Open AccessThe hippocampus as the switchboard between perception and memory
Author(s) -
Matthias S. Treder,
Ian Charest,
Sebastian Michelmann,
María Carmen Martín-Buro,
Frédéric Roux,
Fernando Carceller-Benito,
Arturo Ugalde-Canitrot,
David T. Rollings,
Vijay Sawlani,
Ramesh Chelvarajah,
Maria Wimber,
Simon Hanslmayr,
Bernhard P. Staresina
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.2114171118
Subject(s) - hippocampal formation , neuroscience , recall , hippocampus , psychology , mnemonic , electroencephalography , prefrontal cortex , cognitive psychology , cognition
Significance How do we adaptively switch from perceiving the external world to retrieving goal-relevant internal memories? To tackle this question, we used—in a cued-recall paradigm—direct intracranial recordings from the human hippocampus complemented by high-density scalp electroencephalography (EEG). We found that a hippocampal signal ∼500 ms after a perceptual cue marks the conversion from external (perceptual) to internal (mnemonic) representations. This sets in motion a recall cascade involving posterior parietal and medial prefrontal cortex, revealed via source-localized and time-resolved EEG alpha power. Together, these results unveil the hippocampal–cortical dynamics supporting rapid and flexible memory recall.