Neuron.
Bessières, Prikas, et al. report that episodic-like learning in infant mice establishes enduring memory schemas that guide adult behavior. The schema facilitates relearning and the formation of new, congruent memories in adulthood. Infantile schemas undergo hippocampus-dependent systems consolidation. While adult relearning relies on the PFC, the facilitation of new congruent memories requires PFC and top-down PFC-to-hippocampus neural projections.