How Does the Medial Prefrontal Cortex Regulate the Strength of Memory Encoding?

Material below summarizes the article Prefrontal Theta Oscillations Promote Selective Encoding of Behaviorally Relevant Events, published on December 26, 2018, in eNeuro and authored by Justin Jarovi, Julien Volle, Xiaotian Yu, Lisa Guan, and Kaori Takehara-Nishiuchi.
Imagine if we remembered every detail of every event we’ve ever experienced. Trying to find a particular memory would be like searching for a needle in a thousand haystacks.
Luckily, our brains don’t store carbon copies of all the events we’ve experienced. Rather, our brains tend to remember important events, and trivial ones are often forgotten. This ability to capture the most relevant information from everyday experiences without constantly learning unimportant details is vital to survival and mental health. But how do our brains decide which events are important enough to store as long-term memories?
Access to the full article is available to SfN members.
Neuronline is a benefit of SfN membership. Renew your membership now to make sure you don’t lose access.