Silva Marta, Wu Xiongbo, Sabio Marc, Conde-Blanco Estefanía, Roldán Pedro, Donaire Antonio, Carreño Mar, Axmacher Nikolai, Baldassano Christopher, Fuentemilla Lluís
Department of Cognition, Development and Education Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Institute of Neuroscience (UBNeuro), University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 1;16(1):5647. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60788-0.
Ripples are fast oscillatory events widely recognized as crucial markers for memory consolidation and neural plasticity. These transient bursts of activity are thought to coordinate information transfer between the hippocampus and neocortical areas, providing a temporal framework that supports the stabilization and integration of new memories. However, their role in human memory encoding during naturalistic scenarios remains unexplored. Here, we recorded intracranial electrophysiological data from ten epilepsy patients watching a movie. Ripples were analyzed in the hippocampus and neocortical regions (i.e., temporal and frontal cortex). Our results revealed a differential dynamical pattern of ripple occurrence during encoding. Enhanced hippocampal ripple recruitment was observed at event boundaries, reflecting hippocampal involvement in event segmentation, whereas higher ripple rates were seen within an event for cortical electrodes with higher ripple occurrence at the temporal cortex, reflecting whether an event was later recalled. These findings shed light on the neural mechanisms underlying memory encoding and provide insights into the potential role of ripples in the encoding of an event, suggesting an impact on the formation of long-term memories of distinct episodes.
涟漪是快速振荡事件，被广泛认为是记忆巩固和神经可塑性的关键标志物。这些短暂的活动爆发被认为可协调海马体与新皮质区域之间的信息传递，提供一个支持新记忆稳定和整合的时间框架。然而，它们在自然场景下人类记忆编码中的作用仍未得到探索。在此，我们记录了10名观看电影的癫痫患者的颅内电生理数据。对海马体和新皮质区域（即颞叶和额叶皮质）的涟漪进行了分析。我们的结果揭示了编码过程中涟漪出现的差异动态模式。在事件边界处观察到海马体涟漪募集增强，反映出海马体参与事件分割，而在事件中，皮质电极的涟漪发生率更高，颞叶皮质的涟漪发生率更高，反映了一个事件随后是否被回忆起来。这些发现揭示了记忆编码背后的神经机制，并为涟漪在事件编码中的潜在作用提供了见解，表明其对不同情节的长期记忆形成有影响。
