Experience-dependent contextual codes in the hippocampus
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Abstract
The hippocampus contains neural representations capable of supporting declarative memory. Hippocampal place cells are one such representation, firing in one or few locations in a given environment. Between environments, place cell firing fields remap (turning on/off or moving to a new location) to provide a population-wide code for distinct contexts. However, the manner by which contextual features combine to drive hippocampal remapping remains a matter of debate. Using large-scale in vivo two-photon intracellular calcium recordings in mice during virtual navigation, we show that remapping in the hippocampal region CA1 is driven by prior experience regarding the frequency of certain contexts and that remapping approximates an optimal estimate of the identity of the current context. A simple associative-learning mechanism reproduces these results. Together, our findings demonstrate that place cell remapping allows an animal to simultaneously identify its physical location and optimally estimate the identity of the environment.
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To develop internal space-like maps from aliased sensations and egocentric actions, the learning agent has to appropriately split or merge sensations based on sequential contexts.
“To develop internal space-like maps from these aliased sensations and egocentric actions (as illustrated in the sketch in Fig. 1A), the learning agent has to appropriately split or merge sensations based on sequential contexts (Fig. 1B) (12, 13).”
From Space is a latent sequence: A theory of the hippocampus (2024) · cites this paper as [13]
The Discussion (page unavailable) reports that prior experience predicts whether hippocampal spatial representations remap discretely or continuously, supporting the general idea that experience shapes context-dependent maps. It does not establish that a learning agent must split or merge aliased sensations based on sequential contexts or egocentric actions. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAn animal's prior experience with an environment can shape how the hippocampus delineates these categories.
“Related experimental work demonstrates that an animal’s prior experience with an environment can shape how the hippocampus delineates these categories (Plitt and Giocomo, 2021)”
From Remapping in a recurrent neural network model of navigation and context inference (2023) · cites this paper as Plitt and Giocomo, 2021
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Hippocampal remapping as hidden state inference
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“40 Each of these hypotheses can be seen as layering a discrete latent variable (e.g. changes in reference landmarks, task context, or prior experience) on top of a distributed neural code of position, which are the essential ingredients of our RNN task.”
BackgroundSelf-citationRemapping in a recurrent neural network model of navigation and context inference
Low, I. I. C., Giocomo, L. M., & Williams, A. H. (2023) · doi:10.1101/2023.01.25.525596 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Self-citationRemapping in a recurrent neural network model of navigation and context inference
Low, I. I., Giocomo, L. M., & Williams, A. H. (2023) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.86943.3 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Plitt, M. H., & Giocomo, L. M.
- Affiliations
- Stanford Medicine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Plitt, Mark H.
- Giocomo, Lisa M.
- Venue
- Nature Neuroscience
- Published
- 2021-03-22
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 705-714
- ISSN
- 1097-6256 (ISSN-L)
- 1546-1726
- PMC
- PMC8893323
- OpenAlex
- W3136745559
- Cited by
- 101
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 4
- FWCI
- 9.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- New York Stem Cell Foundation
- United States Department of Defense | United States Navy | Office of Naval Research (N00141812690)
- Simons Foundation (542987SPI)
- Vallee Foundation
- National Science Foundation
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Developmental Neuroscience › Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Keywords
- hippocampus, place cells, CA1, virtual navigation, associative learning, probabilistic inference, spatial memory, virtual reality, calcium imaging
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Female, Hippocampus, Male, Neurons, Maze Learning, Mice, CA1 Region, Hippocampal
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