Hippocampal-Neocortical Interaction

The understanding of the functional relationship between these two structures is a subject of intense research, most of which assumes this relationship underlies memory consolidation.

Two-stage memory model
A popular hypothesis argues that generally the hippocampus is the fast learner and the cortex is the slow learner. In this model, novel memory traces are temporarily stored/represented in the hippocampus and over some time these traces are transferred to the cortex, takes a longer time to stably encode. This model fits some general observations of how memory works. In addition, the hippocampus is known to 'replay' previous firing patterns, sometimes in quick bursts called sharp-wave ripples (SWRs). SWRs have been proposed to strengthen recently formed traces in the hippocampus and also to transfer the traces to the cortex. SWRs have been found to occur in phase with cortical slow wave spindles.
 * Some evidence shows that the cortex and hippocampus might be able to hold recent and conflicting memories and that they might be able to 'learn' them near simultaneously.
 * Evidence exists that the cortex does not always act as a 'slow learner' and this might be a flawed assumption.