Wichert Sonja, Wolf Oliver T, Schwabe Lars
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
Behav Neurosci. 2013 Jun;127(3):331-8. doi: 10.1037/a0032028. Epub 2013 Mar 4.
After reactivation, apparently stable memories may reenter an unstable state in which they are modifiable, requiring another phase of stabilization, called reconsolidation. Recent evidence shows that during reconsolidation, reactivated memories may be updated by the incorporation of new information. In the present study, we examined whether the updating of episodic memories depends on the strength of new encoding after reactivation. To this end, healthy participants learned negative and neutral pictures, reactivated them 1 week later, and learned new pictures either once or three times immediately after reactivation. A recognition test was performed another week later. Our results show that the impact of new learning after reactivation depended critically on the strength of new encoding: Whereas learning new pictures only once after reactivation had no effect on subsequent memory, learning new pictures three times after reactivation reduced subsequent memory accuracy, mainly due to intrusions from the newly learned pictures. Our findings indicate that the strength of new encoding after reactivation plays a critical role for the updating of episodic memories and may have important implications for therapeutic interventions that aim to alter unwanted memories after reactivation.
重新激活后，看似稳定的记忆可能会重新进入一种不稳定状态，在此状态下它们是可修改的，需要另一个稳定阶段，即重新巩固。最近的证据表明，在重新巩固期间，重新激活的记忆可能会通过纳入新信息而得到更新。在本研究中，我们研究了情景记忆的更新是否取决于重新激活后新编码的强度。为此，健康参与者学习了负面和中性图片，1周后重新激活这些图片，并在重新激活后立即学习新图片一次或三次。另一周后进行了识别测试。我们的结果表明，重新激活后新学习的影响关键取决于新编码的强度：重新激活后仅学习一次新图片对后续记忆没有影响，而重新激活后学习三次新图片会降低后续记忆准确性，主要是由于新学习图片的干扰。我们的研究结果表明，重新激活后新编码的强度对情景记忆的更新起着关键作用，可能对旨在改变重新激活后不良记忆的治疗干预具有重要意义。
