Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA.
Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, TX, 75235, USA.
Nat Commun. 2022 Oct 18;13(1):6162. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33587-0.
Episodic memories, or consciously accessible memories of unique events, represent a key aspect of human cognition. Evidence from rodent models suggests that the neural representation of these complex memories requires cooperative firing of groups of neurons on short time scales, organized by gamma oscillations. These co-firing groups, termed "neuronal assemblies," represent a fundamental neurophysiological unit supporting memory. Using microelectrode data from neurosurgical patients, we identify neuronal assemblies in the human MTL and show that they exhibit consistent organization in their firing pattern based on gamma phase information. We connect these properties to memory performance across recording sessions. Finally, we describe how human neuronal assemblies flexibly adjust over longer time scales. Our findings provide key evidence linking assemblies to human episodic memory for the first time.
情景记忆，或对独特事件的有意识访问记忆，是人类认知的一个关键方面。来自啮齿动物模型的证据表明，这些复杂记忆的神经表示需要在短时间尺度上通过伽马振荡组织成群神经元的协同发射。这些共同发射的群组，称为“神经元集合”，代表支持记忆的基本神经生理单元。使用来自神经外科患者的微电极数据，我们在人类 MTL 中识别出神经元集合，并表明它们基于伽马相位信息在其发射模式中表现出一致的组织。我们将这些特性与整个记录过程中的记忆表现联系起来。最后，我们描述了人类神经元集合如何在更长的时间尺度上灵活地调整。我们的发现首次提供了将集合与人类情景记忆联系起来的关键证据。
