A study on episodic memory reconsolidation that tells us more about consolidation
- 1Memory Lab, Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, United Kingdom
- 2Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, United Kingdom
- Corresponding author: michael2.craig{at}northumbria.ac.uk
Abstract
Awake quiescence immediately after encoding is conducive to episodic memory consolidation. Retrieval can render episodic memories labile again, but reconsolidation can modify and restrengthen them. It remained unknown whether awake quiescence after retrieval supports episodic memory reconsolidation. We sought to examine this question via an object-location memory paradigm. We failed to probe the effect of quiescence on reconsolidation, but we did observe an unforeseen “delayed” effect of quiescence on consolidation. Our findings reveal that the beneficial effect of quiescence on episodic memory consolidation is not restricted to immediately following encoding but can be achieved at a delayed stage and even following a period of task engagement.
Footnotes
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[Supplemental material is available for this article.]
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Article is online at http://www.learnmem.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/lm.052274.120.
- Received July 3, 2020.
- Accepted October 27, 2020.
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