Hippocampal convergence during anticipatory midbrain activation promotes subsequent memory formation.

ABSTRACT: The hippocampus has been a focus of memory research since H.M's surgery abolished his ability to form new memories, yet its mechanistic role in memory remains debated. Here, we identify a candidate memory mechanism: an anticipatory hippocampal "convergence state", observed while awaiting valuable information, and which predicts subsequent learning. During fMRI, participants viewed trivia questions eliciting high or low curiosity, followed seconds later by its answer. We reasoned that encoding success requires a confluence of conditions, so that hippocampal states more conducive to memory formation should converge in state space. To operationalize convergence of neural states, we quantified the typicality of multivoxel patterns in the medial temporal lobes during anticipation and encoding o

SUBMITTER: Poh JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9640528 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature