Affiliations: Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et d'Imagerie
Cérébrale, LENA CNRS UPR 640, CHU Pitié Salpêtrière,
Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, Paris, France | Laboratoire de Neuropsychologie et Cognition Auditive,
JE 2497, Université Charles de Gaule-Lille 3, Villeneuve d'Ascq,
France | Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurosciences
Cognitives, CNRS FRE 2987, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France | Unité de Neuroradiologie, CHU Pitié
Salpêtrière, Paris, France | Unité de Neurochirurgie, CHU Pitié
Salpêtrière, Paris, France | Unité d'Epilepsie, CHU Pitié
Salpêtrière, Paris, France | Cortex et Epilepsie, INSERM 739, CHU Pitié
Salpêtrière, Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, Paris,
France
Note: [] Corresponding author: Marion Noulhiane, Laboratoire de
Neurosciences Cognitives et d'Imagerie Cérébrale, LENA CNRS UPR 640,
47, bd de l'hôpital, F-75651 Paris, Cedex 13, France. Tel.: +33 (0)1 42 16
11 73; Fax: +33 (0)1 45 86 25 37; E-mail: marion.noulhiane@univ-paris5.fr
Abstract: This study aims to investigate autonoetic consciousness associated
with episodic autobiographical memory in patients who had undergone unilateral
medial temporal lobe resection for intractable epilepsy. Autonoetic
consciousness, defined as the conscious feeling of mentally travelling back in
time to relive a specific event, was assessed using the Remember/Know (R/K)
paradigm across different time periods as proposed in the autobiographical
memory task developed by Piolino et al. (TEMPau task). Results revealed that
the two patient groups (left and right temporal resection) gave reduced sense
of reliving (R) responses and more familiarity (K) responses than healthy
controls. This poor autonoetic consciousness was highlighted when patients were
asked to justify their Remember responses by recalling sensory-perceptive,
affective or spatiotemporal specific details across all life periods. These
results support the bilateral MTL contribution to episodic autobiographical
memory covering the entire lifespan, which is consistent with the multiple
trace theory of MTL function [7,9]. This study also demonstrates the
bilateral involvement of MTL structures in recalling specific details of
personal events characterized by autonoetic consciousness.
