ATENA

Episodic autobiographical memory - namely the ability to recollect and re-experience events of our own life occurred at a particular time and place – is crucial for the development and maintenance of our unique personal identity. However, an integrated model of how and where episodic autobiographical memories are stored in the human brain is still lacking. The aim of ATENA is to fill this gap, based on the core hypothesis that our experiences are spatially organized into a cognitive map, which content is indexed by time coding. Thanks to the integration of advanced information-based neuroimaging approaches, the study of lifespan development, and the investigation of alterations of time and place coding in neuropsychological conditions characterized by an episodic autobiographical memory deficit, ATENA aims to provide a comprehensive neuroscientific account of episodic autobiographical memory. Moreover, the results of ATENA may allow to open new areas of investigation in the study of the human mind and brain, as well as to inspire new approaches for neuropsychological rehabilitation of memory deficits.

The project has been founded within the ERC Starting Grant Program in 2021 (grant awarded to Maddalena Boccia) (101039206; doi: 10.3030/101039206)