Schematic memory components converge within angular gyrus during retrieval
- Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands
- University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Abstract
Mental schemas form associative knowledge structures that can promote the encoding and consolidation of new and related information. Schemas are facilitated by a distributed system that stores components separately, presumably in the form of inter-connected neocortical representations. During retrieval, these components need to be recombined into one representation, but where exactly such recombination takes place is unclear. Thus, we asked where different schema components are neuronally represented and converge during retrieval. Subjects acquired and retrieved two well-controlled, rule-based schema structures during fMRI on consecutive days. Schema retrieval was associated with midline, medial-temporal, and parietal processing. We identified the multi-voxel representations of different schema components, which converged within the angular gyrus during retrieval. Critically, convergence only happened after 24-hour-consolidation and during a transfer test where schema material was applied to novel but related trials. Therefore, the angular gyrus appears to recombine consolidated schema components into one memory representation.
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Human subjects: All subjects gave written informed consent prior to participation. The study was conducted according to protocol approved by the institutional review board (CMO Region Arnhem-Nijmegen, The Netherlands).
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© 2015, Wagner et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Schematic memory components converge within angular gyrus during retrieval
eLife 4:e09668.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.09668
