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Contributed Talk Session: Friday, August 15, 12:00 – 1:00 pm, Room C1.03
Poster Session C: Friday, August 15, 2:00 – 5:00 pm, de Brug & E‑Hall

What does spatial tuning tell us about the neural computation in the hippocampus?

Maxime Daigle¹, Kaicheng Yan¹, Benjamin Corrigan, Julio Martinez-Trujillo, Pouya Bashivan¹; ¹McGill University

Presenter: Maxime Daigle

The hippocampus has long been regarded as a neural map of physical space, with its neurons categorized as spatially or non-spatially tuned according to their response selectivity. However, growing evidence suggests that this dichotomy oversimplifies the complex roles hippocampal neurons play in integrating spatial and non-spatial information. Through computational modeling and in-vivo electrophysiology in macaques, we show that neurons classified as spatially tuned, primarily encode linear combinations of spatial and non-spatial features, while those labeled as non-spatially tuned rely on nonlinear mechanisms. Moreover, we demonstrate that nonlinear recurrent connections are crucial for capturing the response dynamics of non-spatially tuned neurons. These findings challenge the traditional dichotomy of spatial versus non-spatial representations and instead suggest a continuum of linear and nonlinear computations.

Topic Area: Memory, Spatial Cognition & Skill Learning

Extended Abstract: Full Text PDF