Memory Systems

AbstractThe idea that there are multiple memory systems in the brain has a long and interesting history. Early views, based on philosophical considerations and introspection suggested distinctions between recollective memory, habit formation, and the adoption of preferences and aversions to arbitrary stimuli. Early experimental work focused on controversies over which of these is the fundamental mechanism that underlies memory. A reconciliation of these divergent views has emerged from recent studies in the cognitive neuroscience of memory showing that these different forms of memory can be selectively disrupted by damage to distinct brain regions. This research, and parallel characterizations of neural activity in different brain areas, has shown that the three major forms of long‐term memory are supported by distinct brain systems. These include: (1) a cortical‐hippocampal circuit that mediates declarative memory, our capacity to recollect facts and events, (2) motor memory subsystems involving on a cortical‐neostriatal circuit that mediates habit formation and a brainstem‐cerebellar circuit that mediates sensori‐motor adaptations, and (3) a circuit involving subcortical and cortical pathways through the amygdala that mediates the attachment of affective status and emotional responses to previously neutral stimuli.