"The Cognitive Neuroscience of Remembering:
		  Building and Retrieving Memories"
			    Anthony Wagner
       Assistant Professor of Psychology, Stanford University.

Episodic memory --- which refers to conscious memory for past
experience -- is central to our ability to link the past with the
present. One function of episodic memory is to discriminate between
stimuli that have been previously encountered and stimuli that are
novel. In this talk, I will consider brain imaging data that addresses
the contributions of prefrontal cortical (PFC) and medial temporal
lobe (MTL) mechanisms to episodic memory. It will be argued that,
during encoding, PFC cognitive control processes provide a top-down
signal that modulates inputs to, and perhaps encoding processes in,
MTL, with the subregions within MTL subserving distinct learning
mechanisms. Subsequently, during retrieval, PFC control mechanisms are
engaged during a pre-retrieval stage to maintain and elaborate on
retrieval cues and during a post-retrieval stage to monitor the
products of retrieval in the service of action. MTL subregions appear
critical during the recovery process, yielding signals that allow for
discrimination between novel and repeated stimuli and signals that
mark the recollection of details surrounding the prior encounter with
a stimulus. Collectively, our ability to remember things past depends
on multiple neurocognitive processes that emerge through a dynamic
interplay between PFC and MTL.