The DOI matches its Crossref record; 124 of the 124 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Concept cells: the building blocks of declarative memory functions
Abstract
Intracranial recordings in subjects suffering from intractable epilepsy - made during their evaluation for an eventual surgical removal of the epileptic focus - have allowed the extraordinary opportunity to study the firing of multiple single neurons in awake and behaving human subjects. These studies have shown that neurons in the human medial temporal lobe respond in a remarkably selective and abstract manner to particular persons or objects, such as Jennifer Aniston, Luke Skywalker or the Tower of Pisa. These neurons have been named 'Jennifer Aniston neurons' or, more recently, 'concept cells'. I argue that the sparse, explicit and abstract representation of these neurons is crucial for memory functions, such as the creation of associations and the transition between related concepts that leads to episodic memories and the flow of consciousness.
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In the citing paper
“We propose that neonatal bulbar neurogenesis may represent an early developmental mechanism contributing to the formation of such representations.”
From Positive early-life olfactory memory is rooted in the olfactory bulb and triggers large-scale changes beyond the olfactory system (2026) · cites this paper as [66]
In the citing paper
“Human 'concept cells' seem to encode a stable representation of a specific person or landmark, regardless of size or viewing angle 104,105 , providing sparse codes [G] for visually invariant abstractions related to personal events 106 .”
From From cognitive maps to spatial schemas (2023) · cites this paper as [106]
Citations
Cites
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LOSS OF RECENT MEMORY AFTER BILATERAL HIPPOCAMPAL LESIONS
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Hubel, D. H., & Wiesel, T. N. (1968) · The Journal of Physiology · doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1968.sp008455 · Cited by 6,685
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McClelland, J. L., McNaughton, B. L., & O'Reilly, R. C. (1995) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.102.3.419 · Cited by 5,256
Episodic memory: from mind to brain
Tulving, E. (2002) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135114 · Cited by 4,950
Receptive fields of single neurones in the cat's striate cortex
Hubel, D. H., & Wiesel, T. N. (1959) · The Journal of Physiology · doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1959.sp006308 · Cited by 4,653
Research works printed but not linked: 4
- Aristotle. De Anima (Penguin, London, reprinted 2004).
- Palmer, S. E. Vision Science (MIT Press, 1999).
- Bartlett, F. C. Remembering (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1932).
- Niedermeyer, E. in Electroencephalography (eds Lopes da Silva, F. & Niedermeyer, E.) 461–564 (Williams and Wilkins, 1993).
Cited by
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Episodic memory and beyond: the hippocampus and neocortex in transformation
Moscovitch, M., Cabeza, R., Winocur, G., & Nadel, L. (2016) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143733 · Cited by 1,062
Human-level performance in 3D multiplayer games with population-based reinforcement learning
Jaderberg, M., Czarnecki, W. M., Dunning, I., Marris, L., Lever, G., Castañeda, A. G., Beattie, C., Rabinowitz, N. C., Morcos, A. S., Ruderman, A., et al. (2019) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aau6249 · Cited by 662
“We also found individual neurons whose activations coded directly for some of these features, e.g. a neuron that was active if and only if the agent’s teammate was holding the flag, reminiscent of concept cells ( 51 ).”
BackgroundBoly, M., Massimini, M., Tsuchiya, N., Postle, B. R., Koch, C., & Tononi, G. (2017) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.3218-16.2017 · Cited by 557
“Due to space constraints, we will not review possible contributions to consciousness of the medial temporal lobe and of the insular cortex (Craig, 2010; Seth et al., 2011; Quiroga, 2012), except for pointing out that consciousness is preserved after bilateral lesions of these areas (Corkin, 2002; Damasio et al.”
BackgroundPast, present and future of spike sorting techniques
Rey, H. G., Pedreira, C., & Quiroga, R. Q. (2015) · Brain Research Bulletin · doi:10.1016/j.brainresbull.2015.04.007 · Cited by 451
“1) The multiunit cluster is formed by the superposition of different spikes, it has a relatively low amplitude and violates the refractory period of single neurons—i.e., spikes appear within less than 2.5 ms (Quian Quiroga, 2012a .”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationFrom Knowing to Remembering: The Semantic–Episodic Distinction
Renoult, L., Irish, M., Moscovitch, M., & Rugg, M. D. (2019) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2019.09.008 · Cited by 397
“These studies identified cells that responded to spe-cific individuals, places, or objects (and to stimuli associated with these concepts) whether the entity was presented as an image, or as a written or spoken word (reviewed in [61,62]).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Quiroga, R. Q.
- Affiliations
- University of Leicester (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Quiroga, Rodrigo Quian
- Venue
- Nature reviews. Neuroscience
- Published
- 2012-07-04
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 587-597
- ISSN
- 1471-003X (ISSN-L)
- 1471-0048
- OpenAlex
- W2040309074
- Cited by
- 472
- References
- 124
- Citations by year
- 2026: 39 · 2025: 50 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 38 · 2020: 39 · 2019: 59 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 33 · 2014: 30 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 2.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature reviews. Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Leicester Research Archive (University of Leicester) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Keywords
- medial temporal lobe, declarative memory, episodic memory, single-unit recording, drug-resistant epilepsy, object recognition, person recognition, memory associations, stream of consciousness
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Concept Formation, Humans, Memory, Nerve Net, Neural Pathways, Temporal Lobe, Synaptic Potentials
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