Schedule of Events | Symposia

Sketchpad Series

Forming episodic memories one transition at a time

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 30, 2025, 5:00 – 7:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Valentina Krenz¹ (krenzv@bc.edu), Maureen Ritchey¹; ¹Boston College

Episodic memory requires integrating multiple features into cohesive representations, yet the neural mechanisms underlying this process remain unclear. Event transitions, particularly stimulus offset-related activity in the hippocampus and its interactions with regions of the posterior medial network (PMN), have been linked to subsequent memory for multifeatural events. This study investigates the neural mechanisms of memory formation as an encoding event unfolds, examining whether cortico-hippocampal activity patterns at event transitions predict subsequent memory for event features and their specificity. During fMRI measurements, participants encode scene images that are briefly overlaid with objects at variable spatial locations, with active inter-trial intervals isolating offset-related activity. At retrieval, participants are cued with scene images to recall detailed object information, followed by a recognition task probing memory specificity using original, novel, and similar objects. Multivariate fMRI analyses will assess when cortico-hippocampal activity patterns predict subsequent memory and its specificity. Additionally, reinstatement of encoding-related patterns at event offsets will be examined as a potential mechanism supporting memory formation. Functional connectivity analyses will unravel interactions among content-selective regions, the PMN, and the hippocampus as the encoding event unfolds, revealing the neural dynamics underlying episodic memory formation. Together, this study aims to provide an experimental framework for testing key predictions about how multifeatural events are integrated into episodic memory.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic