Reinstatement and transformation of memory traces for recognition

• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adp9336
• Publication Date: 2025-02-19T18:59:36Z
• Authors: Elias M. B. Rau; Marie-Christin Fe...; Rebekka Heinen; Hui Zhang; Qin Yin; Parisa Vahidi; Malte Kobelt; Eishi Asano; Olivia Kim-McManus; Shifteh Sattar; Jack J. Lin; Kurtis I. Auguste; Edward F. Chang; David King-Stephens; Peter B. Weber; Kenneth D. Laxer; Robert T. Knight; Elizabeth L. Johnson; Noa Ofen; Nikolai Axmacher
• Keywords: Mnemonic; Sensory memory

Episodic memory relies on the formation and retrieval of content-specific traces. In addition to their veridical reactivation, previous studies have indicated that traces may undergo substantial transformations. However, exact time course regional distribution reinstatement transformation during recognition remained unclear. We applied representational similarity analysis human intracranial electroencephalography track spatiotemporal dynamics underlying Specifically, we examined how item-specific representations across occipital, ventral visual, lateral parietal cortices contribute successful recognition. Our findings suggest in temporal cortex coexist provide complementary strategies for Further, find generalization differentiation neural probe memory-specific correspondence with deep network (DNN) model features. results is particularly supported by generalized mnemonic formats beyond visual features a DNN.