Systems consolidation, transformation and reorganization: Multiple Trace Theory, Trace Transformation Theory and their Competitors
Morris Moscovitch, Asaf Gilboa
Abstract
We review the literature on systems consolidation by providing a brief history of the field to place the current research in proper perspective. We cover the literature on both humans and non-humans, which are highly related despite the differences in techniques and tasks that are used. We argue that understanding the interactions between hippocampus and neocortex (and other structures) that underlie systems consolidation, depend on appreciating the close correspondence between psychological and neural representations of memory, as postulated by Multiple Trace Theory and Trace Transformation Theory. We end by evaluating different theories of systems consolidation in light of the evidence we reviewed and suggest that the concept of systems consolidation, with its central concern with the time-limited role the hippocampus plays in memory, may have outlived its usefulness. We suggest replacing it with a program of research on the psychological processes and neural mechanisms that underlie changes in memory across the lifetime – a natural history of memory change.