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

• Published in: Nature neuroscience Vol. 22; no. 12; pp. 2078 - 2086
• Main Authors: Qasim, Salman E., Miller, Jonathan, Inman, Cory S., Gross, Robert E., Willie, Jon T., Lega, Bradley, Lin, Jui-Jui, Sharan, Ashwini, Wu, Chengyuan, Sperling, Michael R., Sheth, Sameer A., McKhann, Guy M., Smith, Elliot H., Schevon, Catherine, Stein, Joel M., Jacobs, Joshua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.12.2019; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/1647/1453; 631/378/1595; 9/30; Analysis; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Attention - physiology; Behavioral Sciences; Biological Techniques; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cortex (entorhinal); Cortex (temporal); Entorhinal Cortex - physiology; Humans; Memory - physiology; Memory tasks; Mental Recall - physiology; Mental task performance; Navigation behavior; Neural circuitry; Neurobiology; Neurons; Neurons - physiology; Neurosciences; Neurosurgery; Photic Stimulation; Place Cells - physiology; Retrieval; Space perception; Space Perception - physiology; Spatial memory; Temporal lobe; Tuning; Virtual memory systems; Virtual reality; United States
• ISSN: 1097-6256; 1546-1726; 1546-1726
• DOI: 10.1038/s41593-019-0523-z

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. Qasim et al. describe neurons in the human entorhinal cortex that activate near the locations in space that a person is cued to recall during a memory task. These results show one way in which the cognitive map shifts according to memory demands.