Ensemble recordings of 73 to 148 rat hippocampal neurons were used to predict accurately the animals' movement through their environment, which confirms that the hippocampus transmits an ensemble code for location. In a novel space, the ensemble code was initially less robust but improved rapidly with exploration. During this period, the activity of many inhibitory cells was suppressed, which suggests that new spatial information creates conditions in the hippocampal circuitry that are conducive to the synaptic modification presumed to be involved in learning. Development of a new population code for a novel environment did not substantially alter the code for a familiar one, which suggests that the interference between the two spatial representations was very small. The parallel recording methods outlined here make possible the study of the dynamics of neuronal interactions during unique behavioral events.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/261/5124/1055.full.pdf

Dynamics of the hippocampal ensemble code for space

Sparse coding of sensory inputs.

There is considerable evidence that the hippocampal system contributes both to (1) the temporary maintenance of memories and to (2) the processing of a particular type of memory representation. The findings on amnesia suggest that these two distinguishing features of hippocampal memory processing are orthogonal. Together with anatomical and physiological data, the neuropsychological findings support a model of cortico-hippocampal interactions in which the temporal and representational properties of hippocampal memory processing are mediated separately. We propose that neocortical association areas maintain shortterm memories for specific items and events prior to hippocampal processing as well as providing the final repositories of long-term memory. The parahippocampal region supports intermediate-term storage of individual items, and the hippocampal formation itself mediates an organization of memories according to relevant relationships among items. Hippocampal-cortical interactions produce (i) strong and persistent memories for events, including their constituent elements and the relationships among them, and (ii) a capacity to express memories flexibly across a wide range of circumstances.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0140525X00035391

Two functional components of the hippocampal memory system

http://cogs200.pbworks.com/f/Eichenbaum%2099%20Hippocampus.pdf

The Hippocampus, Memory, and Place Cells: Is It Spatial Memory or a Memory Space?

Hippocampal “Time Cells” Bridge the Gap in Memory for Discontiguous Events

In the present study, nearly two-thirds of all hippocampal pyramidal units isolated under barbiturate anesthesia, which maximizes these cell's activity, were behaviorally silent. These "silent cells" showed no spontaneous firing activity in the awake, freely-behaving rat. Both reanesthetization and antidromic stimulation, however, activated these silent cells. More than 92% of the remaining spontaneously active hippocampal pyramidal cells recorded from freely-behaving rats were place cells; i.e., they exhibited spatially specific changes in firing activity in at least one environment. The firing rates of these place cells varied depending on the animal's location in this environment. Interestingly many of these place cells displayed low or no spontaneous activity and no spatial specificity in other, dissimilar environments; i.e., their lack of firing in some spatial environments mirrored the behavioral silence of the more numerous silent cells reported here. In complex information processing, such as the processing of spatial information by the hippocampus demonstrated here, neural silence may be as important a signal as neural activity.

https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/9/7/2382.full.pdf

PJ Best

Papers

Place cells and silent cells in the hippocampus of freely-behaving rats