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Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a liver condition commonly occurring during pregnancy, with an unclear etiology. This condition not only causes significant discomfort for the mother due to severe itching but also poses serious risks to the fetus. Effective and timely management of ICP, including diagnosis, consistent monitoring, and treatment, is crucial to mitigate maternal discomfort and prevent fetal complications. The challenges in managing ICP include the absence of clear initial diagnostic criteria, delays in lab results, evolving treatment guidelines, and the financial burden of therapy. This case report shares the author's personal encounter with ICP, detailing the diagnosis, treatment pathway, impacts on the newborn, and the emotional journey during and after pregnancy. This report aims to enhance understanding and awareness of ICP, particularly among populations in the United States where the disease is less prevalent.

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The dataset provided in this article comprises frequencies of task-related thoughts, task-unrelated thoughts, involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs), and involuntary future thoughts (IFTs) reported by adult participants during a laboratory vigilance task. Participants completed a vigilance task that included incidental cue words intended to trigger IAMs and IFTs, whose frequency was measured using random thought probes. The data were collected from two studies (n = 240 per study) in which working memory load and cue-presentation were manipulated. In both studies, participants completed an unexpected cue-recognition task after completing the vigilance task, which allowed for gathering additional data about noticing and remembering specific categories of cues (positive, neutral or negative). The dataset includes not only the frequencies of specific categories of thoughts but also data from numerous follow-up questions related to how participants perceived their performance in the task, such as their concentration level or perceived task difficulty. In conclusion the dataset contains three categories of variables: (1) variables related to participants and the conditions of the experimental sessions (i.e., age, gender, working memory load condition, etc.); (2) variables related to control questions (i.e., perceived task difficulty, emotional states, fatigue, etc.); and (3) variables related to performance in the vigilance task and the occurrence of thoughts (i.e., number of task-unrelated thoughts, number of involuntary memories, percentage of successfully recognized cues, etc.). This dataset could be reused to investigate many interesting relationships between cognitively engaging computer task characteristics and various parameters of task performance. Additionally, it could be used to conduct alternative or replication analyses to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between working memory load and the experience of involuntary thoughts.

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Introduction: This study investigated the effect of autobiographical brand images on false memory formation in adults, using the category associate's procedure. The study also applied the event-related potential (ERP) approach to explore neural correlates of false memory and gender differences in false memory recall of brand images. Methods: Eight categories of autobiographical brand images were implied in a category associates' procedure to investigate false memory recall. ERP data were obtained from 24 participants (12 females and 12 males) using a 32-channel amplifier while subjects were performing the memory task. Subsequently, gender effects on behavioral responses and neural correlates of false and true memory recalls were statistically compared using peak amplitude and latency of P300, late positive complex, and FN400 components. Results: The results showed that left frontal areas in women were more activated in response to false memories compared to men, however, the men's brain responses were faster. In addition, the men's brain responses to false memories were widely distributed mainly over frontal, parietal, and occipital areas. Conclusion: Males and females differently process autobiographical brand images. Nevertheless, the differential neural process may not influence their recognition rate or response time.

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Flashbulb memories (FBM) refer to the vivid and detailed retrieval of the reception context of a highly salient event. We examined FBMs and personal memories for one college's sudden transition to remote learning due to COVID-19. We explored whether the announcement of the campus' closure resulted in FBMs, how respondents felt about the decision, and the impacts of the decision. Employing a two-wave longitudinal survey conducted in March and May 2020, participants responded to questions regarding learning about the campus' closure and a control memory (an event from the same week chosen by participants). Participant reports suggested they did form FBMs, and FBMs were more consistent over time than control memories. Confidence did not differ across memory types. Additionally, we observed an initial strong positive response to the decision to close the campus - a sentiment that intensified over time. Lastly, participants' emotional responses transitioned from negative feelings in the first wave of testing to more neutral feelings in the second. This work offers a unique exploration of FBMs within the broader context of a global health crisis that intruded into daily life, effectively merging the typically public and distant nature of flashbulb events with first-hand, personal experience.

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Tulving's concept of mental time travel (MTT), and the related distinction of episodic and semantic memory, have been highly influential contributions to memory research, resulting in a wealth of findings and a deeper understanding of the neurocognitive correlates of memory and future thinking. Many models have conceptualized episodic and semantic representations as existing on a continuum that can help to account for various hybrid forms. Nevertheless, in most theories, MTT remains distinctly associated with episodic representations. In this article, we review existing models of memory and future thinking, and critically evaluate whether episodic representations are distinct from other types of explicit representations, including whether MTT as a neurocognitive capacity is uniquely episodic. We conclude by proposing a new framework, the Multidimensional Model of Mental Representations (MMMR), which can parsimoniously account for the range of past, present and future representations the human mind is capable of creating. This article is part of the theme issue 'Elements of episodic memory: lessons from 40 years of research'.

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The Emerging Adulthood is a complex and chaotic period and depression is one of the main psychological health problems during this period. Overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM) is prevalent among patients with clinical depression. However, the prediction of OGM in groups with non-clinical depression and its influencing mechanisms remain inconclusive. Studies have shown that OGM and early parenting behaviour are vulnerable factors of depression in emerging adulthood, which may be triggered by negative life events. Our longitudinal study included 241 participants (Mage = 21.88 years). At baseline, participants completed measures of current negative life events, depression, early parenting behaviour and an autobiographical memory test. Thereafter, they were tracked for depression every 35 days. We used the latent class growth model to differentiate levels and trends of depression among non-clinical participants. The analysis showed that the effect of negative life events on depression was moderated by OGM and early parenting behaviour. However, this moderating effect was found only in the low-risk depression group. Our findings indicate that early parenting behaviour might account for the different mechanisms of OGM production in non-clinical groups. Moreover, it underlines the importance of OGM and early parenting behaviour as potential predictors of future depression in non-clinical groups.

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The study aimed to analyse the relationship between the dimensions of the triarchic model of psychopathy (meanness, boldness and disinhibition) and the phenomenological characteristics of Autobiographical Memory (AM) in a sample of university students, examining potential gender differences. Participants (N = 260; 55.4% women; aged 18-25) performed an AM task, followed by the Autobiographical Memory Characteristics Questionnaire and the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure. We found gender differences, with men scoring higher than women in meanness and disinhibition as well as in precision, accessibility, sharing and narrative coherence of AM. Correlations showed that boldness was negatively related to the valence and emotional intensity of the memory. Meanness was positively associated with precision, sensory details, accessibility, sharing, narrative coherence, distancing and preoccupation with emotions and negatively with recollection. Disinhibition was positively related to precision, sensory details and accessibility and negatively to intensity, distancing and preoccupation with emotions. Our results suggest that psychopathic traits could predict certain characteristics of AM, highlighting the predictive value of meanness, especially regarding memory quality characteristics (e.g., precision), as well as disinhibition, concerning the emotional content (e.g., preoccupation with emotions). Our results contribute to understanding psychopathy through an autobiographical perspective, showing how psychopathic traits may shape how people remember personal events.

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ABSTRACTAcquired Brain Injury (ABI), an important cause of long-term disability, is associated with increased rates of depression in addition to common cognitive and physical consequences. Past research has linked post-ABI depression to injury severity (e.g., extent of physical or cognitive impairment) and premorbid mood problems. In the general (non-ABI) population, depression is associated with cognitive vulnerabilities that have informed the development of psychological interventions. In this observational study in a heterogeneous sample of individuals with chronic stage ABI, we examine two cognitive vulnerabilities - dysfunctional attitudes (DAs) and autobiographical memory specificity - and explore whether these are linked to depression symptoms and ongoing cognitive difficulties as in the general population. Compared to control participants, individuals with an ABI demonstrated increased endorsement of DAs and reduced specificity of autobiographical memory recall. Within the ABI group, cognitive vulnerability-depression symptom correlations were detected for an explicit measure of DAs, but not for a more implicit DA measure or for autobiographical memory specificity. While individual differences in injury severity and other factors likely obscured subtle relationships between mood and cognitive vulnerabilities, evidence of these vulnerabilities may be relevant to changes in identity and psychological interventions that target low mood in ABI.

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OBJECTIVE: Social anxiety is characterized by maladaptive self-schemas about being socially undesirable. Self-schemas are deeply held beliefs which are derived from negative autobiographical memories of painful social experiences. In contrast to the plethora of past research on negative memories in social anxiety, almost no research has investigated objectively positive social autobiographical memories. In this preregistered study, we examined the effects of social anxiety and self-schemas on the appraised impact and meaningfulness of retrieved positive versus negative social autobiographical memories. METHOD: Participants recruited via Prolific (final n = 343) were randomized to one of two conditions in which they were instructed to retrieve, orally narrate, and appraise a positive or negative social autobiographical memory of a specific experience from their personal past where they felt either valued or unvalued, respectively. RESULTS: Results demonstrated that participants rated their positive memories as more impactful and meaningful than negative memories overall, but this effect was reversed for participants who endorsed having either stronger negative self-schemas or greater social anxiety symptoms, for whom negative memories were more impactful. Additionally, participants who endorsed having stronger positive self-schemas rated their negative memories as significantly less impactful and their positive memories as nearly more impactful. CONCLUSION: Together, these results elucidate how self-schemas and social anxiety are related to autobiographical memory appraisals, paving the way for future research on memory-based therapeutic interventions for social anxiety disorder.

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Transgender individuals face challenges to identity as they transition from their sex assigned at birth to their affirmed gender. Memories may support a sense of self through the recall of events with more phenomenological detail than others, making them feel closer to the current self. Autobiographical memories of 90 transgender and 90 cisgender adults were compared on self-reported memory phenomenology. Memory phenomenology was more variable in transgender individuals, with a larger difference between phenomenological ratings of recent and distant memories. Memory phenomenology specifically varied in relation to the timing of coming out to a parent. High points reported after this time were rated with higher phenomenological quality and these ratings were linked to positive well-being. Results affirm the relevance of phenomenological continuity to the identity of transgender individuals, suggesting that events from before coming out are recalled with less phenomenological quality than events after coming out.

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Autonoetic consciousness is the awareness that an event we remember is one that we ourselves experienced. It is a defining feature of our subjective experience of remembering and imagining future events. Given its subjective nature, there is ongoing debate about how to measure it. Our goal was to develop a framework to identify cognitive markers of autonoetic consciousness. Across two studies (N = 342) we asked young, healthy participants to provide written descriptions of two autobiographical memories, two plausible future events, and an experimentally encoded video. Participants then rated their subjective experience during remembering and imagining. Exploratory Factor Analysis of this data uncovered the latent variables underlying autonoetic consciousness across these different events. In contrast to work that emphasizes the distinction between Remember and Know as being key to autonoetic consciousness, Re-experiencing, and Pre-experiencing for future events, were consistently identified as core markers of autonoetic consciousness. This was alongside Mental Time Travel in all types of memory events, but not for imagining the future. In addition, our factor analysis allows us to demonstrate directly - for the first time - the features of mental imagery associated with the sense of autonoetic consciousness in autobiographical memory; vivid, visual imagery from a first-person perspective. Finally, with regression analysis, the emergent factor structure of autonoetic consciousness was able to predict the richness of autobiographical memory texts, but not of episodic recall of the encoded video. This work provides a novel way to assess autonoetic consciousness, illustrates how autonoetic consciousness manifests differently in memory and imagination and defines the mental representations intrinsic to this process.

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Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) is a rare form of enhanced memory in which individuals demonstrate an extraordinary ability to remember details of their personal lives with high levels of accuracy and vividness. Neuroimaging studies have identified brain regions - specifically, midline areas within the default network - associated with remembering events from one's past. Extending this research on the neural underpinnings of autobiographical memory, the present study utilizes graph theory analyses to compare functional brain connectivity in a cohort of HSAM (n = 12) and control participants (n = 29). We perform seed-based analysis in resting-state fMRI data to assess how specific cortical regions within the autobiographical memory network are differentially connected in HSAM individuals. Additionally, we apply a whole-brain connectivity analysis to identify differences in brain hub-network topology associated with enhanced autobiographical memory. Seed-based results show converging patterns of increased connectivity in HSAM across midline areas. Whole-brain analysis also reveals enhanced connectivity across medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortex in HSAM individuals. Together, these results extend prior research, highlighting cortical hubs within the default network associated with enhanced autobiographical memory.

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It is now well established that general information processing causes the activation of memories in the autobiographical memory system, and these memories on occasion emerge as involuntary autobiographical memories. This priming phenomenon has been dubbed semantic-to-autobiographical memory priming, and our goal in the current study was to examine the effects of cue/prime repetition on the production of involuntary autobiographical memories that were primed with semantic stimuli. In three experiments, participants were primed with words (e.g., cat), and then they were given an involuntary memory task (the vigilance task), which contained cues related to the primed stimuli. In Experiment 1, the cues were phrases containing the primes (e.g., getting a cat), which were presented one or five times. In Experiment 2, the cues were also phrases containing the primes (e.g., getting a cat), but they changed their context (e.g., feeding a cat), every time they repeated in the five-presentation condition. Experiment 3 also presented the cues one or five times, but the cues were replicas of the primes (e.g., cat). Consistent with predictions, greater priming was found in the five-presentation cue conditions in all three experiments, and Experiment 3 failed to find priming in the one-presentation cue condition, also consistent with predictions. We explain the findings in terms of semantic-to-autobiographical memory priming theory, and also argue that the results help explain the production of involuntary memories in everyday life.

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The positivity effect and the positivity bias were examined in voluntary and involuntary autobiographical memories in a sample of younger (n = 69, Mage = 23.2) and older adults (n = 57, Mage = 67.72). The positivity effect has been shown to be sensitive to instructional constraints and cognitive resources. Instructions were manipulated in the voluntary autobiographical memory condition such that participants were instructed to retrieve memories with different levels of constraints. Participants also completed two measures of cognitive control and an assessment of future time perspective. There was no evidence of the positivity effect or positivity bias once depressive symptoms were included as a covariate in the analyses, nor did cognitive control influence memory valence. Future time perspective did not mediate the relationship between age and memory valence. These results suggest that additional research should focus on potential variables that may influence the positivity effect and bias within autobiographical memories.

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This study assessed whether a sample of 43 children in Puebla, Mexico would show the Fading Affect Bias (FAB) for memories of the death of loved ones or pets and for general negative memories. FAB is a phenomenon in which emotional intensity associated with unpleasant memories fades faster than affect in pleasant memories. Mexican children showed FAB across negative and death memories. Younger children showed lower fading for general negative memories when compared to older children. A second aim of this work assessed whether younger (ages 4.83-9) and older (ages 10-13) children in Mexico would show biological and spiritual understanding of death, and findings indicated that Mexican children's understanding included both biological and spiritual subcomponents. Younger children showed lower comprehension of the death subcomponents Inevitability and Irreversibility. Higher depression, anxiety, and social stress scores as measured with the BASC-2 predicted lower FAB, lateralized to negative memories.

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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating mental health condition characterized by recurrent re-experiencing of traumatic events. Despite increasing evidence suggesting that the cerebellum is involved in PTSD pathophysiology, it remains unclear whether this involvement is related to symptoms directly resulting from previous trauma exposure, such as involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic events, or reflects a broader cerebellar engagement in negative affective states. In this study, we investigated the specific role of the cerebellum in PTSD by employing a script reactivation paradigm with personalized traumatic and sad autobiographical memories in 28 individuals diagnosed with chronic PTSD. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected while participants listened to their own autobiographical narratives recounted by a third person. Activation in the right cerebellar lobule VI was uniquely associated with traumatic autobiographical recall and was parametrically modulated by the severity of re-experiencing symptoms. In contrast, cerebellar Crus II showed increased activation during both traumatic and sad autobiographical recall, suggesting a broader involvement in processing negative emotions. Our findings highlight the unique contribution of the right cerebellar lobule VI in the processing of traumatic autobiographical memories, potentially through its engagement in low-level representation of sensory and emotional aspects of traumatic events.

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Although deficits in learning and retrieving new information are well characterized in dementia with Lewy bodies, autobiographical memory has never been explored in this disease. Yet, autobiographical memory impairments are a pervasive feature of dementia, well characterized in other neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, autobiographical memory corresponds to an extension over time of the self, which we hypothesize is altered in dementia with Lewy bodies and impairment of which could be linked to the insular atrophy occurring from an early stage of the disease. In this study, we sought to characterize autobiographical memory impairments and explore their neural correlates in dementia with Lewy bodies, on the assumption that insular damage could impact the self, including its most elaborate components, such as autobiographical memory. Twenty patients with prodromal to mild dementia with Lewy bodies were selected to participate in this exploratory study along with 20 healthy control subjects. The Autobiographical Interview was used to assess autobiographical memory. Performances were compared between patients and control subjects, and an analysis across life periods and recall conditions was performed. 3D magnetic resonance images were acquired for all participants, and correlational analyses were performed in the patient group using voxel-based morphometry. The behavioural results of the Autobiographical Interview showed that autobiographical memory performances were significantly impaired in dementia with Lewy body patients compared to control subjects in a temporally ungraded manner, for both the free recall and the specific probe conditions (P < 0.0001), though with greater improvement after probing in the patient group. Furthermore, autobiographical memory impairments were correlated with grey matter volume within right insular cortex, temporoparietal junction, precuneus, putamen, left temporal cortex, bilateral parahippocampus and cerebellum, using a threshold of P = 0.005 uncorrected. The behavioural results confirm the existence of temporally ungraded autobiographical memory impairments in dementia with Lewy bodies, from the early stage of the disease. As we expected, neuroimaging analysis revealed a role for the insula and the precuneus in autobiographical memory retrieval, two regions associated with elementary aspects of the self, among other brain regions classically associated with autobiographical memory, such as medial temporal lobe and temporoparietal junction. Our findings provide important insights regarding the involvement of the insula in the self and suggest that insular damage could lead to a global collapse of the self, including its more elaborated components, such as autobiographical memory.

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Potential traumatic events, such as breast cancer, can influence autobiographical memory (AM), interrupting the continuity of narrative identity. AM is based on a hierarchical search across different levels of specificity that are indexed from top to bottom when a memory is retrieved. In the breast cancer field, non-specific AMs are an observed clinical phenomenon. In particular, breast cancer survivors report issues related to self-defining memories (SDMs), specific and significant AMs that evoke strong emotions and sensory details at the time of memory. SDMs are linked to life goals and facilitate adaptation to critical experiences, preserving the continuity of identity. This study explored the narrative identity integration process of breast cancer survivors, analyzing themes, specificity, and integrative meaning in SDMs. Ten women participated in an online group support program centered on the integration of AMs linked to the cancer journey. Participants were asked to assess their body image perceptions, filling out an online survey three times, in which they had to report three SDMs each time. A reflexive thematic analysis of the SDMs identified three main themes: the onset of breast cancer; the labeling of negative emotions, and changes in the body. The results indicated inhibited retrieval of specific episodes, fostering a progressive failure in memory characterization and the concurrent meaning-making process. Participants struggled with connecting the memories to insights regarding their self and life, as well as relating the memories to external conditions and other individuals. Further studies might examine the impact of these difficulties on the psychological adjustment of BC long-term survivors. They could also explore cognitive reconstruction by reframing the memories and re-evaluating their traumatic meanings.

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Anhedonia is characterized by diminished reward processing, which may be explained in part by dampening appraisals, or thoughts that blunt positive emotions. Experiential processing, or attending to sensory and bodily experience, may curb dampening appraisals, as compared to analytical processing, or conceptually thinking about an event. In this study, 96 participants with elevated anhedonia completed writing tasks, in which they recalled positive autobiographical memories. Participants recalled the first memory as they naturally would to assess spontaneous use of processing mode and were then randomized to recall the second positive memory using either experiential, analytical, or control instructions. Both spontaneous and instructed experiential processing were associated with greater positive affect and less dampening compared to analytical processing. Clinical implications include savoring pleasant sensations to reduce dampening and enhance positive affect in anhedonia.

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A number of studies have now shown that general information processing causes the activation of memories in the autobiographical memory system. These studies have shown that general processing of words, sounds, objects, or pictures primes autobiographical memories on voluntary and involuntary autobiographical memory tasks (the Crovitz cue-word task and the vigilance task). Deemed semantic-to-autobiographical memory priming, our goal in the current study was to demonstrate that this form of priming causes the unconscious activation of autobiographical memories (autobiographical automaticity) at the point of priming. Participants named words under subliminal and supraliminal conditions and then received a test of priming (the vigilance task). The results showed that words that were processed below the threshold of awareness were equally likely as words processed above the threshold of awareness to prime the production of involuntary autobiographical memories on the vigilance task. The results support the idea that autobiographical memory activations in semantic-to-autobiographical priming is both unintentional and unconscious.

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