Hippocampal mechanisms underlying the resolution of competition in memory and perception.
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
- 2Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA. [email protected].
- 3Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
- 4Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Abstract
Behaving adaptively requires selection of relevant memories and sensations and suppression of competing ones. We hypothesize that these mechanisms are linked, such that hippocampal computations that resolve competition in memory also shape the precision of sensory representations to guide selective attention. We leverage fMRI-based pattern similarity, receptive field modeling, and eye tracking to test this hypothesis in humans performing a memory-dependent visual search task. In the hippocampus, more distinct representations of competing memories are associated with the accuracy of memory-guided eye movements. In visual cortex, preparatory coding of remembered target locations precedes search successes, whereas preparatory coding of competing locations precedes search failures due to interference. These effects are linked: more distinct hippocampal memories are associated with lower competitor activation in visual cortex, yielding more precise preparatory representations. These results demonstrate a role for memory distinctiveness in shaping the precision of sensory representations, highlighting links between mechanisms that overcome competition in memory and perception.
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BibTeX
@article{favila2026hippocampal,
title = {{Hippocampal mechanisms underlying the resolution of competition in memory and perception.}},
author = {Serra E Favila and Mariam Aly},
journal = {Nature communications},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-77400-8},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42834075},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Hippocampal mechanisms underlying the resolution of competition in memory and perception.
AU - Serra E Favila
AU - Mariam Aly
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/04
JO - Nature communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-77400-8
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42834075
AB - Behaving adaptively requires selection of relevant memories and sensations and suppression of competing ones. We hypothesize that these mechanisms are linked, such that hippocampal computations that resolve competition in memory also shape the precision of sensory representations to guide selective attention. We leverage fMRI-based pattern similarity, receptive field modeling, and eye tracking to test this hypothesis in humans performing a memory-dependent visual search task. In the hippocampus, more distinct representations of competing memories are associated with the accuracy of memory-guided eye movements. In visual cortex, preparatory coding of remembered target locations precedes search successes, whereas preparatory coding of competing locations precedes search failures due to interference. These effects are linked: more distinct hippocampal memories are associated with lower competitor activation in visual cortex, yielding more precise preparatory representations. These results demonstrate a role for memory distinctiveness in shaping the precision of sensory representations, highlighting links between mechanisms that overcome competition in memory and perception.
SN - 2041-1723
ER -