During wake encoding, information is taken up by the sense organs and flows to the hippocampus via the association cortices. In the hippocampus a trace is formed fast but only for temporary storage (thick lines in the hippocampus represent the hippocampal trace, dashed lines in the cortex represent the corresponding cortical trace). During slow wave sleep the traces in the hippocampus are reactivated leading to their integration into the long-term store of the cortex (active system consolidation), where they are strengthened through synaptic consolidation (the consolidated trace is represented by thick lines in the cortex).