title: Context-dependent incremental timing cells in the primate hippocampus.
abstract: We examined timing-related signals in primate hippocampal cells as animals performed an object-place (OP) associative learning task. We found hippocampal cells with firing rates that incrementally increased or decreased across the memory delay interval of the task, which we refer to as incremental timing cells (ITCs). Three distinct categories of ITCs were identified. Agnostic ITCs did not distinguish between different trial types. The remaining two categories of cells signaled time and trial context together: One category of cells tracked time depending on the behavioral action required for a correct response (i.e., early vs. late release), whereas the other category of cells tracked time only for those trials cued with a specific OP combination. The context-sensitive ITCs were observed more often during sessions where behavioral learning was observed and exhibited reduced incremental firing on incorrect trials. Thus, single primate hippocampal cells signal information about trial timing, which can be linked with trial type/context in a learning-dependent manner.
authors.affiliation: Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003;
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Sakon
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Peking University-Tsinghua University Center for Life Sciences and International Data Group/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; and.
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Naya
authors.affiliation: Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive, CNRS, 69675 Bron, France.
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wirth
authors.affiliation: Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003; wendy@cns.nyu.edu.
authors.forename: Wendy A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D011323:Primates / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: associative learning; behavioral learning; hippocampus; primate; time