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In this way, the recall of positive autobiographical memories may be intrinsically valuable to an individual by increasing or maintaining positive feelings that contribute to one’s general well-being.
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For example, remembering a game winning goal in a championship game may trigger a re-experience of positive emotions associated with that day. That is, reminders of the past can bring back emotions tied to the original experience (e.g., Bower, 1981 Westermann et al., 1996). When it comes to remembering positive life events, however, one adaptive function of autobiographical memories may be its most prominent: it feels good to remember the good times. Autobiographical memories serve a variety of adaptive functions, such as bolstering a sense of self identity ( Bluck et al., 2005 D’Argembeau and Van der Linden, 2005) or planning for the future ( Schacter and Addis, 2007). Sometimes it can be good to live in the past. Our findings suggest that recalling positive autobiographical memories is intrinsically valuable, which may be adaptive for regulating positive emotion and promoting better well-being. Notably, participants were willing to sacrifice more tangible monetary rewards in order to reminisce about positive past experiences. Striatal response to the recall of positive memories was greater in individuals whose mood improved after the task. Enhanced activity in the striatum and medial prefrontal cortex was associated with increases in positive emotion during recall and striatal engagement further correlated with individual measures of resiliency. Using fMRI, we observed enhanced activity during the recall of positive relative to neutral autobiographical memories in corticostriatal circuits that also responded to monetary rewards. However, the neural circuitry underlying the rewarding aspects of autobiographical memory is poorly understood. Reminders of happy memories can bring back pleasant feelings tied to the original experience, suggesting an intrinsic value in reminiscing about the positive past.