Maureen Ritchey

2 papers in the library

Papers

What episodic memory reveals about the default mode network

Episodic memories bind people, places, and events into coherent narratives with a subjective quality that distinguishes them from other mental representations. This review argues that episodic memory offers a powerful lens for understanding the default mode network's (DMN) functional organization. Recent research shows DMN memory-related functions are organized along at least two dimensions: content and specificity. Distinct brain areas support memory for different content types (object, spatial, social information) and varying specificity levels (detailed episodes versus general schemas). DMN pathways thus support diverse episodic thought, imbuing multidimensional representations with subjective experience, and revealing how the DMN builds and updates internal narratives across cognitive domains.

DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/7d9ft_v1

Brain mechanisms underlying the subjective experience of remembering

Jon Simons, Maureen Ritchey, Charles Fernyhough preprint

This review examines recent evidence on the subjective experience of remembering, drawing on functional neuroimaging in healthy participants and studies of neurological and psychiatric conditions. It describes how remembering involves reactivating sensory-perceptual features of an event, along with associated thoughts and feelings, into a conscious first-person experience. The authors consider how this process allows reflection on memory content and judgments, such as distinguishing real events from imagined or suggested ones. They propose that these findings shed new light on the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying the vivid, multisensory nature of autobiographical memory.

DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/3642t