The hippocampus and memory: insights from spatial processing

By Chris M. Bird, Neil Burgess. 2008

1,266 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The hippocampus appears to be crucial for long-term episodic memory, yet its precise role remains elusive. Electrophysiological studies in rodents offer a useful starting point for developing models of hippocampal processing in the spatial domain. Here we review one such model that points to an essential role for the hippocampus in the construction of mental images. We explain how this neural-level mechanistic account addresses some of the current controversies in the field, such as the role of the hippocampus in imagery and short-term memory, and discuss its broader implications for the neural bases of episodic memory.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience, Neurology

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Citations in the corpus

Causal Discovery from Nonstationary/Heterogeneous Data: Skeleton Estimation and Orientation Determination (2017, methodology): “We used the anatomical connections, for which see [Chris and Neil, 2008], because in theory a direct causal connection between two areas should not exist if there is no anatomical connection between them.”
Specific and Shared Causal Relation Modeling and Mechanism-Based Clustering (2019, methodology): “We used anatomical connections [3, 38] as a reference.”
Act-In: An integrated view of memory mechanisms (2014, background): “A number of authors have therefore suggested that episodic disorders may also be explained in terms of a deficit in the processing of the spatio-temporal context (Bird & Burgess, 2008).”
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in Athletes: Progressive Tauopathy following Repetitive Head Injury (2009, background): “The early involvement of the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and medial thalamus may explain episodic memory disturbance as a frequent presenting symptom (56).”
What does the retrosplenial cortex do? (2009, background): “The RSC is also consistently engaged by spatial navigation task”
Episodic Memory and Beyond: The Hippocampus and Neocortex in Transformation (2016, positive): “…scene representations from the PHC into a view-invariant representation that “frames the spatial relations among the various parts of the environment ” (Nadel & Peterson 2013, p. 1248) and locates those parts and their features within that spatial frame (Bird & Burgess 2008, Annu Rev Psychol.”
A new neural framework for visuospatial processing (2011, background): “2b ) has been implicated in spatial memory, imagination and planning (see REFS 14,127,128 for reviews).”
Neural Correlates of Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic and Quantitative Meta-Analysis involving 1,351 Patients (2009, positive): “Additionally, the hippocampus/parahippocampal cortex have been discussed in the context of spatial processing (Bird and Burgess, 2008; Epstein 2008).”
The Cognitive Neuroscience of Human Memory Since H.M (2011, background): “Specifically, it has been suggested that spatial representations can be established outside the hippocampus, and in parallel with hippocampal representations, but using somewhat different computations (Bird & Burgess 2008, Whitlock et al. 2008).”
Hippocampal Amnesia Impairs All Manner of Relational Memory (2008, background): “Although initially inspired by lesion and electrophysiological studies of rodents, this view has a number of adherents who cite recent neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies in humans for support (see Bird and Burgess, 2008 for a recent review).”