The multilevel memory–reward coactivation framework of nostalgia: a literature review

Abstract

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for the past, has attracted attention in the fields of psychology and marketing in recent years. Although these studies have identified what nostalgia is, including its triggers and functions, the question of how nostalgia is induced remains unanswered. In this article, we review existing psychological models and recent neuroimaging studies that have investigated the neural correlates of nostalgia and propose a provisional framework of nostalgia induction. The multilevel memory‒reward coactivation framework expects that different types of autobiographical memory (AM), such as episodic AM and semantic AM, activate the associated mesolimbic reward system. This framework also assumes a working self, a complex set of active goals and associated self-images, which enables us to explain individual differences in nostalgia experience by influencing what is remembered and how the retrieved information is evaluated. This framework is advantageous in that it can integrate existing psychological models into one model and can explain individual differences in nostalgia that are important for the use of nostalgia, especially in clinical situations.