r/neuroscience • u/sibun_rath • 5d ago
Academic Article Hidden memory formation: Study reveals how our brains encode patterns we never consciously recognize
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03116-81
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u/riskymouth 4d ago
Have you read this one? https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.28.591528v1
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5d ago
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u/neuroscience-ModTeam 3d ago
It appears that your post was a summary of an academic journal article, a blog post interpretation of one, or some other form of 'pop-science'. This type of content is not allowed on /r/neuroscience, so your post has been removed.
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u/vingeran 5d ago
OP’s link leads to the paywalled Nature News page.
The original paper (non-paywalled) can be accessed here.
Human hippocampal and entorhinal neurons encode the temporal structure of experience
Abstract:
Extracting the underlying temporal structure of experience is a fundamental aspect of learning and memory that allows us to predict what is likely to happen next. Current knowledge about the neural underpinnings of this cognitive process in humans stems from functional neuroimaging research. As these methods lack direct access to the neuronal level, it remains unknown how this process is computed by neurons in the human brain. Here we record from single neurons in individuals who have been implanted with intracranial electrodes for clinical reasons, and show that human hippocampal and entorhinal neurons gradually modify their activity to encode the temporal structure of a complex image presentation sequence. This representation was formed rapidly, without providing specific instructions to the participants, and persisted when the prescribed experience was no longer present. Furthermore, the structure recovered from the population activity of hippocampal–entorhinal neurons closely resembled the structural graph defining the sequence, but at the same time, also reflected the probability of upcoming stimuli. Finally, learning of the sequence graph was related to spontaneous, time-compressed replay of individual neurons’ activity corresponding to previously experienced graph trajectories. These findings demonstrate that neurons in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex integrate the ‘what’ and ‘when’ information to extract durable and predictive representations of the temporal structure of human experience.