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Updated: Feb 18, 2026

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotional Autobiographical Recollection
Published on: August 26, 2011
Gender identity better than sex explains individual differences in episodic and semantic components of
Laurie Compère1, Eirini Rari2, Thierry Gallarda2
1Laboratory of Memory and Cognition, Institut de Psychologie, Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Boulogne-Billancourt, France; Center of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale UMR S894, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France.
Abstract:
A recently tested hypothesis suggests that inter-individual differences in episodic autobiographical memory (EAM) are better explained by individual identification of typical features of a gender identity than by sex. This study aimed to test this hypothesis by investigating sex and gender related differences not only in EAM but also during retrieval of more abstract self-knowledge (i.e., semantic autobiographical memory, SAM, and conceptual self, CS), and considering past and future perspectives. No sex-related differences were identified, but regardless of the sex, feminine gender identity was associated with clear differences in emotional aspects that were expressed in both episodic and more abstract forms of AM, and in the past and future perspectives, while masculine gender identity was associated with limited effects. In conclusion, our results support the hypothesis that inter-individual differences in AM are better explained by gender identity than by sex, extending this assumption to both episodic and semantic forms of AM and future thinking.
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