Schlichting Margaret L, Preston Alison R
Center for Learning and Memory, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, C7000, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
Center for Learning and Memory, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, C7000, Austin, Texas 78712, USA; Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, A8000, Austin, TX 78712, USA; Department of Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, C0920, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2016 Oct;134 Pt A(Pt A):91-106. doi: 10.1016/j.nlm.2015.11.005. Epub 2015 Nov 25.
Learning occurs in the context of existing memories. Encountering new information that relates to prior knowledge may trigger integration, whereby established memories are updated to incorporate new content. Here, we provide a critical test of recent theories suggesting hippocampal (HPC) and medial prefrontal (MPFC) involvement in integration, both during and immediately following encoding. Human participants with established memories for a set of initial (AB) associations underwent fMRI scanning during passive rest and encoding of new related (BC) and unrelated (XY) pairs. We show that HPC-MPFC functional coupling during learning was more predictive of trial-by-trial memory for associations related to prior knowledge relative to unrelated associations. Moreover, the degree to which HPC-MPFC functional coupling was enhanced following overlapping encoding was related to memory integration behavior across participants. We observed a dissociation between anterior and posterior MPFC, with integration signatures during post-encoding rest specifically in the posterior subregion. These results highlight the persistence of integration signatures into post-encoding periods, indicating continued processing of interrelated memories during rest. We also interrogated the coherence of white matter tracts to assess the hypothesis that integration behavior would be related to the integrity of the underlying anatomical pathways. Consistent with our predictions, more coherent HPC-MPFC white matter structure was associated with better performance across participants. This HPC-MPFC circuit also interacted with content-sensitive visual cortex during learning and rest, consistent with reinstatement of prior knowledge to enable updating. These results show that the HPC-MPFC circuit supports on- and offline integration of new content into memory.
学习发生在已有记忆的背景下。遇到与先前知识相关的新信息可能会触发整合,即已有的记忆会被更新以纳入新的内容。在此,我们对近期的理论进行了一项关键测试,这些理论认为海马体(HPC)和内侧前额叶皮质(MPFC)在编码过程中及编码后即刻参与整合过程。对一组初始(AB)关联有既定记忆的人类参与者在被动休息以及对新的相关(BC)和不相关(XY)对进行编码期间接受了功能磁共振成像扫描。我们发现,相对于不相关的关联,学习过程中HPC - MPFC功能耦合对于与先前知识相关的关联的逐次试验记忆更具预测性。此外,重叠编码后HPC - MPFC功能耦合增强的程度与参与者的记忆整合行为相关。我们观察到MPFC前部和后部之间存在分离,编码后休息期间的整合特征 specifically 在后部子区域。这些结果突出了整合特征在编码后时期的持续性,表明休息期间相互关联的记忆仍在持续处理。我们还研究了白质束的连贯性,以评估整合行为与潜在解剖通路完整性相关的假设。与我们的预测一致,更连贯的HPC - MPFC白质结构与参与者更好的表现相关。这个HPC - MPFC回路在学习和休息期间也与内容敏感的视觉皮层相互作用,这与恢复先前知识以实现更新一致。这些结果表明,HPC - MPFC回路支持新内容在记忆中的在线和离线整合。