The terminology is confusing: neuroscientists refer to the entire process as “reconsolidation,” but isn’t it the very last stage of the process where reconsolidation occurs?
That is correct. The reconsolidation or re-locking of the altered memory is the very last stage of the process. Nevertheless, the term “reconsolidation” has already come to be the name of the whole process. What comes first is the unlocking or de-consolidation of the target implicit memory, what neuroscientists term the “destabilization” of the memory trace, returning it to a “labile” condition in which it is revisable or disruptable. The previously locked synapses are physically, molecularly unlocked. Then the “reconsolidation window” is open for a limited time, during which a contradictory experience can rewrite the memory, altering or deleting it. In less than 6 hours, a built-in, complex molecular mechanism re-locks the synapses, closing the window and launching the reconsolidation of the memory. Like the original consolidation of a new memory, which takes weeks, reconsolidation takes an extended time to complete the molecular and structural process that finalizes the redesigned sy
