Most people can recall particular occasions and previous experiences for lengthy intervals of time. This functionality, known as episodic reminiscence, is thought to be in nice half supported by the exercise of neurons within the hippocampus and medial temporal lobe.
Previous neuroscience and psychology research persistently discovered that episodic reminiscence is associative. This primarily signifies that remembering one previous occasion, as an example a commencement, can in lots of instances immediate individuals to additionally bear in mind different associated occasions, comparable to a celebration that celebrated the commencement.
Researchers at Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIByNE)-CONICET and the College of Buenos Aires lately carried out a brand new research exploring the chance that the reactivation of particular episodic reminiscences doesn’t solely assist to strengthen these reminiscences, but in addition the reminiscences of different associated occasions or experiences.
Their findings, printed in Communications Psychology, counsel that consolidated episodic reminiscences may also be not directly strengthened when individuals are remembering different occasions which are contextually sure to those reminiscences.
“Reminiscence reactivation has been proven to strengthen reactivated reminiscences, however its results on associated, non-reactivated reminiscences stay unclear,” wrote Juan Cruz Beron, Luz Bavassi and their colleagues of their paper. “This research investigated whether or not reactivation of a consolidated goal reminiscence might not directly improve the retention of peripheral data acquired in the identical context.”
Most earlier research investigating the activation of associated reminiscences particularly centered on reminiscences that haven’t but been consolidated, which primarily signifies that they’re comparatively new and haven’t been stabilized within the mind for long-term storage. In distinction, Beron, Bavassi and their colleagues needed to find out whether or not reminiscences which are already consolidated might be strengthened additional when individuals are recalling contextually associated reminiscences.
“We hypothesized that reactivating a consolidated goal reminiscence would enhance its retention and strengthen contextually related reminiscences,” wrote the researchers. “To check this, we performed 4 experiments through which members first discovered face-name pairs (goal reminiscence) alongside on a regular basis objects (peripheral reminiscence).”
The researchers carried out a four-day experiment involving a complete of 238 grownup members. On the primary day, all members have been requested to be taught associations between faces and names, in addition to a set of on a regular basis objects.
On day 2, a subset of the members accomplished a activity that was designed to reactivate the reminiscences they made the day earlier than, by presenting them with incomplete reminders of those reminiscences. Concurrently, the remainder of the members carried out an unrelated management activity.
On the third day, the researchers assessed the flexibility of each subsets of members to recollect each the goal (i.e., face-name pairs) and peripheral (objects) data memorized throughout the first stage of the experiment. Notably, they discovered that individuals who have been within the reminiscence re-activation situation on day 2 of the experiment remembered each the varieties of stimuli higher than these within the management situation.
“Outcomes revealed that reactivation considerably improved the retention of goal and peripheral reminiscences when acquired in the identical context,” wrote the researchers. “Nevertheless, when peripheral reminiscences have been discovered in a distinct context, reactivation of the goal reminiscence didn’t produce the identical oblique strengthening impact.
“These findings counsel that the oblique strengthening of consolidated reminiscences by way of reactivation is context-dependent and will depend on the shared spatiotemporal acquisition context.”
General, the findings of this current research supply new worthwhile perception into the mechanisms of episodic reminiscence re-activation. This perception might encourage different analysis teams to analyze the newly unveiled re-activation mechanisms, which might additional enhance our understanding of human reminiscence processes.
Extra data:
Juan Cruz Beron et al, Proof for oblique strengthening by way of reactivation of contextually sure reminiscences, Communications Psychology (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s44271-025-00250-5
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Reactivation of particular reminiscences can not directly strengthen associated ones, research finds (2025, Could 23)
retrieved 23 Could 2025
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