Empirical test of reversibility of long-term memory repulsion effects

Establish experimentally whether repulsion effects in long-term memory are reversible, as predicted by the key–value memory architecture that optimizes keys for discriminability.

Background

Behavioral and neural data show learned repulsion of hippocampal representations for overlapping experiences, supporting the view that keys are optimized for discriminability. The key–value framework further predicts that such repulsion should be reversible under appropriate conditions.

Despite its importance for testing the theory, this prediction has not yet been subjected to direct experimental evaluation, motivating targeted behavioral and neuroimaging studies.