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The hippocampus influences assimilation and accommodation of schemata that are not hippocampus‐dependent
Author(s) -
Armelin Anna,
Heinemann Uwe,
de Hoz Livia
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
hippocampus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.767
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1098-1063
pISSN - 1050-9631
DOI - 10.1002/hipo.22687
Subject(s) - hippocampus , schema (genetic algorithms) , psychology , neuroscience , cognitive psychology , computer science , machine learning
Learning is facilitated when information can be incorporated into an already learned set of rules or ‘mental schema’. The location of a new restaurant, for example, is learned more easily if the neighbourhood's general layout is already known. This type of information is processed by the hippocampus and stored as a schema in the cortex, but it is not known whether the hippocampus can also map new stimuli to cortical schemata that are hippocampus‐independent, such as odour classification. Using a hippocampus‐independent odour‐rule task we found that animals without a functional hippocampus learnt which odours did not fit the rule faster than sham animals, which persistently applied the rule to all odours. Conversely, when non‐fitting odours were linked to a new rule sham animals were faster to link these odours to the new rule. The hippocampus, thus, regulates the association of stimuli with existing schemata even when the schemata are hippocampus‐independent. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.