Hemispheric asymmetries of memory: the HERA model revisited

The hemispheric encoding/retrieval asymmetry (HERA) model is a process-specific description of experimental data provided by a large set of functional neuroimaging studies. According to HERA, left prefrontal cortex (PFC) is more involved than right PFC in episodic memory encoding, whereas right PFC is more involved than left PFC in episodic memory retrieval. Recently it has been claimed that this description does not hold for nonverbal materials. Here we propose a more precise formulation of HERA than previously, and argue that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that HERA, as reformulated, is true for both verbal and non-verbal materials.