Schemata enhance memory formation for related novel information. This is true even when this information is neutral with respect to schema-driven expectations. This assimilation of novel information into schemata has been attributed to more effective organizational processing that leads to more referential connections with the activated associative schema network. Animal data suggest that systems consolidation of novel assimilated information is also accelerated. In the current study, we used both multivariate and univariate fMRI analyses to provide further support for these proposals and to elucidate the neural underpinning of these processes. Twenty-eight participants (5 male) overlearned fictitious schemata for 7 weeks and then encoded novel related and control facts in the scanner. These facts were retrieved both immediately and 2 weeks later, also in the scanner. Our results conceptually replicate previous findings with respect to enhanced vmPFC–hippocampus coupling during encoding of novel related information and point to a prior knowledge effect that is distinct from situations where novel information is experienced as congruent or incongruent with a schema. Moreover, the combination of both multivariate and univariate results further specified the proposed contributions of the vmPFC, precuneus and angular gyrus network to the more efficient encoding of schema-related information. In addition, our data provide further evidence for more efficient systems consolidation of such novel schema-related and potentially assimilated information.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Our prior knowledge in a certain domain, often termed schema, heavily influences whether and how we form memories for novel information that can be related to them. The results of the current study show how a ventromedial prefrontal-precuneal-angular network contributes to the more efficient encoding of novel related information. Furthermore, the observed increase in prefrontal–hippocampal coupling during this process points to a critical distinction from the previously described mechanisms supporting the encoding of information that is experienced as congruent with schema-driven expectations. In addition, we find further support for the proposal based on animal data that prior knowledge enhances also the consolidation of schema-related information.

图式增强了相关新信息的记忆形成。即使此信息相对于模式驱动的期望是中立的，情况也是如此。这种将新信息同化为图式的过程归因于更有效的组织处理，从而导致与激活的关联图式网络有更多的参考连接。动物数据表明，新同化信息的系统整合也在加速。在当前的研究中，我们使用多变量和单变量功能磁共振成像分析来为这些建议提供进一步的支持，并阐明这些过程的神经基础。 28 名参与者（5 名男性）在 7 周内过度学习了虚构的图式，然后在扫描仪中编码了新颖的相关和控制事实。这些事实会立即和两周后在扫描仪中检索到。我们的结果在概念上复制了先前关于新相关信息编码过程中 vmPFC-海马耦合增强的发现，并指出了先验知识效应，该效应不同于新信息被体验为与图式一致或不一致的情况。此外，多变量和单变量结果的组合进一步明确了 vmPFC、楔前叶和角回网络对更有效地编码模式相关信息的贡献。此外，我们的数据为更有效地系统整合此类新颖的模式相关和潜在同化信息提供了进一步的证据。

意义陈述我们在某个领域的先验知识（通常称为图式）严重影响我们是否以及如何形成与它们相关的新信息的记忆。目前的研究结果表明，腹内侧前额叶-楔前角网络如何有助于更有效地编码新的相关信息。此外，在此过程中观察到的前额叶-海马耦合的增加表明，与之前描述的支持与图式驱动的期望一致的信息编码的机制存在关键区别。此外，我们发现基于动物数据的提案得到了进一步的支持，即先验知识也增强了模式相关信息的整合。