title: Transient relay function of midline thalamic nuclei during long-term memory consolidation in humans.
abstract: To test the hypothesis that thalamic midline nuclei play a transient role in memory consolidation, we reanalyzed a prospective functional MRI study, contrasting recent and progressively more remote memory retrieval. We revealed a transient thalamic connectivity increase with the hippocampus, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and a parahippocampal area, which decreased with time. In turn, mPFC-parahippocampal connectivity increased progressively. These findings support a model in which thalamic midline nuclei serve as a hub linking hippocampus, mPFC, and posterior representational areas during memory retrieval at an early (2 h) stage of consolidation, extending classical systems consolidation models by attributing a transient role to midline thalamic nuclei.
authors.affiliation: Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Center, 6537 Nijmegen, The Netherlands Department for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45127 Essen, Germany Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 45127 Essen, Germany jan-willem.thielen@uni-due.de.
authors.forename: Jan-Willem
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Thielen
authors.affiliation: Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Center, 6537 Nijmegen, The Netherlands Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, 6537 Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Atsuko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Takashima
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, VU University Medical Center, 1081 Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Femke
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rutters
authors.affiliation: Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Center, 6537 Nijmegen, The Netherlands Department for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45127 Essen, Germany Department of Psychiatry, Radboud University Medical Center, 6537 Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Indira
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tendolkar
authors.affiliation: Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Center, 6537 Nijmegen, The Netherlands Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Center, 6537 Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Guillén
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fernández
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D000069077:Memory Consolidation / Q000502:physiology*; D057567:Memory, Long-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D020644:Midline Thalamic Nuclei / Q000502:physiology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors