Engram competition as a flexible mechanism of forgetting
Forgetting is increasingly viewed as an active, adaptive process that enables memory updating and behavioral flexibility.
Experimental work shows that forgotten memories can often be recovered, indicating that their memory traces may remain intact and available, but become temporarily inaccessible.
Recent findings suggest that distinct memory engrams for a given external stimulus can coexist and compete for expression. Forgetting may reflect the prioritization of one engram over others, during a momentary exposure to an associated stimulus.
The authors propose that engram competition offers a unifying framework to explain natural forgetting, representational drift, and certain pathological memory impairments.
https://www.cell.com/trends/neurosciences/fulltext/S0166-2236(25)00153-5
