TY - JOUR T1 - Refresh my memory: Episodic memory reinstatements intrude on working memory maintenance JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/170720 SP - 170720 AU - Abigail N. Hoskin AU - Aaron M. Bornstein AU - Kenneth A. Norman AU - Jonathan D. Cohen Y1 - 2017/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/31/170720.abstract N2 - A fundamental question in memory research is how different forms of memory interact. Previous research has shown that when working memory (WM) is overloaded or maintenance is interrupted in short-term memory tasks, humans and animals can rely on episodic memory (EM) to support performance. Furthermore, episodic memory reactivation appears also to occur on its own (i.e., irrespective of demand), even during the short delays typically used in WM experiments. Based on these observations, we hypothesized that EM reinstatements would affect WM, even in the absence of any interference. Using novel behavioral and neural signatures of the effect of EM on WM, we show that EM introduces additional information into WM by reinstating incidental associations (context) present during initial encoding. The first two experiments establish that the influence of encoding context is evident both in errors (Experiment 1) and in slowing of responses (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 shows that fMRI evidence of EM reinstatement during the delay predicts response times on each trial. Modeling WM search using a Drift-Diffusion Model (DDM), we show that fits improve when trial drift rate varies with fMRI evidence for reinstatement during that trial’s delay period. These results expose a previously hidden interaction between WM maintenance and EM replay, and raise new questions about the adaptive nature of the interplay between these mechanisms. ER -