Hippocampal neurons code individual episodic memories in humans

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature human behaviour 2023-11, Vol.7 (11), p.1968-1979
Main Authors: 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, Walther, Katrin, Hopfengärtner, Rüdiger, Kreiselmeyer, Gernot, Hamer, Hajo, Staresina, Bernhard P., Wimber, Maria, Bowman, Howard, Hanslmayr, Simon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/378/1595/1554
631/378/1595/2167
631/378/2649
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Behavioral Sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Dismissal
Episodic memory
Experimental Psychology
Hippocampus
Hippocampus - physiology
Humans
Life Sciences
Memories
Memory, Episodic
Microeconomics
Neurons
Neurons - physiology
Neurosciences
Personality and Social Psychology
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Summary: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. Kolibius et al. show that individual neurons in the human hippocampus code for particular episodic memories.
ISSN:2397-3374
2397-3374
DOI:10.1038/s41562-023-01706-6