Abstract
Memory is not a unity, but is divided along a content axis and a time axis, respectively. Along the content dimension, five long-term memory systems are described, according to their hierarchical ontogenetic and phylogenetic organization. These memory systems are assumed to be accompanied by different levels of consciousness. While encoding is based on a hierarchical arrangement of memory systems from procedural to episodic-autobiographical memory, retrieval allows independence in the sense that no matter how information is encoded, it can be retrieved in any memory system. Thus, we illustrate the relations between various long-term memory systems by reviewing the spectrum of abnormalities in mnemonic processing that may arise in the dissociative amnesia—a condition that is usually characterized by a retrieval blockade of episodic-autobiographical memories and occurs in the context of psychological trauma, without evidence of brain damage on conventional structural imaging. Furthermore, we comment on the functions of implicit memories in guiding and even adaptively molding the behavior of patients with dissociative amnesia and preserving, in the absence of autonoetic consciousness, the so-called “internal coherence of life”.
Highlights
Memory is a universal attribute of probably all animal species
Pfeifer and Bongard [35] remarked that memory has deep roots in the interaction of the body with the environment. This is illustrated by Tulving’s [36] hierarchical model (Figure 1), which proposes that the development of memory systems starts with systems that involve processing of information that is devoid of the need for consciousness, continues with conscious systems—perceptual and semantic memory—and apparently culminates with the emergence of the episodic-autobiographical memory (EAM) system which requires autonoetic consciousness
One could argue that the patients’ willingness to return home in the company of a person that they denied recognizing might stem from the familiarity fuelled by a still intact anoetic priming memory system. Another explanation may have to do with a higher suggestibility that has been described in the patients with dissociative amnesia [93]
Summary
Memory is a universal attribute of probably all animal species. The sense of personal identity of individuals (at least in individualistic, western societies) is strongly bound to their personal memories, in particular to those memories that have an episodic-autobiographical quality [1]. Apart from pointing to the possible burden associated with excessive conscious remembering, other authors debated the proposed advantages associated with the existence of our highest ontogenetic memory system (EAM) and called into question the functions that have been attributed to this system over the years. Some authors have questioned the survival function of EAM by stating that autonoetic consciousness might bring with it the awareness of one’s own finitude, “a possibly fatal piece of knowledge, full understanding of which would preclude any motivation to survive” [12] As we are going to illustrate below by resorting to examples from patients with dissociative amnesia, a sense of self that goes beyond one of a core self may survive in the absence of autonoetic consciousness, being grounded by lower memory systems, which enable human beings to preserve their habits and “internal coherence of life” [21]. The degree of perceived distress produced by the “loss” of memory in dissociative amnesia may be heavily colored by culturally-shaped models of personhood and past [22]
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