Autobiographic memory: Phenomenological aspects, personal semantic knowledge, generic events and characters (one case of pure retrograde memory recovery)

Amnesia among Indigenous Australians

“…The explicit or conscious memory is generally subtyped into episodic memory where events and experience are recorded; and semantic memory where general facts and concepts are recorded. Episodic memory is referred to episodic autobiographical memory (EAM), if the episode recorded relates to personal experiences [14,15].…”

“…Other memory types such as prospective memory relate to processing future tasks and have little to do with recollection of past events. Autonoetic consciousness, however, is regarded as an anchor, or sense of self, in that all past experiences or exposures over a person's lifetime are able to be retrieved and reflected upon [14,16]. Conversely, semantic memory refers to the process of collecting general knowledge, allowing for recall of rudimentary facts and common knowledge, learned during the course of an individual's existence, not drawn from personal experiences but is interconnected with culture [14].…”

“…Independent case studies have demonstrated that both episodic and semantic memories may be lost and, given the right time and circumstances, these memories may be recovered at a later date [14]. In one case it was observed that a patient experiencing retrograde amnesia caused by a mild head trauma exacerbated by work stressors was unable to access episodic and semantic memories.…”

“…Over a period of several months, the patient was observed to be able to recall some semantics until full access to his blocked memories was established. In this case, to determine full recovery the patient was required to demonstrate competency in three faculties; ability to sense time, be aware of subjective autonoetic chronology and be aware of the presence of his own self through that chronology [14]. Neuroscience research relating to the experience, absorption, and memory of various episodes in life has found little evidence of early infantile episodic memory and given the development of the brain, early episodic and autobiographical memory during infancy does not happen.…”

Neurobiology of Sexual Desire

“…Only humans pursue these goals because they enjoy a vast reservoir of episodic memories (unique to humans) Nyberg et al, 1996Nyberg et al, , 1995Tulving, 2002) that allow the formation of self-identity that in turn is capable of creating the concept of future that can be bound to the drive states to pursue and achieve long-term goals (an ideal) (Conway and Pleydell-Pearce, 2000;Levine et al, 1998;Thomas Antérion et al, 2008). Animals do not have any of these capacities.…”