Memory, Novelty and Prior Knowledge

Over the 40 years that TINS has been in existence, there has been substantial progress in understanding the types, organisation, and neural mechanisms of memory. The selectivity of memory maintenance and retention remains a puzzle, and we here summarise two contributions of our own research to this enigma: the striking impact of the novelty and surprise often of other events happening around the time that a new memory is encoded and how activated prior knowledge guides the updating process that characterises aspects of memory consolidation. Over the past 40 years, there has been substantial progress in understanding the types, organisation, and neural mechanisms of memory. We here summarise two contributions of our own research on the mechanistic underpinnings explaining why some events are remembered and others are doomed to be forgotten. Fine-grained molecular understanding is emerging on how novelty and surprise around the time of encoding help stabilise new memories. We describe initial insights into how activated prior knowledge guides the updating process that characterises aspects of memory consolidation.