Each day is a flow of events that take place at different times but often in overlapping contexts. Unavoidably, many of the stored memories share similar features, and this overlap poses a major challenge for our memory system (McClelland et al., 1995; Norman and O’Reilly, 2003). The present magnetoencephalography (MEG) study investigates the possibility that the human brain uses a temporal phase code to adaptively separate overlapping memories, enabling the targeted retrieval of goal-relevant information.

Competition between similar memories is considered one of the major causes of forgetting (Anderson and Neely, 1996; Underwood, 1957). A prominent case is proactive interference, where access to a target memory is impaired when overlapping information has been stored prior to target learning (Tulving and Watkins, 1974). This impairment is typically ascribed to the conflict arising from the co-activation of competing memories (Kliegl and Bäuml, 2021). On a neurophysiological level, mid-frontal theta oscillations (3–8 Hz) have been identified as a reliable marker of cognitive conflict in general (Cavanagh and Frank, 2014) and mnemonic conflict specifically (Ferreira et al., 2014; Hanslmayr et al., 2010; Johansson et al., 2007; Staudigl et al., 2010). Increased theta amplitudes may facilitate the emergence of phase separation, where populations of neurons transmitting potentially interfering information are segregated in time along a theta cycle (Buzsáki and Draguhn, 2004).

On a theoretical level, computational models assign a central role to the phase of the hippocampal theta oscillation in the ordered representation of multiplexed information (Lakatos et al., 2005; Lisman, 2005; Lisman and Idiart, 1995; Lisman and Jensen, 2013; Nyhus and Curran, 2010; O’Keefe and Recce, 1993). Empirically, in rodents it has been shown that bursts of gamma power reflecting sequences of spatial information processing are represented at different phases of the hippocampal theta oscillation (Bragin et al., 1995; Colgin et al., 2009). Several recent studies in humans suggest that the neural representations of items held in working memory or encoded into or retrieved from episodic memory (Kerrén et al., 2018; Kunz et al., 2019; Pacheco Estefan et al., 2021) cluster at distinct phases of the (hippocampal) theta rhythm. These findings suggest that low-frequency oscillations provide time windows for the selective processing and readout of distinct units of information (Lisman and Jensen, 2013). This study investigates phase separation as a potential mechanism to avoid interference between multiple competing memories that are simultaneously reactivated by a cue.

The computations by which the human brain achieves a separation of multiple overlapping memories are currently unknown. One computational model leverages different phases of a theta oscillation to iteratively differentiate target from competitor memories (Norman et al., 2006). In this model, which we will henceforth refer to as the oscillating interference resolution model, a retrieval cue will activate associated units, representing target and competitor features, in a phase-dependent manner. In the most desirable output state, at medium levels of inhibition, the cue only activates the target units and no or few competitor features. When inhibition is raised towards the peak of the oscillation, only strong features of the target memory will remain active, and the model learns (via contrastive Hebbian learning) to strengthen through long-term potentiation (LTP) the weaker target nodes that did not survive the higher inhibition levels. Conversely, during the transition from a medium to a lower inhibition state towards the trough of the oscillation, activation spreads to more weakly associated units, including some competitor features. This opposite phase is used to identify and punish overly strong features of the competing memory through long-term depression (LTD). The mechanism (see Figure 1) is repeated across several cycles of an oscillation, which changes the similarity structure of memories into a state in which they are less likely to interfere with each other. This model offers a mechanistic but not yet tested explanation for how the brain solves mnemonic competition.

Figure 1

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A previous study (Kerrén et al., 2018) provided proof-of-principle evidence that the reactivation of a single visual memory is rhythmically modulated by the hippocampal theta rhythm. In the present study, we applied the same analytic approach in an AB-AC associative interference paradigm (Figure 1a and b) to investigate the phase modulation of competing memories. Hypotheses for the experiment were pre-registered on OSF. Based on the oscillating interference resolution model (Norman et al., 2006) and related theta-gamma models (e.g., Lisman and Idiart, 1995), we expected that target and competitor memories become active, and can thus be decoded, at different phases of the hippocampal theta oscillation, with only target features active at higher inhibition phases, and competitors surfacing as inhibition ramps down to medium and low levels (see Figure 1d). The model also assumes that across several repetitions of the theta cycle, weak features of target memories are strengthened while overly strong features of competing memories are punished to make them less interfering on future cycles. We hypothesised that the effects of these dynamics will become visible across several repetitions of competitive retrieval and lead to an increasing phase separation because over time target memories become more likely to activate in the high-inhibition phase whereas competing memories require increasingly lower levels of inhibition to activate. Lastly, in line with previous literature (Wimber et al., 2015), the strengthening of target and weakening of competing memories should also be reflected in corresponding changes in their decodability.

Participants (n = 24) completed an associative memory task including one proactive interference condition and two control conditions (Figure 1a and b). In each learning trial, participants were instructed to form a novel association between a unique verb and an image, which could be either an object or a scene. In the critical competitive condition (CC), the word was associated with two images, one object and one scene image, learned on different trials. Participants were asked to continuously update their memory to remember the most recently encoded associate of each word, thus allowing us to investigate the extent to which previously encoded associations interfered with newly encoded information (proactive interference). In the single-exposure non-competitive condition (NC1), a word was associated with only one image, and never reappeared during learning. This condition served as a baseline for behavioural interference effects. In the dual-exposure non-competitive condition (NC2), a word was also associated with one image only, but this association was learned twice. This condition was included as a control for neural (cue) repetition and order effects. Both non-competitive conditions were also used to train and validate our multivariate classifiers. CC trials were pseudo-randomly intermixed with NC1 and NC2 trials during learning and recall blocks.

In a subsequent memory test, participants were asked to remember the most recent image when prompted with the cue word, and cued recall was repeated three times per word–image association, in a spaced fashion, irrespective of condition. Once participants indicated, via button press, that they had the associated picture back in mind, two follow-up questions were asked, one about the supraordinate (object/scene) and one about the subordinate (animate/inanimate for objects, indoor/outdoor for scenes) category. This task design, with its supra- and subordinate categories, is critical because it allowed us to disentangle, on a neural level, the representational evidence for target and competitor reactivation at any given time point, using two independently trained linear decoding algorithms: one to discriminate indoor and outdoor scenes, and one to discriminate animate and inanimate objects (see example in Figure 1c).

Behavioural indices of proactive interference

We first evaluated behavioural evidence for proactive interference, that is, the extent to which cued recall performance suffered from having encoded two different pictures with one word (CC) compared to only one picture (NC1). Only trials where participants correctly responded to both follow-up questions (i.e. they were able to provide the supra- and subordinate category of the target image) were considered a successful recall. A one-factorial repeated-measures ANOVA, with memory accuracy as the dependent variable, and condition (CC, NC1, NC2) as within-subject factor, showed a significant main effect of condition, F(1.453, 46) = 57.99, p<0.05. The main planned comparison of interest showed that memory performance was indeed significantly reduced in the competitive (M = 53.18%, SD = 19.20%) compared to the single-exposure (M = 57.71%, SD = 13.98%) condition, t(23) = 1.80, p<0.05 (Figure 2a). This confirms the first behavioural hypothesis (OSF) that retrieving a memory is more difficult when a previously encoded, now irrelevant associate competes for recall, indicative of proactive interference. For later analyses relating neural and behavioural indices, an interference score for each participant was calculated by subtracting average memory performance in the CC from the NC1 condition. A second post-hoc test showed that a significant difference was also obtained between NC1 and NC2 (M = 78.88%, SD = 10.06%), t(23) = –11.91, p<0.05, demonstrating that, unsurprisingly, a second encoding exposure improved performance compared to a single exposure.

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Another behavioural index of competition is the intrusion score; a participant’s tendency to choose the competitor instead of the target. Our design allowed us to quantify intrusions based on how often participants selected the specific subcategory of the competitor (i.e. ‘outdoor scene’ in the example in Figure 1) during the staged retrieval. On trials where participants made an error (i.e. selected ‘object’ though the target was a scene and vice versa), they showed a significantly above-chance (i.e. above 50%) probability of selecting the subcategory of the competitor (on average, 88.72%, SD = 10.62%; t(23) = 10.48, p<0.05), suggesting that their errors were not random but biased towards the category of the previously learned but now irrelevant associate (Figure 2b). The proportion of intrusions did not change significantly across repetitions (first: 88.08%, SD = 12.04%; second: 89.23%, SD = 10.62%; third: 88.85%, SD = 14.72%, Z = –54, p=0.59; Wilcoxon signed-rank test of linear slope against zero). Similarly, we did not find a decrease across repetitions in behavioural accuracy for CC target items (Z = –0.73, p=0.47; Wilcoxon signed-rank test of linear slope against zero; see Figure 2—figure supplement 1a). Across participants, the average number of intrusions in the CC correlated negatively with memory performance in the non-competitive conditions, r = –0.37, p=0.037, p<0.05 (see Figure 2—figure supplement 1b), indicating that better memory performance was generally associated with fewer intrusion errors.

The average response time for subjective recollection (indicated by button press) was 2.11 s (SD = 0.15 s) when collapsing across all conditions and repetitions. Response times shortened across repetitions in all three conditions (CC: rep1: 2.29 s, rep2: 2.05 s, rep3: 2.04 s; Z = –2.89, p=0.004; NC1: rep1: 2.55 s, rep2: 2.37 s, rep3: 2.26 s; Z = 3.03, p=0.003; NC2: rep1: 2.01 s, rep2: 1.75 s, rep3: 1.68 s; Z = –4.17, p<0.001; Wilcoxon signed-rank tests of linear slope against zero), suggesting that the time point when participants remembered the associate shifted and overall was faster after repeated recalls, as would be expected.

Hippocampal theta oscillation clocks the reactivation of target and competitor memories

The next step was to assess whether the fidelity with which target and competitor memories can be decoded fluctuates in a theta rhythm. The analysis was conducted to determine the dominant frequency in the decoding timelines, to replicate our previous findings for target memories (Kerrén et al., 2018), and to extend the principle to competitor memories. We estimated the oscillatory component of the fidelity values, following our pre-registration and the rationale of our previous study (Kerrén et al., 2018). We used Irregular-Resampling Auto-Spectral Analysis (IRASA) (as implemented in the FieldTrip toolbox version 2021), a method that robustly detects and separates the oscillatory from the fractal signal component in electrophysiological data (Wen and Liu, 2016). IRASA was applied to the single-trial fidelity timecourses in the CC, in a time window from 500 to 3000 ms post-cue onset, and separately for the target and competitor memories. The first 500 ms were excluded to attenuate the influence of early, cue-elicited event-related potentials, and because no neural reinstatement is expected during this early cuing period (Staresina and Wimber, 2019). The analysis identified 3 Hz as the frequency with the highest power for both target and competitor memories (same peak frequency was also observed for the first repetition; Figure 3—figure supplement 1a and b), and power at 3 Hz exceeded the 95th percentile of the empirical chance distribution generated from surrogate-label classifiers (Figure 3a and b, red line indicating significant deviation). For the NC, the peak frequency was also in the low theta range but slightly faster (4–5 Hz; see Figure 3—figure supplement 1c and d). Since our theta-locked analyses were focused on the CC, we used 3 Hz as the modulating frequency in all subsequent analyses.

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Target and competitor reactivations peak at distinct theta phases

The key hypothesis was that over time the reactivated representations of target and competitor memories would become optimally separated along the phase of the theta oscillation. This hypothesis follows from the oscillating interference resolution model motivating our work (Norman et al., 2006) and other empirical studies on retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF; e.g. Anderson et al., 1994; Wimber et al., 2015). The model assumes that target and competitor representations are overlapping initially, such that strong competitor nodes can (incorrectly) activate during the high-inhibition (‘target’) phase of theta, but gradually get weakened and thus require lower levels of inhibition to become active. Meanwhile, the weakest target nodes do not survive high inhibition initially and thus only activate during a lower inhibition phase of the theta cycle; however, with repeated strengthening they will become active at an increasingly early, higher-inhibition phase. Therefore, while early in time the target and competitor features overlap in their reactivation phase, this overlap is reduced by the strengthening and weakening dynamics in the model. Note that the original model (Norman et al., 2006) predicts a gradual increase of target–competitor separation with each oscillatory cycle of excitation–inhibition. In our pre-registration, we instead hypothesised that the phase separation would be measurable when comparing early with late recall repetitions, allowing us to obtain robust trial-by-trial indices of target and competitor reinstatement and avoid confounds with time-on-trial. As also noted in our pre-registration, there is an influential theta phase model (Hasselmo et al., 2002) suggesting that encoding and retrieval operations in the hippocampal circuit are prioritised at opposite phases of the theta rhythm (for evidence in humans, see Kerrén et al., 2018). Taking this model into account, we thus hypothesised that the target–competitor phase segregation would over time and repetitions become optimal within the retrieval portion (e.g. half) of the theta cycle, rather than spread out across the entire cycle (not shown in Figure 1d).

The phase binning method used to calculate the MI (see above) allowed us to determine the theta phase bin at which target and competitor reinstatement was maximal in a given trial and condition. Importantly, the absolute phase of reinstatement in terms of its angle is likely to vary across participants (e.g. due to individual differences in anatomy). We therefore contrasted the phase of maximal target and competitor reinstatement within each individual participant, computing their phase distance as an index of phase separation. This phase distance is expected to be consistent across participants irrespective of the absolute angle of target and competitor reactivation, and can thus be subjected to group-level statistics. We used a Rayleigh test for non-uniformity (i.e. clustering) to test how coherent the phase separation angle was across participants and a circular v-test to establish whether the mean separation angle significantly deviated from zero. Note that without significant clustering it is difficult to interpret the mean angle in such a phase analysis. On the other hand, significant clustering without a significant difference from zero would indicate that consistently across participants, targets and competitors reactivate at a similar theta phase.

Figure 4a shows the results of this phase separation analysis. We found a consistent phase difference between target and competitor reactivation exclusively in the last repetition (Rayleigh test for non-uniformity, z(20) = 5.03, p=0.005), clustered around a mean angular difference of 34°. Furthermore, a test against zero phase shift confirmed that this target–competitor distance was significantly different from zero difference (z(20) = 8.48, p=0.004). This was not the case for all repetitions averaged, (z(20) = 0.84, p=0.44), nor for the first (z(20) = 2.19, p=0.11) or second (z(20) = 1.76, p=0.17) repetition separately (Figure 4a). Furthermore, there was no significant difference in target–competitor phase separation between the first and third repetition when comparing the difference in mean angle (z(20) = 1.09, p=0.29). Note, however, that there was no significant clustering around a stable mean angle in the first repetition (see above), and this statistical comparison is therefore inconclusive. Finding the separation between target and competitor memories only in the last repetition rather than throughout the entire recall phase deviates from our pre-registered hypothesis, although paralleling the phase modulation results reported above. Overall, the phase distance analysis thus partly confirms our hypotheses, indicating that competing memories become increasingly separated along the hippocampal theta rhythm over time, with significant phase separation emerging after several recall cycles.

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The next set of analyses was not pre-registered and tested for a relationship between target–competitor phase distance and behaviour. The sample was split according to each individual’s intrusion score in the third repetition, dividing participants into a low-intrusion and a high-intrusion group (Figure 4b). We found that the high-intrusion group had a mean separation angle of 7° that was not significantly different from zero (Rayleigh test for non-uniformity, z(9) = 1.77, p=0.17). The low-intrusion group, by contrast, showed a mean phase separation of 57° that significantly clustered around this angle (Rayleigh test for non-uniformity, z(9) = 3.74, p=0.02); however, we found no significant deviation from zero phase shift in this subgroup of participants (Rayleigh test for non-uniformity with a specified mean angle of 0, z(9) = 3.32, p=0.069). A statistical comparison of the phase separation angle in the high- and low-intrusion groups (Wilcoxon signed-rank test in non-circular space, see ‘Materials and methods’) did not indicate a difference between the mean of the high- and low-intrusion groups’ separation angle (Z = 43, p=0.85). Note that each subsample in this comparison only contains 10 participants, and the statistical comparison is thus likely underpowered. In sum, this analysis suggests that only low-intrusion participants exhibit significant phase separation by the end of the task, which can be taken as an indication that more neural differentiation of overlapping memories along the theta cycle relates to more successful behavioural differentiation.

Two more analyses were conducted to corroborate the finding of a phase difference between target and competitor reactivation, complementing the pre-registered analysis reported above. First, we tested for a temporal difference (lag) between the timelines of target and competitor reactivation using a cross-correlation. To do so, we filtered the two fidelity timecourses from each participant at the dominant 3 Hz frequency, in the third repetition of the CC. We then quantified a temporal lag between timecourses by using a sliding window (allowing us to see phase lags that evolve over time) and calculating the cross-correlation for each 330 ms time bin (1/3 of the dominant 3 Hz frequency). Note that this analysis does not specifically take the phase of virtual hippocampal sensors into account and instead simply cross-correlates the entire target and competitor fidelity timecourses derived from all MEG sensors. The analysis revealed a significant cluster starting approximately 1 s after cue onset and lasting until the end of the trial, with a maximum lag of 30° phase angle (Figure 4c). This finding suggests that the reactivation of competitor memories is lagging 30° behind the reactivation of target memories.

The second additional analysis used the average target and competitor fidelity timecourse of each participant, filtered at 3 Hz and shown individually in Figure 4—figure supplement 1a. Visual inspection already suggests a temporal shift, and sometimes even phase opposition, between target and competitor decoding in most participants. To formally quantify the phase shift on a group level, we subtracted in complex space, for each time bin, the phase angle of the target from the angle of the competitor. The resulting phase separation (Figure 4—figure supplement 1b) is consistent with the cross-correlation results shown in Figure 4c and suggests a continuous lag of approximately 45° between the two competing memories. The results of these two analyses on the continuous fidelity timecourses are thus consistent with the phase shift identified when looking at the classifier-peak-to-hippocampal-theta locking, and provide further evidence for a temporal segregation between target and competitor reactivations during the last retrieval repetition.

To remember a specific experience, the respective memory often needs to be selected against overlapping, competing memories. The processes by which the brain achieves such prioritisation are still poorly understood. We here tested a number of predictions derived from the oscillating interference resolution model (Norman et al., 2006). In line with its predictions, the present results demonstrate that the neural signatures of two competing memories become increasingly phase separated over time along the theta rhythm. Furthermore, larger phase differences were associated with fewer intrusion errors from the interfering memories. These findings support the existence of a phase-coding mechanism along the cycle of a slow oscillation that adaptively separates competing mnemonic representations, minimising their temporal overlap (Lisman and Idiart, 1995; Norman et al., 2006).

Based on the oscillating interference resolution model (Norman et al., 2006), we hypothesised that target memories would be strengthened and become decodable at an earlier (higher inhibition) phase (see Figure 1d), while competing associates would be weakened, with time windows of their reactivation gradually shifting to a later (low inhibition) phase. The phase separation between the two competing memories should thus increase the more often the competing memories are being reactivated, and we expected to find an observable difference in phase separation after a number of repeated recalls. To further test whether a large phase segregation is beneficial for memory performance, we related phase distance to the number of behavioural intrusion errors. Supporting our hypotheses, in the third and final recall repetition target and competitor memories showed a significant phase shift with an average distance of 34° (Figure 4a and b). Larger phase separation angles in individual participants were related to lower levels of behavioural interference. Participants with low levels of memory intrusions showed a significant phase difference of 57°, while high-intrusion participants showed a non-significant 7° phase shift on average (Figure 4b). Also in the last repetition, a significant phase modulation was found for both target and competitor memories such that the fidelity of their neural reactivation was rhythmically modulated by the dominant 3 Hz rhythm (Figure 3e and f). Finally, a significant cluster of cross-correlation of the continuous target and competitor decoding timecourses also suggested an average phase lag of 30°, complementing the analyses that explicitly relate classification performance to hippocampal theta phase. Though deviating from the pre-registered hypotheses in some respects as discussed below, these results largely confirm our predictions derived from the oscillating interference resolution model (Norman et al., 2006), supporting a central role for slow oscillations in orchestrating memory recall by temporally segregating potentially interfering memories.

Based on the same model (Norman et al., 2006), we also predicted that across repeated retrieval attempts, target memories would be strengthened and competitors become less intrusive. Though not tested behaviourally in this study, repeated recall is known to induce enhancement of the retrieved memories (Karpicke and Roediger, 2008; Rowland, 2014) and forgetting of non-retrieved, competing memories (Anderson et al., 1994). Evidence for the up- and downregulation of neural target and competitor patterns, respectively, has previously been shown in fMRI studies (e.g. Kuhl et al., 2007; Wimber et al., 2015). In this work, we found neural evidence for both target strengthening and competitor weakening within the time window of maximum memory reactivation (Figure 2h). The increase in target evidence was more robust than the decrease in competitor evidence, with the latter not surviving multiple comparisons correction across the entire recall time window. It is possible that competitor decoding across all trials was too noisy in the first place, especially when focusing on trials where participants correctly answered both follow-up questions, and where neural patterns should thus be dominated by retrieval of the target memory. When instead analysing only incorrect trials, we found moderate evidence for the neural reactivation of competitor memories (Figure 2—figure supplement 2d). The relatively stable levels of competitor reactivation over repetitions might also be due to the lack of feedback in our task, allowing little adjustment of incorrect responses, as also reflected in the flat behavioural intrusion index (Figure 2b, Figure 2—figure supplement 1a). Overall, however, and in line with recent EEG work (Bramão et al., 2022), our results suggest that dynamic changes in overlapping memories can be tracked using MEG.

Decoding of target and competitor memories in the high-interference (CC) condition was generally less robust than decoding of target memories in the low-interference (NC) conditions. Generally, one challenge for time-resolved decoding of reactivated memory content is the considerable variance in the timing of memory recall across trials, conditions, and participants, likely affecting the timing in neural pattern reinstatement. Such variance can be rectified, at least to a degree, when aligning the timelines to the button press that indicates subjective recall, as shown by our response-locked analyses leading to more robust target decoding (see Figure 2f and g). There are, however, several reasons why we pre-registered our analysis locked to the onset of the memory cue. Most importantly, previous work suggests that the phase of theta oscillations is reset by a memory cue and remains relatively stationary for a period of time (see Rizzuto et al., 2006; Ter Wal et al., 2021), such that the locking of memory reactivations to the theta rhythm should be most coherent when aligned to cue onset. Note that all crucial analyses comparing phase shifts of target and competitor reactivations were conducted on the level of single trials. Therefore, these analyses are not affected by whether or not the reactivation maxima are consistent in time across trials and participants, even though such inconsistencies will dilute the average cue-locked decoding performance.

The functional relevance of slow oscillations in regulating the excitation–inhibition balance of specific neural assemblies has featured strongly in other computational models too, and these models are supported by our findings at various levels. Most relevant in the present context is the theta-gamma model (Lisman and Idiart, 1995; Lisman and Jensen, 2013), which assumes that the coupling of gamma bursts to specific theta phases provides a timing mechanism for ordering sequences of items in working memory. Here, a gamma burst reflects the firing of a local cell assembly representing a distinct unit of information, while the phase of the slower theta oscillation rhythmically modulates the excitability of these local neural assemblies, and feedback inhibition allows for an organised, non-overlapping firing sequence across the theta cycle. In humans, studies using episodic and working memory tasks have provided evidence for such a theta-gamma code (Bahramisharif et al., 2018; Canolty et al., 2006; Fuentemilla et al., 2010; Griffiths et al., 2021; Herweg et al., 2020; Heusser et al., 2016; Karlsson et al., 2022; Reddy et al., 2021; Ten Oever et al., 2020; Ter Wal et al., 2021). The oscillating interference resolution model (Norman et al., 2006) and theta-gamma phase-coding models share the fundamental assumption that slow oscillations regulate the excitation–inhibition balance of local neural assemblies (Buzsáki, 2006). However, they do differ in their theoretical scopes. Theta-gamma code models were developed to explain how the brain can handle ongoing states of high attentional or working memory load, where multiple distinct items need to be kept separated and organised. The oscillating interference resolution model (Norman et al., 2006) is a learning model and thus explicitly oriented towards optimising future network states. It employs fluctuating inhibition to actively shape memory representations, with the goal to minimise future overlap and interference.

To our knowledge, no study in humans has explicitly tested for phase coding when several overlapping memories compete for retrieval. However, one intracranial study using a virtual navigation paradigm showed that the neural representations of potentially interfering spatial goal locations are coupled to distinct phases of the hippocampal theta rhythm (Kunz et al., 2019). Phase precession and theta coupling of neuronal firing during goal-directed navigation have also been shown in human hippocampal single-unit recordings (Qasim et al., 2021; Watrous et al., 2018). The present results directly support the idea that phase coding can temporally separate co-active, competing memory representations in the human brain. They additionally suggest that such a code adaptively evolves across repeated target retrievals, in line with the idea that oscillating excitation–inhibition can optimise learning with respect to future access to the relevant target memory.

A second prominent computational model focuses on different functional operations within the hippocampal circuit at opposing phases of the theta rhythm, with one half of the hippocampal theta cycle devoted to the encoding of new incoming information, and the other half to the recovery of internally stored information (Hasselmo et al., 2002; Kunec et al., 2005). In humans, previous EEG work Kerrén et al., 2018 and a recent study investigating rhythmic modulations of reaction times Ter Wal et al., 2021 have provided evidence for such process separation. In the present study, target and competitor reactivations peaked at distinct theta phases, with an average separation angle of approximately 35°, and 57° in the low-intrusion group that presumably reached optimal interference resolution. This observation is consistent with a framework where both targets and competitors are reactivated during the retrieval portion of a theta cycle (Hasselmo et al., 2002; Kunec et al., 2005), but with sufficient phase separation to allow for differentiation in time. Note, however, that the oscillating interference resolution model (Norman et al., 2006) dedicates the entire theta cycle to retrieval operations (as depicted in Figure 1d) and would thus predict temporal distances of up to 180° between targets and competitors. The two models may not necessarily be incompatible, especially when considering that encoding and retrieval computations take place in different subcircuits of the hippocampus (Hasselmo et al., 2002). Future modelling work is needed, however, to better understand the learning dynamics across the full theta cycle and reconcile the apparent theoretical conflict between the two frameworks.

Other predictions of the oscillating interference resolution model (Norman et al., 2006) relate to the neural overlap in spatial patterns and have been tested primarily in fMRI studies. One such prediction is the non-monotonic plasticity hypothesis, derived from the same learning dynamics along the oscillatory cycle as described above. If a competitor is sufficiently strong to be co-activated in the high-inhibition (target) phase, it will benefit from synaptic strengthening of common connections and thus be integrated with the target memory. Moderately co-active competitors, on the other hand, will be subject to synaptic depression and as a result become differentiated from the target memory (Ritvo et al., 2019). Evidence for non-monotonic plasticity comes from fMRI work that directly tracks changes in the similarity of target and competitor representations in terms of their spatial patterns (Hulbert and Norman, 2015; Wammes et al., 2022), and the representational changes dependent on the level of (co)activation of overlapping memories (Detre et al., 2013; Lewis-Peacock and Norman, 2014; Poppenk and Norman, 2014; Wang et al., 2019). Indirectly related, fMRI studies investigating representational change resulting from repeated learning or recall have also found evidence for differentiation or integration of overlapping memories in hippocampus, late sensory cortex, and prefrontal cortex (Favila et al., 2016; Hulbert and Norman, 2015; Kim et al., 2017; Kuhl et al., 2010; Schlichting and Preston, 2015; Wimber et al., 2015), and sometimes observed both in the same study but in different regions (Molitor et al., 2021; Schlichting and Preston, 2015). The present study was not designed to track representational changes, for example, in terms of comparing target and competitor representations before and after repeated recall. Arguably, however, there is a straightforward agreement between spatial and temporal separation in this network model. Strong competitors would tend to co-activate in the high-inhibition phase and thus be co-strengthened and integrated via LTP (Bliss and Lomo, 1973; Hebb, 1949), whereas moderately co-active competitor memories would tend to co-activate only at lower levels of inhibition, which according to the model would lead to LTD. Our data support the idea that low temporal separation is related to integration, behaviourally. The high-intrusion group had a mean phase difference of 7° between target and competitor memories, theoretically in line with a time window of strong co-firing hence synaptic strengthening. Integration might thus have led to higher amounts of intrusions (Brunec et al., 2020). In the low-intrusion group, more pronounced phase separation between target and competitor memories (57° on average) might have led to only moderate co-firing and hence promoted differentiation, resulting in lower levels of behavioural interference. Although speculative, temporal separation could be a prerequisite for spatial differentiation. Future studies, combining high temporal with high spatial resolution, and paradigms to track the representational distance of overlapping memories, are needed to fully understand these dynamics.

A priori we included the entire theta band in our pre-registration as previous studies have indicated large variations in the peak theta frequency in humans (Goyal et al., 2020; Jacobs, 2014; Kerrén et al., 2018; Lega et al., 2016; Ter Wal et al., 2021). For example, in our previous study we found that reactivations of target memories were most consistently coupled to a hippocampal 7–8 Hz oscillation, even though a slower 3–4 Hz peak was also present (Kerrén et al., 2018). In another study, Ter Wal et al., 2021 found that slower 2–3 Hz oscillations dominated behaviour and hippocampal signals specifically when responses depended on memory, consistent with other intracranial work reporting pronounced slow theta oscillations in the human hippocampus during memory tasks (Goyal et al., 2020; Lega et al., 2012). In working memory, it has even been demonstrated that theta oscillations slow down with increasing memory load (Fell et al., 2011; Wolinski et al., 2018), in line with the theoretical idea that slower rhythms accommodate better phase separation (Lisman and Idiart, 1995; Lisman and Jensen, 2013). Descriptively, such theta slowing was evident in the present data when comparing the frequency profiles of rhythmic memory reactivation between NC and CC conditions, where conditions in which only one associate needs to be remembered showed slightly faster rhythmic peaks (4–5 Hz) than the condition in which two associates compete for retrieval (3–4 Hz, see Figure 3—figure supplement 1). While offering a possible explanation why slower oscillations are often observed in tasks with high memory demands, this post-hoc interpretation will need to be corroborated by empirical evidence in future studies.

Phase coding offers an elegant theoretical solution to temporally segregate the processing of potentially interfering information. Much empirical evidence for phase sequencing along the hippocampal theta oscillation comes from spatial navigation work, both in rodents and humans (Herweg et al., 2020; Kunz et al., 2019; O’Keefe and Recce, 1993; Reddy et al., 2021). We here demonstrated that phase coding facilitates the separation of overlapping, associatively linked memories. Together with the computational model used to derive these predictions, these findings offer a possible mechanism utilised by the human brain to resolve competition between simultaneously active memories. More generally, they add to a growing literature showing that slow oscillations orchestrate the intricate timing of neural processing with direct, observable effects on behaviour.

All data and code used in this project are made available on OSF and Zenodo.

1. 1. Kerrén C
   2. van Bree S
   3. Griffiths BJ
   4. Wimber M

   (2022) Zenodo

   Phase separation of competing memories along the human hippocampal theta rhythm.

   https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6602054
2. 1. Kerrén C
   2. van Bree S
   3. Griffiths BJ
   4. Wimber M

   (2022) Open Science Framework

   ID 10.17605/OSF.IO/EVGAW. Target and competitor reactivation in episodic memory.

   https://osf.io/evgaw/?view_only=fbb676ccb2e74ccbb16d5d8aa8f9c58f

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Author details

1. Casper Kerrén

   1. Centre for Human Brain Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
   2. Research Group Adaptive Memory and Decision Making, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany

   Contribution

   Conceptualization, Resources, Data curation, Software, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Validation, Investigation, Visualization, Methodology, Writing - original draft, Project administration, Writing - review and editing

   For correspondence

   casper.kerren@gmail.com

   Competing interests

   No competing interests declared

   "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4870-6072

2. Sander van Bree

   Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, School of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom

   Contribution

   Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing - original draft

   Competing interests

   No competing interests declared

3. Benjamin J Griffiths

   Centre for Human Brain Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

   Contribution

   Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing - original draft

   Competing interests

   No competing interests declared

   "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-8600-4480

4. Maria Wimber

   1. Centre for Human Brain Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
   2. Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, School of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom

   Contribution

   Conceptualization, Data curation, Supervision, Funding acquisition, Validation, Methodology, Writing - original draft, Project administration, Writing - review and editing

   For correspondence

   Maria.Wimber@glasgow.ac.uk

   Competing interests

   No competing interests declared

   "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-1917-353X

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