Rewarded Outcomes Enhance Reactivation of Experience in the Hippocampus

Remembering experiences that lead to reward is essential for survival. The hippocampus is required for forming and storing memories of events and places, but the mechanisms that associate specific experiences with rewarding outcomes are not understood. Event memory storage is thought to depend on th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuron (Cambridge, Mass.) Mass.), 2009-12, Vol.64 (6), p.910-921
Main Authors: Singer, Annabelle C., Frank, Loren M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Action Potentials - physiology
Animals
Behavior
Behavior, Animal - physiology
CA3 Region, Hippocampal - physiology
Hippocampus - physiology
Learning - physiology
Male
Memory - physiology
Motivation - physiology
Neurons - physiology
Neuropsychological Tests
Rats
Rats, Long-Evans
Reward
Rodents
SIGNALING
Space Perception - physiology
SYSBIO
SYSNEURO
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Remembering experiences that lead to reward is essential for survival. The hippocampus is required for forming and storing memories of events and places, but the mechanisms that associate specific experiences with rewarding outcomes are not understood. Event memory storage is thought to depend on the reactivation of previous experiences during hippocampal sharp wave ripples (SWRs). We used a sequence switching task that allowed us to examine the interaction between SWRs and reward. We compared SWR activity after animals traversed spatial trajectories and either received or did not receive a reward. Here, we show that rat hippocampal CA3 principal cells are significantly more active during SWRs following receipt of reward. This SWR activity was further enhanced during learning and reactivated coherent elements of the paths associated with the reward location. This enhanced reactivation in response to reward could be a mechanism to bind rewarding outcomes to the experiences that precede them.
ISSN:0896-6273
1097-4199
DOI:10.1016/j.neuron.2009.11.016