title: Experience-dependent hippocampal pattern differentiation prevents interference during subsequent learning.
abstract: The hippocampus is believed to reduce memory interference by disambiguating neural representations of similar events. However, there is limited empirical evidence linking representational overlap in the hippocampus to memory interference. Likewise, it is not fully understood how learning influences overlap among hippocampal representations. Using pattern-based fMRI analyses, we tested for a bidirectional relationship between memory overlap in the human hippocampus and learning. First, we show that learning drives hippocampal representations of similar events apart from one another. These changes are not explained by task demands to discriminate similar stimuli and are fully absent in visual cortical areas that feed into the hippocampus. Second, we show that lower representational overlap in the hippocampus benefits subsequent learning by preventing interference between similar memories. These findings reveal targeted experience-dependent changes in hippocampal representations of similar events and provide a critical link between memory overlap in the hippocampus and behavioural expressions of memory interference.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Pl., New York, New York 10003, USA.
authors.forename: Serra E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Favila
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Pl., New York, New York 10003, USA.
authors.forename: Avi J H
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Chanales
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Pl., New York, New York 10003, USA.|Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Lewis Integrative Science Building, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA.
authors.forename: Brice A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Kuhl
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult