ArticleHuman brain mapping2019
When I relive a positive me: Vivid autobiographical memories facilitate autonoetic brain activation and enhance mood.
Article in Human brain mapping, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neural systems underlying autobiographical memory dysregulations in depression: A neuroimaging meta-analysis.Psychological medicine · 2025Pooled it
- The role of subjective interoception in autobiographical deficits in aphantasia.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Intracranial substrates of meditation-induced neuromodulation in the amygdala and hippocampus.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Enhanced subjective performance achievement in wind instrument playing through positive memory recall: effects of sympathetic activation and emotional valence.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Neural processing of sad and happy autobiographical memories in women with depression and borderline personality disorder.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Identity and Temporal Fragmentation in Borderline Personality Disorder: A Systematic Review.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- The Functional Neuroimaging of Autobiographical Memory for Happy Events: A Coordinate-Based Meta-Analysis.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Bayesian evaluation of diverging theories of episodic and affective memory distortions in dysphoria.Nature communications · 2024Article
- You are already dead: Case report of nihilistic delusions regarding others as one representation of Cotard's syndrome.PCN reports : psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2023Article
- Patterns of brain activity associated with nostalgia: a social-cognitive neuroscience perspective.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2022Article
- Insights from a Bibliometric Analysis of Vividness and Its Links with Consciousness and Mental Imagery.Brain sciences · 2020Article
- When I relive a positive me: Vivid autobiographical memories facilitate autonoetic brain activation and enhance mood.Human brain mapping · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Autobiographical memory is vital for our well-being and therefore used in therapeutic interventions. However, not much is known about the (neural) processes by which reliving memories can have beneficial effects. This study investigates what brain activation patterns and memory characteristics facilitate the effectiveness of reliving positive autobiographical memories for mood and sense of self. Particularly, the role of vividness and autonoetic consciousness is studied. Participants (N = 47) with a wide range of trait self-esteem relived neutral and positive memories while their bold responses, experienced vividness of the memory, mood, and state self-esteem were recorded. More vivid memories related to better mood and activation in amygdala, hippocampus and insula, indicative of increased awareness of oneself (i.e., prereflective aspect of autonoetic consciousness). Lower vividness was associated with increased activation in the occipital lobe, PCC, and precuneus, indicative of a more distant mode of reliving. While individuals with lower trait self-esteem increased in state self-esteem, they showed less deactivation of the lateral occipital cortex during positive memories. In sum, the vividness of the memory seemingly distinguished a more immersed and more distant manner of memory reliving. In particular, when reliving positive memories higher vividness facilitated increased prereflective autonoetic consciousness, which likely is instrumental in boosting mood.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.