Hippocampal brain-network coordination during volitional exploratory behavior enhances learning

Exploratory behaviors during learning determine what is studied and when, helping to optimize subsequent memory performance. We manipulated how much control subjects had over the position of a moving window through which they studied objects and their locations, in order to elucidate the cognitive and neural determinants of exploratory behaviors. Our behavioral, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging data indicate volitional control benefits memory performance, and is linked to a brain network centered on the hippocampus. Increases in correlated activity between the hippocampus and other areas were associated with specific aspects of memory, suggesting that volitional control optimizes interactions among specialized neural systems via the hippocampus. Memory is therefore an active process intrinsically linked to behavior. Furthermore, brain structures typically seen as passive participants in memory encoding (e.g., the hippocampus) are actually part of an active network that controls behavior dynamically as it unfolds.