Scale-invariant characteristics of forgetting: Toward a unifying account of hippocampal forgetting across short and long timescales

Talya Sadeh*, Yoni Pertzov

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

After over 100 years of relative silence in the cognitive literature, recent advances in the study of the neural underpinnings of memory—specifically, the hippocampus—have led to a resurgence of interest in the topic of forgetting. This review draws a theoretically driven picture of the effects of time on forgetting of hippocampus-dependent memories. We review evidence indicating that time-dependent forgetting across short and long timescales is reflected in progressive degradation of hippocampal-dependent relational information. This evidence provides an important extension to a growing body of research accumulated in recent years, showing that— in contrast to the once prevailing view that the hippocampus is exclusively involved in memory and forgetting over long timescales—the role of the hippocampus also extends to memory and forgetting over short timescales. Thus, we maintain that similar rules govern not only remembering but also forgetting of hippocampus-dependent information over short and long timescales.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)386-402
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Volume32
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Miriam Dissen Ben Or for assistance with figure creation. This work was supported by Israel Science Foundation grant 743/17 to T. S. and Grant 1747/14 to Y. P. T. S. is grateful to the Azrieli Foundation for the award of an Azrieli Fellowship. Reprint requests should be sent to Talya Sadeh, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel, 8410501, or via e-mail: tsadeh@bgu. ac.il.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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