Some developments in autobiographical memory research

Function approach in autobiographical memory research and the results of research on the neural mechanism of autobiographical memory were summarized. New approach finds that autobiographical memory has self, social and directive functions. Research on its neural mechanism shows that autobiographical memory is located in temporal lobe and hippocampus. However, there is great inconsistency between the results of these two fields: neuropsychology research finds that autobiographical memory is mainly the function of right temporal lobe and hippocampus while brain imaging research shows that the primary activation occurs in left temporal lobe and hippocampus during autobiographical event retrieval. There is no discussion or explanation about this inconsistency yet. Given the small number of neuroimaging studies and its inconsistent data, it would be better to compare the results gathered in the two different fields when there are more neuroimaging studies in the future.EI061001-10104