Korean J Nucl Med.  2000 Feb;34(1):10-21.

Functional Mapping of the Neural Basis for the Encoding and Retrieval of Human Episodic Memory Using H215O PET

• Lee JS
• Nam HW
• Lee DS
• Lee SK
• Jang MJ
• Ahn JY
• Park KS
• Chung JK
• Lee MC

Abstract

PURPOSE: Episodic memory is described as an 'autobiographical' memory responsible for storing a record of the events in our lives. We performed functional brain activation study using H215O PET to reveal the neural basis of the encoding and the retrieval of episodic memory in human normal volunteers.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Four repeated H215O PET scans with two reference and two activation tasks were performed on 6 normal volunteers to activate brain areas engaged in encoding and retrieval with verbal materials. Images from the same subject were spatially registered and normalized using linear and nonlinear transformation. Using the means and variances for every condition which were adjusted with analysis of covariance, t-statistic analysis were performed voxel-wise.
RESULTS
Encoding of episodic memory activated the opercular and triangular parts of left inferior frontal gyrus, right prefrontal cortex, medial frontal area, cingulate gyrus, posterior middle and inferior temporal gyri, and cerebellum, and both primary visual and visual association areas. Retrieval of episodic memory activated the triangular part of left inferior frontal gyrus and inferior temporal gyrus, right prefrontal cortex and medial temporal area, and both cerebellum and primary visual and visual association areas. The activations in the opercular part of left inferior frontal gyrus and the right prefrontal cortex meant the essential role of these areas in the encoding and retrieval of episodic memory.
CONCLUSION
We could localize the neural basis of the encoding and retrieval of episodic memory using H215O PET, which was partly consistent with the hypothesis of hemispheric encoding/retrieval asymmetry.

Keyword

H215O PET; Brain activation; Statistical parametric mapping; Episodic memory

MeSH Terms

Brain
Cerebellum
Gyrus Cinguli
Healthy Volunteers
Humans*
Memory
Memory, Episodic*
Positron-Emission Tomography
Prefrontal Cortex