New episodic learning interferes with the reconsolidation of autobiographical memories
- It is commonly assumed that, with time, an initially labile memory is transformed into a permanent one via a process of consolidation. Yet, recent evidence indicates that memories can return to a fragile state again when reactivated, requiring a period of reconsolidation. In the study described here, we found that participants who memorized a story immediately after they had recalled neutral and emotional experiences from their past were impaired in their memory for the neutral (but not for the emotional) experiences one week later. The effect of learning the story depended critically on the preceding reactivation of the autobiographical memories since learning without reactivation had no effect. These results suggest that new learning impedes the reconsolidation of neutral autobiographical memories.
Author: | Lars SchwabeGND, Oliver T. WolfORCiDGND |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hbz:294-76402 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0007519 |
Parent Title (English): | PLoS ONE |
Publisher: | Public Library of Science |
Place of publication: | San Francisco |
Document Type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of Publication (online): | 2020/11/13 |
Date of first Publication: | 2009/10/21 |
Publishing Institution: | Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsbibliothek |
Volume: | 4 |
Issue: | 10, Article e7519 |
First Page: | e7519-1 |
Last Page: | e7519-4 |
Institutes/Facilities: | Institut für Kognitive Neurowissenschaft, Abteilung Kognitionspsychologie |
Research Department of Neuroscience | |
open_access (DINI-Set): | open_access |
faculties: | Fakultät für Psychologie |
Licence (English): | Creative Commons - CC BY 4.0 - Attribution 4.0 International |