirhinal and entorhinal cortices and subtle disconnection between the crucial nodes of autobiographical memory detected in prodromal stages of AD.
Thus, space and time are two key components of autobiographical episodic memories; NAM will disentangle whether they subtend misrepresentation of autobiographical episodic memories in SCD. Due to its impact on memory process, we will also take into account the role of cognitive failures ingenerated by chronic or acute stress states.
From a theoretical perspective, NAM will provide new evidence for a novel integrated neuroscientific account of autobiographical memory, disclosing the way in which our brain processes and organizes previous experiences. New important insights will be derived for clinical applications, as well. First, NAM will open new areas of investigations in neuropsychological rehabilitation of memory deficits, with substantial impact on society. Also, it will disentangle the role of chronic and acute stress states on memory deficits in aging