A Matter of Time

Atanu Datta

Memory
Obje
ct

Touc
h

TIM
E

Spac
e

Odor

Temporal Sequence of events objects or

actions

Time and the Hippocampus

Time cells
Found in Hippocampus with no specific
topographic organization
Code for time in delay intervals.
Increase or decrease their firing rate
(FR) to code for passage of time.
Track time even without active
locomotion.

Previous Studies
Roden
ts

Primat
es
olfactory
temporal order
task

Visual
temporal order
task

CA1
hippocampal
cell
populations
code time, by
changes in
population
activity

Time cells
coded fo what
items and in
which
sequential
order.

AIM
To characterize incremental timing signals in
object place associative learning task.

Time

Spac
e

Objec
t

Object Place Combination

O1

P1

O
2
P2

O1P1, O2P2 Early

Release
O1P2, O2P1 Late
Release

PARADIGM

Data Acquisition
Behavioral
Training

Specific OP
combination is learnt
if Pr(Correct
Response) > 0.95

Electrophysiol MRI guided insertion

ogy
of microelectrodes via
chamber and grid
(n=152
system
recorded)
Into Primate
hippocampus.
139/152 were
correct trials

Results
Agnostic ITCs: n=61/139 agnostic;

Increased FR n=9

Decreased FR n=7

16/61 ITCs

Release selective
ITCs

n=78/139, differentiated
between trial types
43/78 were release
selective early
(O1P1,O2P2) vs late
release (O2P1, O1P2)
trials.
n= 21/43 cells were ITCs.
n=10 FR Incremental
Rise in firing rate
n= 11 FR Incremental
Decrease in firing)g rate
Eg of early release
increasing FR and late

OP selective
ITCs

n=31/139 codes for

one particular OP
combination out of 4.
n=26/31 OP selective
ITCs.
n=10/26
Incrementally
increased FR .
n=16/26
Incrementally
decreased FR.
Eg. of O2P2 selective
Decreasing FR ITC.

Learning Related Neural

Signals

Percentage of ITCS recorded when

at least one OP combination was
learnt .

Number of OP combinations learnt

in sessions in which Ag, RS, and
OP ITCs were recorded.

Signals related to task

performance
Compared responses of all three categories
ITCs of correct trials vs. incorrect trials.

Zi = Z-
(Normalization)

Zi- Z score
Z- Raw firing rate
- Average firing rate
- Standard Deviation
Z score is a population representation of all
PSTH of all trial types.

r trial- Early release of bar in late release trial; Late release of bar in earl

Correct trials vs Error Trials

RS ITC

Ag. ITC

OP ITC
y-=mx+c; m
=tan
Release selective ITCs
showed significantly
greater differences in
incremental tuning
when comparing correct
vs incorrect trials than

Summary
Studied delay activity of hippocampal ITCs in OP
learning task.
ITCs increased or decre3ased FR with passage of time.
Agnostic, Release Selective and OP selective ITCs were
characterized.
Release and OP selective integrated time and context.
RS and OP selective ITCs fired significantly more for
learning OP combinations than agnostic ITCs.
Thus, RS and OP ITCs are responsible for learning OP
combinations.
All three categories of ITCs showed decreased firing
rate in error trials than in correct trials.
Thus ITCs also code for task performance.

THANK YOU