Decisions about the past are guided by reinstatement of specific memories in the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex.

ABSTRACT: When faced with a new challenge, we often reflect on related past experiences to guide our behavior. The ability to retrieve memories that overlap with current experience, a process known as pattern completion, is theorized as a critical function of the hippocampus. Although this view has influenced research for decades, there is little empirical support for hippocampal pattern completion to individual memory elements and its influence on behavior. We used pattern analysis of brain activity measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging to demonstrate that specific elements of past experiences are reinstated in the hippocampus, as well as perirhinal cortex (PRC), when making decisions about those experiences. Linking neural measures of specific memory reinstatement in the hippocampus

SUBMITTER: Mack ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4755795 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature