Reactivation during encoding supports the later discrimination of similar episodic memories.

ABSTRACT: Episodic memory is characterized by remembering events as unique combinations of features. Even when some features of events overlap, we are later often able to discriminate among them. Here we ask whether hippocampally mediated reactivation of an earlier event when a similar one occurs supports subsequent memory that two similar but not identical events occurred (mnemonic discrimination). In two experiments, participants viewed objects (Experiment 1) or scenes (Experiment 2) during functional MRI (fMRI). After scanning, participants had to remember whether repeated items had been identical or similar. In Experiment 2, representational similarity between the 1st and 2nd presentation predicted participants' ability to remember that the presentations were different, suggesting that the first

SUBMITTER: van den Honert RN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4996741 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature