Ongoing brain state dynamics shape spontaneous awake reactivation and its relationship with memory

Authors

Kim, H.-W., Xu, T., Nenning, K.-H., Franco, A. R., D'Esposito, M., Colcombe, S., Milham, M., Tambini, A.

Abstract

Memory reactivation is thought to support memory consolidation, but the brain states supporting spontaneous awake reactivation remain poorly understood. Here, we asked whether spontaneous hippocampal-cortical reactivation during awake rest is embedded within ongoing whole-brain state dynamics by examining its coupling with whole-brain activity patterns and infra-slow global signal (GS) fluctuations. Reactivation preferentially occurred during an internally oriented brain state characterized by default mode network activation and dorsal attention network suppression, as well as brain states that reinstated encoding-related visual activity. Reactivation was also coupled to GS features previously associated with lower arousal, clustering around the peak of infra-slow GS fluctuations and in high GS amplitude time windows. Importantly, the relationship between reactivation and memory depended on the ongoing brain state: the expression of distinct whole-brain activity patterns during reactivation was associated with opposing memory outcomes, while reactivation during high GS amplitude windows was positively associated with retention. Together, these findings show that awake memory reactivation is embedded within dynamic whole-brain states and suggest that the ongoing brain state helps explain both when spontaneous reactivation occurs and how it relates to memory.

Preprint server: bioRxiv
The authors list and abstract were imported from bioRxiv on 01 Oct 2026.

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