Systems Consolidation, Transformation, and Reorganization

Abstract

Abstract This chapter reviews the literature on systems consolidation by providing a brief history of the field to place the current research in proper perspective. It covers the literature on both humans and nonhumans, which are highly related despite the differences in techniques and tasks that are used. It is argued that understanding the interactions between hippocampus and neocortex (and other structures) that underlie systems consolidation depends on appreciating the close correspondence between psychological and neural representations of memory, as postulated by multiple trace theory and trace transformation theory. The chapter evaluates different theories of systems consolidation in light of the evidence reviewed and suggests that the concept of systems consolidation, with its central concern with the time-limited role the hippocampus plays in memory, may have outlived its usefulness. It is suggested that this concept be replaced withone of interactive memory reorganization and a program of research on the psychological processes and neural mechanisms that underlie changes in memory across the lifetime—a natural history of memory change.