Memory retrieval in mice and men

Aya Ben-Yakov, Yadin Dudai*, Mark R. Mayford

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

Retrieval, the use of learned information, was until recently mostly terra incognita in the neurobiology of memory, owing to shortage of research methods with the spatiotemporal resolution required to identify and dissect fast reactivation or reconstruction of complex memories in the mammalian brain. The development of novel paradigms, model systems, and new tools in molecular genetics, electrophysiology, optogenetics, in situ microscopy, and functional imaging, have contributed markedly in recent years to our ability to investigate brain mechanisms of retrieval.We review selected developments in the study of explicit retrieval in the rodent and human brain. The picture that emerges is that retrieval involves coordinated fast interplay of sparse and distributed corticohippocampal and neocortical networks that may permit permutational binding of representational elements to yield specific representations. These representations are driven largely by the activity patterns shaped during encoding, but are malleable, subject to the influence of time and interaction of the existing memory with novel information.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbera021790
JournalCold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology
Volume7
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2015
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; all rights reserved.

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