Alpha Oscillations Track the Projection of Reactivated Memories into Conscious Awareness.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience April 15, 2026 Benjamin J Griffiths
Episodic memory is conscious by definition, but it is unclear whether memory reactivation alone guarantees overt recall. Magnetoencephalography recordings from 31 participants completing a video-word paired-associates memory task showed that sensory cortical reactivation could occur without overt recall. Overt recall was predicted by an increase in reactivated representations fluctuating within the alpha band and a decrease in total sensory neocortical alpha power. These findings suggest that representational reactivation does not ensure recall and that alpha oscillations help project internally generated representations into conscious awareness.