Specific hippocampal representations are linked to generalized cortical representations in memory

By Jai Y. Yu, Daniel F. Liu, Adrianna Loback, Irene Grossrubatscher, Loren M. Frank. 2017

63 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Memories link information about specific experiences to more general knowledge that is abstracted from and contextualizes those experiences. Hippocampal-cortical activity patterns representing features of past experience are reinstated during awake memory reactivation events, but whether representations of both specific and general features of experience are simultaneously reinstated remains unknown. We examined hippocampal and prefrontal cortical firing patterns during memory reactivation in rats performing a well-learned foraging task with multiple spatial paths. We found that specific hippocampal place representations are preferentially reactivated with the subset of prefrontal cortical task representations that generalize across different paths. Our results suggest that hippocampal-cortical networks maintain links between stored representations for specific and general features of experience, which could support abstraction and task guidance in mammals.Memory representations in cortex and hippocampus are reactivated during sharp-wave ripple (SWR) events. Here, the authors show that, in a familiar environment, this activity preferentially links spatially selective hippocampal cells and task general PFC representations, pointing to a potential neural mechanism for generalization of individual experiences.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience

Citations in the corpus

• Replay in Deep Learning: Current Approaches and Missing Biological Elements (2021, neutral): “This was demonstrated in a recent experiment involving rats in various tasks, where coordinated partial replay of hippocampal and prefrontal cortical neurons represented generalization across different paths (Yu, Liu, Loback, Grossrubatscher, & Frank, 2018).”