Why there are complementary learning systems in the hippocampus and neocortex: Insights from the successes and failures of connectionist models of learning and memory

Summary

Why does damage to the hippocampus erase recent memories but spare remote ones? The authors propose that memories are first stored quickly in the hippocampal system and then gradually integrated into the neocortex, which learns slowly so that new experiences can be interleaved with old ones without disrupting the structure it has already learned.

CommentaryTwo speeds of memory — one fast and specific, one slow and structural — remain one of the clearest blueprints for how an AI might remember a person without losing what it already knows.