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Learning of anticipatory responses in single neurons of the human medial temporal lobe.

ABSTRACT: Neuronal processes underlying the formation of new associations in the human brain are not yet well understood. Here human participants, implanted with depth electrodes in the brain, learned arbitrary associations between images presented in an ordered, predictable sequence. During learning we recorded from medial temporal lobe (MTL) neurons that responded to at least one of the pictures in the sequence (the preferred stimulus). We report that as a result of learning, single MTL neurons show asymmetric shifts in activity and start firing earlier in the sequence in anticipation of their preferred stimulus. These effects appear relatively early in learning, after only 11 exposures to the stimulus sequence. The anticipatory neuronal responses emerge while the subjects became faster in reporting the next item in the sequence. These results demonstrate flexible representations that could support learning of new associations between stimuli in a sequence, in single neurons in the human MTL.

SUBMITTER: Reddy L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4617602 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Learning of anticipatory responses in single neurons of the human medial temporal lobe.

Reddy Leila L Poncet Marlene M Self Matthew W MW Peters Judith C JC Douw Linda L van Dellen Edwin E Claus Steven S Reijneveld Jaap C JC Baayen Johannes C JC Roelfsema Pieter R PR

Nature communications 20151009

Neuronal processes underlying the formation of new associations in the human brain are not yet well understood. Here human participants, implanted with depth electrodes in the brain, learned arbitrary associations between images presented in an ordered, predictable sequence. During learning we recorded from medial temporal lobe (MTL) neurons that responded to at least one of the pictures in the sequence (the preferred stimulus). We report that as a result of learning, single MTL neurons show asy ...[more]

PMID: 26449885

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Project description:Investigations into how individual neurons encode behavioral variables of interest have revealed specific representations in single neurons, such as place and object cells, as well as a wide range of cells with conjunctive encodings or mixed selectivity. However, as most experiments examine neural activity within individual tasks, it is currently unclear if and how neural representations change across different task contexts. Within this discussion, the medial temporal lobe is particularly salient, as it is known to be important for multiple behaviors including spatial navigation and memory, however the relationship between these functions is currently unclear. Here, to investigate how representations in single neurons vary across different task contexts in the MTL, we collected and analyzed single-neuron activity from human participants as they completed a paired-task session consisting of a passive-viewing visual working memory and a spatial navigation and memory task. Five patients contributed 22 paired-task sessions, which were spike sorted together to allow for the same putative single neurons to be compared between the different tasks. Within each task, we replicated concept-related activations in the working memory task, as well as target-location and serial-position responsive cells in the navigation task. When comparing neuronal activity between tasks, we first established that a significant number of neurons maintained the same kind of representation, responding to stimuli presentations across tasks. Further, we found cells that changed the nature of their representation across tasks, including a significant number of cells that were stimulus responsive in the working memory task that responded to serial position in the spatial task. Overall, our results support a flexible encoding of multiple, distinct aspects of different tasks by single neurons in the human MTL, whereby some individual neurons change the nature of their feature coding between task contexts.

Dataset Information

Learning of anticipatory responses in single neurons of the human medial temporal lobe.

Publications

Learning of anticipatory responses in single neurons of the human medial temporal lobe.

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