Contributions of the anterior and posterior hippocampus to long-term memory

Abstract

Distinct patterns of connectivity are thought to give rise to specialized functions within the anterior and posterior hippocampus. Consequently, there are several hypotheses regarding hippocampal long-axis specialization, including memory encoding versus retrieval, broad/gist-like representations versus detailed/fine-grained representations, and other cognitive processes versus spatial processing. This dissertation investigates the contributions of the anterior and posterior hippocampus to long-term memory. Chapter 1 investigates domain specificity in the hippocampus to determine how retrieval activity differs for two types of context information. Chapter 2 distinguishes between two prominent hypotheses of long-axis specialization to determine whether spatial memory encoding involves the anterior or posterior hippocampus. Chapter 3 investigates functional connectivity with the anterior and posterior hippocampus during spatial memory encoding and retrieval to test the predictions of the hippocampal encoding/retrieval and network (HERNET) model of memory (Kim, 2015). Together, the results presented in this dissertation provide insights into the roles of the anterior and posterior hippocampus and their interactions with the rest of the brain.