The hippocampus is a critical brain structure involved in the acquisition and initial consolidation of episodic (event) and episodic-like memories in humans and rodents, though its continued role in supporting memory retrieval is a long-debated issue. Soon after memory acquisition, event memories tend to be detailed, precise, and contextually-specific. Over time, however, memories tend to lose detail and precision, and what is retained is a more generalized version of the memory.

Using a cross-species approach, we identify how retrieval network activity in the healthy brain changes as memories age and transform over time. Using a combination of immediate-early gene expression studies in rodents, and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies in humans, I will discuss evidence of a comparable reorganization of hippocampal-prefrontal brain activity as a detailed event memory transforms to a more generalized memory over time. These findings provide support for the idea that both the quality, the age, and the cues available at retrieval will mediate the degree of hippocampal and prefrontal cortical activity during event memory retrieval.

Denis Alevi will introduce and moderate the talk.

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