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Hippocampal neurons code individual episodic memories in humans.

Kolibius, Luca D, Roux, Frederic, Parish, George, Ter Wal, Marije, Van Der Plas, Mircea, Chelvarajah, Ramesh, Sawlani, Vijay, Rollings, David T, Lang, Johannes D, Gollwitzer, Stephanie, and others. (2023) Hippocampal neurons code individual episodic memories in humans. Nature human behaviour, 7 (11). pp. 1968-1977. ISSN 2397-3374. (doi:10.1038/s41562-023-01706-6) (KAR id:103341)

Abstract

The hippocampus is an essential hub for episodic memory processing. However, how human hippocampal single neurons code multi-element associations remains unknown. In particular, it is debated whether each hippocampal neuron represents an invariant element within an episode or whether single neurons bind together all the elements of a discrete episodic memory. Here we provide evidence for the latter hypothesis. Using single-neuron recordings from a total of 30 participants, we show that individual neurons, which we term episode-specific neurons, code discrete episodic memories using either a rate code or a temporal firing code. These neurons were observed exclusively in the hippocampus. Importantly, these episode-specific neurons do not reflect the coding of a particular element in the episode (that is, concept or time). Instead, they code for the conjunction of the different elements that make up the episode. [Abstract copyright: © 2023. The Author(s).]

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1038/s41562-023-01706-6
Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics (inc Computing science)
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Computing
Funders: European Research Council (https://ror.org/0472cxd90)
SWORD Depositor: JISC Publications Router
Depositing User: JISC Publications Router
Date Deposited: 01 Nov 2023 15:34 UTC
Last Modified: 21 Mar 2024 10:48 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/103341 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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