On the origins of autobiographical memory

Tolving [27] argues that one form of explicit memory, autobiographical memory is uniquely human and has no nonhuman animal antecedents. We suggest that a form of memory used by humans and nonhuman animals, dead reckoning, shares a common limbic strucure, including the cingulate cortex and hippocampus, and involves similar processes in recognition of self-action. Thus, it may be homologous to, and an antecedent of, autobiographical memory in humans. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.