A possible mechanism of transfer of memories from the hippocampus to the cortex

作者：Vadakkan Kunjumon I^*

来源：Medical Hypotheses, 2011, 77(2): 234-243.

DOI：10.1016/j.mehy.2011.04.020

The mechanism of time-dependent transfer of memories from the hippocampus to the cortex associated with the memory consolidation process still remains unknown. By visualizing memory as the virtual sensation of sensory stimuli, it has become possible to conceptualize memory as an integral of semblances induced at the postsynapses in the absence of the activation of their corresponding presynapses. This is hypothesized to be possible during memory retrieval by the re-activation of functional LINKs formed between the postsynapses during learning. On occasions of repetition of learning, related learning and unrelated learning, stimulation of the sensory receptor pairs used in the original learning event activates new hippocampal neurons incorporated in the circuitry and induces formation of new functional LINKs in the cortex. Since the virtual sensory units of semblances provide provisions for the formation of similar net semblance from different sets of postsynapses of origin both independently and cumulatively, locations of their formation appear transferable. When semblances from the cortex alone become sufficient to contribute to a specific memory, after a certain period of time from the initial learning, removal of the hippocampus gives an impression of (an apparent) transfer of memories from the hippocampus to the cortex.

• 出版日期2011-8