Our new paper isolates moments of new memory creation from memory updating
March 6, 2026
Every time you experience something new, your brain faces a decision: Should it update an existing memory or create a new one? In our new paper in the Journal of Neuroscience, we isolate that exact decision, moment-by-moment during learning.
We used computational modeling to predict, trial-by-trial, the exact moments when learners updated a memory or created a new one. We then asked what brain regions tracked the shift between these predicted operations.
The anterior hippocampus showed distinct engagement for memory-creation vs. memory-updating events. These effects held up across different stimulus sets and were independent of whether individuals responded correctly when making memory decisions.
The ventral striatum also tracked the shift between memory creation vs. updating, but only hippocampal activity predicted learning success. How well the hippocampus separated those two operations early in learning predicted whether people mastered the task.
We also found the hippocampus doesn't work in isolation. During memory creation, it's functionally coupled with ventromedial prefrontal cortex and angular gyrus. During updating, it coupled with premotor cortex. Same region, different networks, depending on what the learning moment called for.
Read the full paper here.
