The generative neural microdynamics of cognitive processing

• Published in: Current opinion in neurobiology 2024-04, Vol.85, p.102855-102855, Article 102855
• Main Author: McNamee, Daniel C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0959-4388; 1873-6882
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2024.102855

The entorhinal cortex and hippocampus form a recurrent network that informs many cognitive processes, including memory, planning, navigation, and imagination. Neural recordings from these regions reveal spatially organized population codes corresponding to external environments and abstract spaces. Aligning the former cognitive functionalities with the latter neural phenomena is a central challenge in understanding the entorhinal-hippocampal circuit (EHC). Disparate experiments demonstrate a surprising level of complexity and apparent disorder in the intricate spatiotemporal dynamics of sequential non-local hippocampal reactivations, which occur particularly, though not exclusively, during immobile pauses and rest. We review these phenomena with a particular focus on their apparent lack of physical simulative realism. These observations are then integrated within a theoretical framework and proposed neural circuit mechanisms that normatively characterize this neural complexity by conceiving different regimes of hippocampal microdynamics as neuromarkers of diverse cognitive computations. •Sequential hippocampal reactivations vary in terms of their statistical dynamics and physical realism.•Neural microdynamical structure is indicative of specific cognitive computations.•Nonlocal hippocampal sequences as samples for rapid inference rather than veridical simulation.•Flexible role for the entorhinal cortex in modulating hippocampal microdynamics.