Learning and memory: parallel processing.

摘要

Systems memory consolidation involves the stabilization of memory traces -originating in the hippocampus - in the neocortex and is implicated in the formation of long-term memories. Previously, Morris and colleagues showed that such consolidation occurs rapidly when new information is learnt in the presence of relevant established knowledge, challenging the widely held view that systems memory consolidation is a gradual process. Now, these authors show that learning of new paired associates against the backdrop of a schema requires neocortical activity.Morris and colleagues trained rats to recall the location of food in sand wells on the basis of flavour cues that were provided to them in the starting box of an event arena and in the arena itself. Once this schema of paired associates (that is, flavour cues and locations) was established, seven of the rats underwent four further trials with these paired associates and two trials with two new pairs of flavour cues and locations that could be encoded and assimilated into the schema.