Memory retrieval modulates spatial tuning of single neurons in the human entorhinal cortex

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Salman E. Qasim, Columbia University; Jonathan Miller, Columbia University; Cory S. Inman, Emory University; Robert Gross, Emory University; Jon Willie, Emory University; Bradley Lega, University of Texas Southwestern; Jui-Jui Lin, University of Texas Southwestern; Ashwini Sharan, Thomas Jefferson University; Chengyuan Wu, Thomas Jefferson University; Michael R. Sperling, Thomas Jefferson University; Sameer A. Sheth, Baylor College of Medicine; Guy M. McKhann, Columbia University; Elliot H. Smith, University of Utah; Catherine Schevon, Columbia University; Joshua M. Stein, University of Pennsylvania; Joel Jacobs, Columbia University
• Language: English
• Date: 2019-12-01
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature America, Inc.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41593-019-0523-z
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Nature Neuroscience
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 12
• Start Page: 2078
• End Page: +
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported by NIH grants R01-MH104606 (to J.J.), S10-OD018211 (to C.S.), NSF grants BCS-1724243 and BCS-1848465 (to J.J.), and NSF Graduate Research Fellowship DGE 16-44869 (to S.E.Q.).
• Keywords: Representation; Hippocampus; Neurosciences & Neurology; Cognitive map; Neurosciences; Science & Technology; Episodic memory; Grid cells; Organization; Unit activity; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Location; Place cells; TAU Pathology
• Research Categories: Biology, Neuroscience; Biology, Cell; Engineering, Biomedical; Health Sciences, Pathology

Abstract

The medial temporal lobe is critical for both spatial navigation and memory. Although single neurons in the medial temporal lobe activate to represent locations in the environment during navigation, how this spatial tuning relates to memory for events involving those locations remains unclear. We examined memory-related changes in spatial tuning by recording single-neuron activity from neurosurgical patients performing a virtual-reality object–location memory task. We identified ‘memory-trace cells’ with activity that was spatially tuned to the retrieved location of the specific object that participants were cued to remember. Memory-trace cells in the entorhinal cortex, in particular, encoded discriminable representations of different memories through a memory-specific rate code. These findings indicate that single neurons in the human entorhinal cortex change their spatial tuning to target relevant memories for retrieval.