Memory integration: neural mechanisms and implications for behavior

- Prior related memories are reactivated during new learning events.
- Medial PFC guides reactivation toward related, goal-relevant knowledge.
- Hippocampus compares current experience to prior memories, triggering integration.
- Memory integration supports behavioral flexibility across a range of domains.

Everyday behaviors require a high degree of flexibility, in which prior knowledge is applied to inform behavior in new situations. Such flexibility is thought to be supported in part by memory integration, a process whereby related memories become interconnected in the brain through recruitment of overlapping neuronal populations. Recent advances in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience highlight the importance of a hippocampal-medial prefrontal circuit in memory integration. Emerging evidence suggests that abstracted representations in medial prefrontal cortex guide reactivation of related memories during new encoding events, thus promoting hippocampal integration of related experiences. Moreover, recent work indicates that integrated memories are called upon during novel situations to facilitate a host of behaviors, from spatial navigation to imagination.