fMRI and patient studies of remote spatial and episodic memory

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Remembering past personal experiences (episodic memory) and how to get around in our home or neighbourhood (spatial memory) are both crucial for daily life. Without episodic memory, we are unable to re-experience our most cherished moments or to recall critical information that may be necessary to everyday function; without spatial memory, we literally would be lost. This proposal is concerned with how these types of memories relate to one another and how they are represented in the brain. Our ability to learn and retain new episodic and spatial memories depends on the hippocampus, a structure deep in the temporal lobes: damage to the hippocampus impairs memory for recently experienced events and spatial environments. My trainees and I showed that very old (remote) episodic and spatial memories that are highly detailed and precise continue to depend on the hippocampus, and that its role extends beyond memory to include imagining of detailed future episodes. In contrast, more schematic remote spatial memories (skeletal “maps” of major roads and landmarks) do not seem to depend on the hippocampus and instead rely on other brain structures, such as parietal cortex.