Consolidated memories can return to a labile state if they are reactivated by unpredictable reminders. To persist, active memories must be re-stabilized through a process known as reconsolidation. Although there is consistent behavioral evidence about this process in humans, the retrieval process of reconsolidated memories remains poorly understood. In this context, one fundamental question is whether the same or different neurophysiological mechanisms are involved in retrieval of consolidated and reconsolidated memories. Because it has been demonstrated that the exposure to the reconsolidation process may restructure and strengthen memories, we hypothesized distinct neurophysiological patterns during retrieval of reconsolidated memories. In addition, we hypothesized that interfering with the reconsolidation process using a new learning can prevent these neurophysiological changes. To test it, consolidated, reconsolidated and declarative memories whose reconsolidation process was interfered (i.e., picture-word pairs) were evaluated in humans in an old/new associative recall task while the brain activity and the pupillary response were recorded using electroencephalography and eyetracking. Our results showed that retrieval of reconsolidated memories elicits specific patterns of brain activation, characterized by an earlier peak latency and a smaller magnitude of the left parietal ERP old/new effect compared to memories that were only consolidated or whose reconsolidation process was interfered by a new learning. Moreover, our results demonstrated that only retrieval of reconsolidated memories is associated with a late reversed mid-frontal effect in a 600–690 time window. Complementarily, memories that were reactivated showed an earlier peak latency of the pupil old/new effect compared to non-reactivated memories. These findings support the idea that reconsolidation has an important impact in how memories are retrieved in the future, showing that retrieval of reconsolidated memories is partially supported by specific brain mechanisms.

如果被不可预测的提醒重新激活，巩固的记忆可以恢复到不稳定的状态。为了坚持下去，必须通过称为重新巩固的过程重新稳定活动的记忆。尽管有关于人类这一过程的一致行为证据，但对重新巩固记忆的检索过程仍然知之甚少。在这种情况下，一个基本问题是在恢复巩固和重新巩固的记忆中是否涉及相同或不同的神经生理机制。因为已经证明暴露于再巩固过程可能会重构和加强记忆，我们假设在再巩固记忆的检索过程中存在不同的神经生理学模式。此外，我们假设使用新的学习来干扰再巩固过程可以防止这些神经生理学变化。为了测试它，在旧/新联想回忆任务中，在人类中评估了再巩固过程受到干扰的巩固、再巩固和陈述性记忆（即图片-词对），同时使用脑电图和眼动追踪记录了大脑活动和瞳孔反应。我们的结果表明，与仅被巩固的记忆或其再巩固过程受到新的干扰的记忆相比，重新巩固记忆的检索引发了特定的大脑激活模式，其特征在于更早的峰值潜伏期和更小的左顶叶 ERP 旧/新效应。学习。而且，我们的结果表明，在 600-690 时间窗口中，只有重新巩固记忆的检索与晚期逆转的中额叶效应相关。作为补充，与未重新激活的记忆相比，重新激活的记忆显示出瞳孔旧/新效应的更早峰值潜伏期。这些发现支持这样的观点，即重新巩固对未来记忆的检索方式有重要影响，表明特定大脑机制部分支持重新巩固记忆的检索。