# From Correlation to Causation: Understanding Episodic Memory Networks

## TL;DR

This paper reviews how brain stimulation techniques like TMS help understand how brain regions work together to form and recall memories.

## Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive review of how TMS is used to causally investigate episodic memory networks.

## Key findings

- TMS allows causal investigation of brain regions involved in episodic memory.
- The hippocampus and fronto-parietal regions are key in encoding and retrieving memories.
- NIBS techniques offer new insights beyond traditional neuroimaging methods.

## Abstract

Episodic memory, our ability to recall past experiences, is supported by structures in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) particularly the hippocampus, and its interactions with fronto-parietal brain regions. Understanding how these brain regions coordinate to encode, consolidate, and retrieve episodic memories remains a fundamental question in cognitive neuroscience. Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) methods, especially transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), have advanced episodic memory research beyond traditional lesion studies and neuroimaging by enabling causal investigations through targeted magnetic stimulation to specific brain regions. This review begins by delineating the evolving understanding of episodic memory from both psychological and neurobiological perspectives and discusses the brain networks supporting episodic memory processes. Then, we review studies that employed TMS to modulate episodic memory, with the aim of identifying potential cortical regions that could be used as stimulation sites to modulate episodic memory networks. We conclude with the implications and prospects of using NIBS to understand episodic memory mechanisms.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12264-025-01407-2.