Role of the hippocampus in systems consolidation of remote fear memory.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review synthesizing theories and mechanistic literature without primary empirical data.
PubMed 41974891 · doi:10.1038/s12276-026-01680-9
What was done
This narrative review summarizes theories of systems consolidation, examines time-dependent changes across the hippocampus and neocortex, reviews molecular factors underlying remote memory processing, and explores mechanisms of memory transfer from the hippocampus to cortical networks in the context of fear memory generalization.
What was found
The abstract provides no empirical numbers or quantitative data. Qualitatively, it discusses evidence that the hippocampus not only forms recent episodic and associative fear memories but also remains directly involved in remote memory retrieval, acting as an original source that coordinates with distributed neocortical areas and contributes to generalized fear responses over time.
Why it matters
It provides a theoretical synthesis linking hippocampal function to long-term memory maintenance and generalization, challenging the strict view that the hippocampus disengages entirely once memories become remote.
Limits
The abstract describes a narrative review rather than a systematic review or meta-analysis. It does not report sample sizes, specific species, study selection criteria, or quantitative outcomes.
Cited by
- supports Memories are first encoded in the hippocampus and then sent to circuits in the neocortex for storage.