Abstract (eng)
Recent research on the default mode network dealt with its engagement in the autobiographical memory network and linkage to specific personal characteristics. The valuation of autobiographical memories is linked to temporal and limbic brain regions. According to a positive rating preference and a connection to the left temporal lobe, it has been proposed that spontaneous rating tendencies might be represented in resting state activation differences.
The diploma thesis at hand addresses the hypothesis that individual differences in valuating spontaneously retrieved autobiographical memories relate to participants´ intrinsic functional connectivity within regions of the autobiographical memory network.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, resting state images of 46 healthy, healthy participants were collected. To extend prior studies to the domain of valuation tendencies, participants were spontaneously asked for their top five emotional autobiographical memories from any time of their lives and requested for rating them on a pleasantness scale.
On the basis of anterior medial prefrontal cortex`s (amPFC) functions in the autobiographical memory system and the default mode network, this brain area was chosen as seed region. Resting state functional connectivity analysis described significant temporal correlations of the amPFC with default mode regions. A significant influence of the factor mean of valuation and the variables gender and age on resting state functional connectivity between amPFC and posterior cingulate cortex was observed (p < 0.01). Interestingly, the findings demonstrate a linkage between positive ratings of autobiographical memories and a stronger functional connectivity in the default mode network. The results of this study describe the association between recollection and future simulation processes and furthermore support the idea of the “constructive - episodic simulation hypothesis”.