ReviewEnhance, delete, incept: Manipulating hippocampus-dependent memories

- Newly developed methods allow manipulation of hippocampus-dependent memories.
- Cued reactivation during sleep and transcranial stimulation can enhance memories.
- Pharmacological agents can delete memories.
- Optogenetics and DREADDs can be used to incept memories.
- Electrophysiology and fMRI have been used to investigate the underlying mechanisms.

Here we provide a brief overview of recent research on memory manipulation. We focus primarily on memories for which the hippocampus is thought to be required due to its central importance in the study of memory. The repertoire of methods employed is expanding and includes optogenetics, transcranial stimulation, deep brain stimulation, cued reactivation during sleep and the use of pharmacological agents. In addition, the possible mechanisms underlying these memory changes have been investigated using techniques such as single unit recording and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).This article is part of a Special Issue entitled 'Memory enhancement'.