Pattern separation in the hippocampus

By Michael A. Yassa, Craig E. L. Stark. 2011

1,443 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The ability to discriminate among similar experiences is a critical feature of episodic memory. This ability has long been hypothesized to require the hippocampus, with computational models suggesting it is dependent on pattern separation. However, empirical data for the hippocampus’ role in pattern separation was not available until recently. This review summarizes data from electrophysiological recordings, lesion studies, immediate early gene imaging, transgenic mouse models, as well as human functional neuroimaging that provide convergent evidence for the involvement of particular hippocampal subfields in this key process. We discuss the impact of aging and adult neurogenesis on pattern separation, as well as highlight several challenges to linking across species and approaches and suggest future directions for investigation.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience, Developmental Neuroscience

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Citations in the corpus

Lifelong Learning of Spatiotemporal Representations With Dual-Memory Recurrent Self-Organization (2018, background): “, in the dentate gyrus, which are responsible for pattern separation through the orthogonalization of incoming inputs supporting the auto-associative storage and retrieval of item-specific information from individual episodes (Yassa and Stark, 2011; Neunuebel and Knierim, 2014).”
Re-evaluating circuit mechanisms underlying pattern separation (2019, positive): “As the first stage in this pathway, the dentate gyrus is thought to separate entorhinal input patterns prior to memory storage in the hippocampus (Marr, 1971; McNaughton and Morris, 1987; Yassa and Stark, 2011; Schmidt et al., 2012; Knierim and Neunuebel, 2016; Rolls, 2016).”
Automated Volumetry and Regional Thickness Analysis of Hippocampal Subfields and Medial Temporal Cortical Structures in Mild Cognitive Impairment (2014, background): “Similarly, hippocampal subfields are variably affected by AD pathology and also may differentially support critical memory processes, such as pattern separation and pattern completion [Yassa and Stark, 2011].”
The Persistence and Transience of Memory. (2017, background): “Moreover, another strategy the brain can use to solve this dilemma is to sparsely encode experiences using orthogonal representations, which may potentially arise from pattern separation processes (see Yassa and Stark, 2011 for a review).”
Reassessing pattern separation in the dentate gyrus (2013, background): “Firstly, pattern separation is not a phenomenon unique to only a few regions, such as the DG (Yassa and Stark, 2011).”
Spatial representations of granule cells and mossy cells of the dentate gyrus (2017, background): “Although accumulating evidence strongly supports the role of the DG in pattern separation (Neunuebel and Knierim, 2014; Hunsaker et al., 2008; Nakashiba et al., 2012; Yassa and Stark, 2011; Rolls and Kesner, 2006), the precise computational and circuit mechanisms underlying this role remain under de”
Dendrites of dentate gyrus granule cells contribute to pattern separation by controlling sparsity (2016, background): “Theoretical models refer to those processes as pattern separation and pattern completion, respectively (Marr, 1971; Treves and Rolls, 1994; Yassa and Stark, 2011; Santoro, 2013).”
CA3 Retrieves Coherent Representations from Degraded Input: Direct Evidence for CA3 Pattern Completion and Dentate Gyrus Pattern Separation (2014, result): “…shown evidence consistent with a pattern separation function in both DG and CA3 and a pattern completion function in CA3 (e.g., Gilbert et al., 2001; Rolls and Kesner, 2006; Kesner et al., 2000; McHugh et al., 2007; Nakazawa et al., 2002; Lee et al., 2004; for review, see Yassa and Stark, 2011).”
The cognitive map in humans: Spatial navigation and beyond (2017, neutral): “Mattingley, 2010, in Journal of Neuroscience, 30 (39),”
Pattern separation in the hippocampus through the eyes of computational modeling (2017, background): “Since there are several excellent reviews on pattern separation in general (Leutgeb & Leutgeb, 2007; Santoro, 2013; Schmidt et al., 2012; Yassa & Stark, 2011), we focus on presenting and discussing the different theoretical approaches and computational models that have examined the pattern…”
A computational atlas of the hippocampal formation using ex vivo, ultra-high resolution MRI: Application to adaptive segmentation of in vivo MRI (2015, neutral): “…roles in memory and learning (Gabrieli et al., 1997; Acsády and Káli, 2007; Knierim et al., 2006; Kesner, 2013; Kesner, 2007; Reagh et al., 2014; Yassa and Stark, 2011), and to be affected differently by AD and normal aging — as indicated by ex vivo , histological studies (Braak and Braak,…”
Physiological properties and behavioral correlates of hippocampal granule cells and mossy cells (2017, neutral): “Theoretical work, clinical imaging, and lesion experiments suggest that an important computational function of the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) is pattern separation (Marr, 1971; McNaughton and Morris, 1987; Treves and Rolls, 1994; Rolls and Kesner, 2006; Yassa and Stark, 2011; Myers and Scharfman”