Post-learning Hippocampal Replay Selectively Reinforces Spatial Memory for Highly Rewarded Locations

Highlights

• Rats show stronger memory for highly rewarded locations
• Disruption of hippocampal SWRs only affects memory for highly rewarded locations
• Hippocampal replay events are biased to trajectories associated with high reward

Summary

Offline replay of hippocampal neural patterns supports the acquisition of new tasks in novel contexts, but its contribution to consolidation of salient experiences in a familiar context is unknown. Here, we show that in a highly familiar spatial memory task, large rewards selectively enhanced performance for demanding task configurations. The reward-related enhancement was sensitive to ripple-specific disruption, and the proportion of replay events positively correlated with reward size and task demands. Hippocampal replay thus selectively enhances memory of highly rewarded locations in a familiar context.