Encoding of long-term associations through neural unitization in the human medial temporal lobe

Hernan G. Rey; Emanuela De Falco; Matias J. Ison; Antonio Valentin; Gonzalo Alarcon; Richard Selway; Mark P. Richardson; Rodrigo Quian Quiroga

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06870-2

Encoding of long-term associations through neural unitization in the human medial temporal lobe

Hernan G. Rey, Emanuela De Falco, Matias J. Ison, Antonio Valentin, Gonzalo Alarcon, Richard Selway, Mark P. Richardson, Rodrigo Quian Quiroga^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Besides decades of research showing the role of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) in memory and the encoding of associations, the neural substrates underlying these functions remain unknown. We identified single neurons in the human MTL that responded to multiple and, in most cases, associated stimuli. We observed that most of these neurons exhibit no differences in their spike and local field potential (LFP) activity associated with the individual response-eliciting stimuli. In addition, LFP responses in the theta band preceded single neuron responses by ~70 ms, with the single trial phase providing fine tuning of the spike response onset. We postulate that the finding of similar neuronal responses to associated items provides a simple and flexible way of encoding memories in the human MTL, increasing the effective capacity for memory storage and successful retrieval.

Original language	English
Article number	4372
Pages (from-to)	1-13
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	9
Issue number	1
Early online date	22 Oct 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06870-2
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2018

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Encoding of long-term_REY_Acc28Sep2018Epub22Oct2018_GOLD VoR(CC BY)Final published version, 3.2 MBLicence: CC BY

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abstract = "Besides decades of research showing the role of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) in memory and the encoding of associations, the neural substrates underlying these functions remain unknown. We identified single neurons in the human MTL that responded to multiple and, in most cases, associated stimuli. We observed that most of these neurons exhibit no differences in their spike and local field potential (LFP) activity associated with the individual response-eliciting stimuli. In addition, LFP responses in the theta band preceded single neuron responses by ~70 ms, with the single trial phase providing fine tuning of the spike response onset. We postulate that the finding of similar neuronal responses to associated items provides a simple and flexible way of encoding memories in the human MTL, increasing the effective capacity for memory storage and successful retrieval.",

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AU - Rey, Hernan G.

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AU - Ison, Matias J.

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AU - Alarcon, Gonzalo

AU - Selway, Richard

AU - Richardson, Mark P.

AU - Quian Quiroga, Rodrigo

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Encoding of long-term associations through neural unitization in the human medial temporal lobe

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