Integrating time from experience in the lateral entorhinal cortex

Albert Tsao (), Jørgen Sugar, Li Lu, Cheng Wang, James J. Knierim, May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser ()
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Albert Tsao: Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, NTNU
Jørgen Sugar: Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, NTNU
Li Lu: Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, NTNU
Cheng Wang: Johns Hopkins University
James J. Knierim: Johns Hopkins University
May-Britt Moser: Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, NTNU
Edvard I. Moser: Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation, NTNU

Nature, 2018, vol. 561, issue 7721, 57-62

Abstract: Abstract The encoding of time and its binding to events are crucial for episodic memory, but how these processes are carried out in hippocampal–entorhinal circuits is unclear. Here we show in freely foraging rats that temporal information is robustly encoded across time scales from seconds to hours within the overall population state of the lateral entorhinal cortex. Similarly pronounced encoding of time was not present in the medial entorhinal cortex or in hippocampal areas CA3–CA1. When animals’ experiences were constrained by behavioural tasks to become similar across repeated trials, the encoding of temporal flow across trials was reduced, whereas the encoding of time relative to the start of trials was improved. The findings suggest that populations of lateral entorhinal cortex neurons represent time inherently through the encoding of experience. This representation of episodic time may be integrated with spatial inputs from the medial entorhinal cortex in the hippocampus, allowing the hippocampus to store a unified representation of what, where and when.

Keywords: Lateral Entorhinal Cortex (LEC); Time Episodes; Medial Entorhinal Cortex (MEC); Decoding Accuracy; Temporal Epochs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0459-6

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