Commentary Prefrontal cortex and the organization of recent and remote memories: An alternative view

Since Marr’s (1971) classic work, theories of the hippocampus have been guided by four assumptions. 1. The hippocampus rapidly and automatically acquires information. 2. The hippocampus is a limited capacity storage system and consequently is subject to relatively rapid forgetting. 3. Information originally stored in the hippocampus becomes permanently stored in the cortex and independent of the hippocampus. 4. The hippocampus plays a critical role in the genesis of the cortical memories. The last three assumptions form the basis of what is called the standard theory of systems consolidation (Squire and Alvarez 1995). The major premise of this theory is that there is a dynamic reorganization in the location of memories as a function of their age. As new memories are formed, old memories get moved from the hippocampus to cortex. In its strong form, this theory predicts that, provided enough time, memories once dependent on the hippocampus can survive even if the hippocampus is completely removed. Numerous studies of humans and other animals with damage to the hippocampus have been conducted to evaluate this view. Recently, Bontempi, Frankland, and their colleagues (Bontemp