title: Sex Differences in the Neural Correlates of Specific and General Autobiographical Memory.
abstract: Autobiographical memory (AM) underlies the formation and temporal continuity over time of personal identity. The few studies on sex-related differences in AM suggest that men and women adopt different cognitive or emotional strategies when retrieving AMs. However, none of the previous works has taken into account the distinction between episodic autobiographical memory (EAM), consisting in the retrieval of specific events by means of mental time travel, and semantic autobiographical memory (SAM), which stores general personal events. Thus, it remains unclear whether differences in these strategies depend on the nature of the memory content to be retrieved. In the present study we employed functional MRI to examine brain activity underlying potential sex differences in EAM and SAM retrieval focusing on the differences in strategies related to the emotional aspects of memories while controlling for basic cognitive strategies. On the behavioral level, there was no significant sex difference in memory performances or subjective feature ratings of either type of AM. Activations common to men and women during AM retrieval were observed in a typical bilateral network comprising medial and lateral temporal regions, precuneus, occipital cortex as well as prefrontal cortex. Contrast analyses revealed that there was no difference between men and women in the EAM condition. In the SAM condition, women showed an increased activity, compared to men, in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, inferior parietal and precentral gyrus. Overall, these findings suggest that differential neural activations reflect sex-specific strategies related to emotional aspects of AMs, particularly regarding SAM. We propose that this pattern of activation during SAM retrieval reflects the cognitive cost linked to emotion regulation strategies recruited by women compared to men. These sex-related differences have interesting implications for understanding psychiatric disorders with differential sex prevalence and in which one of key features is overgenerality in AM.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Memory and Cognition, Institut de Psychologie, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris CitéBoulogne-Billancourt, France; Center of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale UMR S894, Université Paris DescartesParis, France.
authors.forename: Laurie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Compère
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Memory and Cognition, Institut de Psychologie, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris CitéBoulogne-Billancourt, France; Center of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale UMR S894, Université Paris DescartesParis, France.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sperduti
authors.affiliation: Center of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale UMR S894, Université Paris DescartesParis, France; Laboratory of Physiopathology of Psychiatric Diseases, Centre Hospitalier Sainte AnneParis, France.
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gallarda
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Memory and Cognition, Institut de Psychologie, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris CitéBoulogne-Billancourt, France; Center of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale UMR S894, Université Paris DescartesParis, France.
authors.forename: Adèle
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anssens
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Centre de Psychiatrie et Neuroscience, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U894, Université Paris Descartes Paris, France.
authors.forename: Stéphanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lion
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Memory and Cognition, Institut de Psychologie, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris CitéBoulogne-Billancourt, France; Center of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale UMR S894, Université Paris DescartesParis, France.
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Delhommeau
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Memory and Cognition, Institut de Psychologie, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris CitéBoulogne-Billancourt, France; Center of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale UMR S894, Université Paris DescartesParis, France.
authors.forename: Pénélope
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Martinelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Centre de Psychiatrie et Neuroscience, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U894, Université Paris Descartes Paris, France.
authors.forename: Anne-Dominique
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Devauchelle
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Centre de Psychiatrie et Neuroscience, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U894, Université Paris Descartes Paris, France.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Oppenheim
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Memory and Cognition, Institut de Psychologie, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris CitéBoulogne-Billancourt, France; Center of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale UMR S894, Université Paris DescartesParis, France; Institut Universitaire de FranceParis, France.
authors.forename: Pascale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Piolino
keywords: autobiographical memory; emotion; fMRI; personal semantic memory; sex differences