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Concept neurons in the human medial temporal lobe flexibly represent abstract relations between concepts

Author

Listed:
  • Marcel Bausch

    (University of Bonn Medical Center)

  • Johannes Niediek

    (University of Bonn Medical Center)

  • Thomas P. Reber

    (University of Bonn Medical Center
    Faculty of Psychology, UniDistance Suisse)

  • Sina Mackay

    (University of Bonn Medical Center)

  • Jan Boström

    (University of Bonn Medical Center)

  • Christian E. Elger

    (University of Bonn Medical Center)

  • Florian Mormann

    (University of Bonn Medical Center)

Abstract

Concept neurons in the medial temporal lobe respond to semantic features of presented stimuli. Analyzing 61 concept neurons recorded from twelve patients who underwent surgery to treat epilepsy, we show that firing patterns of concept neurons encode relations between concepts during a picture comparison task. Thirty-three of these responded to non-preferred stimuli with a delayed but well-defined onset whenever the task required a comparison to a response-eliciting concept, but not otherwise. Supporting recent theories of working memory, concept neurons increased firing whenever attention was directed towards this concept and could be reactivated after complete activity silence. Population cross-correlations of pairs of concept neurons exhibited order-dependent asymmetric peaks specifically when their response-eliciting concepts were to be compared. Our data are consistent with synaptic mechanisms that support reinstatement of concepts and their relations after activity silence, flexibly induced through task-specific sequential activation. This way arbitrary contents of experience could become interconnected in both working and long-term memory.

Suggested Citation

  • Marcel Bausch & Johannes Niediek & Thomas P. Reber & Sina Mackay & Jan Boström & Christian E. Elger & Florian Mormann, 2021. "Concept neurons in the human medial temporal lobe flexibly represent abstract relations between concepts," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-26327-3
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26327-3
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hernan G. Rey & Emanuela De Falco & Matias J. Ison & Antonio Valentin & Gonzalo Alarcon & Richard Selway & Mark P. Richardson & Rodrigo Quian Quiroga, 2018. "Encoding of long-term associations through neural unitization in the human medial temporal lobe," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Emanuela De Falco & Matias J. Ison & Itzhak Fried & Rodrigo Quian Quiroga, 2016. "Long-term coding of personal and universal associations underlying the memory web in the human brain," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-11, December.
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    4. Johannes Niediek & Jan Boström & Christian E Elger & Florian Mormann, 2016. "Reliable Analysis of Single-Unit Recordings from the Human Brain under Noisy Conditions: Tracking Neurons over Hours," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(12), pages 1-26, December.
    5. Mostafa M. El-Kalliny & John H. Wittig & Timothy C. Sheehan & Vishnu Sreekumar & Sara K. Inati & Kareem A. Zaghloul, 2019. "Changing temporal context in human temporal lobe promotes memory of distinct episodes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    6. Bernhard P. Staresina & Thomas P. Reber & Johannes Niediek & Jan Boström & Christian E. Elger & Florian Mormann, 2019. "Recollection in the human hippocampal-entorhinal cell circuitry," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sina Mackay & Thomas P. Reber & Marcel Bausch & Jan Boström & Christian E. Elger & Florian Mormann, 2024. "Concept and location neurons in the human brain provide the ‘what’ and ‘where’ in memory formation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Thomas P. Reber & Sina Mackay & Marcel Bausch & Marcel S. Kehl & Valeri Borger & Rainer Surges & Florian Mormann, 2023. "Single-neuron mechanisms of neural adaptation in the human temporal lobe," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.

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