Remembering the Past: Neural Substrates Underlying Episodic Encoding and Retrieval

Our ability to remember past events requires efficient encoding and successful "re-collection" of event features, such as the time, place, people, thoughts, and feelings associated with a past experience. Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that episodic memory depends on specific brain mechanisms within the prefrontal cortex, medial temporal lobe, and ventral posterior parietal cortex that interact with the cortical sites that store event features. In this article, I present an analysis of the neural correlates of episodic memory, along with a theoretical framework, Cortical Binding of Relational Activity (CoBRA), that integrates the dynamic links between efficient encoding and successful retrieval of episodic memory.