Schematic memory components converge within angular gyrus during retrieval
Isabella C Wagner,
Mariët van Buuren,
Marijn CW Kroes,
Tjerk P Gutteling,
Marieke van der Linden,
Richard G Morris,
Guillén Fernández
Affiliations
Isabella C Wagner
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Mariët van Buuren
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Marijn CW Kroes
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, United States; Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, United States
Tjerk P Gutteling
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Marieke van der Linden
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Richard G Morris
Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Guillén Fernández
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Mental schemas form associative knowledge structures that can promote the encoding and consolidation of new and related information. Schemas are facilitated by a distributed system that stores components separately, presumably in the form of inter-connected neocortical representations. During retrieval, these components need to be recombined into one representation, but where exactly such recombination takes place is unclear. Thus, we asked where different schema components are neuronally represented and converge during retrieval. Subjects acquired and retrieved two well-controlled, rule-based schema structures during fMRI on consecutive days. Schema retrieval was associated with midline, medial-temporal, and parietal processing. We identified the multi-voxel representations of different schema components, which converged within the angular gyrus during retrieval. Critically, convergence only happened after 24-hour-consolidation and during a transfer test where schema material was applied to novel but related trials. Therefore, the angular gyrus appears to recombine consolidated schema components into one memory representation.
