title: Schematic memory components converge within angular gyrus during retrieval.
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.
authors.affiliation: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.|Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Isabella C
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.affiliation: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mariët
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Buuren
authors.affiliation: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.|Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, United States.|Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, United States.
authors.forename: Marijn C W
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Kroes
authors.affiliation: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tjerk P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Gutteling
authors.affiliation: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marieke
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van der Linden
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Richard G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.affiliation: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Guillén
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fernández
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D011859:Radiography; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: angular gyrus; fMRI; human; memory retrieval; multi-voxel pattern analysis; neuroscience; schema