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Rehearsal supports the rapid emergence of semantic and detail-rich memories in the neocortex

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 5:00 – 7:00 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms

Lena Schroeder¹ (lena.schroeder@tuebingen.mpg.de), Svenja Klinkowski², Sebastian Müller¹, Svenja Brodt¹; ¹Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, ²University of Tübingen

Repeatedly rehearsing information can accelerate systems memory consolidation by shifting memory systems contributions towards the neocortex. However, it remains unclear whether rehearsal differentially affects specific aspects of memory, and where these are represented in the cortex. Here, we used functional MRI to assess the effects of repeated and one-time learning on semantic (category-level) vs. detail-rich (exemplar-level) memory aspects. Healthy, young adult participants (preliminary n=33) encode and recall unique associations between two visually presented objects either once (single items) or four times (rehearsed items) during fMRI. We test memory for category and exemplar information after 60min and 72h. Behaviorally, rehearsal globally facilitates short-term and long-term retention. During encoding, rehearsal rapidly increases functional activity in the precuneus, while the hippocampus and ventral visual stream show decreasing activity. Accordingly, the ventral visual stream displayed lower activity for rehearsed vs. single items across both retention intervals specifically during exemplar recall and activity changes were linked to better memory for details. In the precuneus, higher activity for rehearsed vs. single items emerged specifically for category recall at the 60min and 72h time points, while increasing activity during encoding mirrored increasing performance during exemplar recall. Together, rehearsal benefits the retention of semantic as well as detail-rich memory and induces rapid, long-lasting, and behaviorally relevant changes in neocortical networks. While changes in the ventral visual stream seem to specifically support memory for perceptual detail, the precuneus might contribute to category as well as detail-level memory.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Other