IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-61464-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Neurophysiological evidence of human hippocampal longitudinal differentiation in associative memory

Author

Listed:
  • Tung V. To

    (UT Southwestern Medical Center)

  • David X. Wang

    (UT Southwestern Medical Center)

  • Cody B. Wolfe

    (UT Southwestern Medical Center)

  • Bradley C. Lega

    (UT Southwestern Medical Center
    UT Southwestern Medical Center)

Abstract

In humans, the hippocampus exhibits evident structural and connectivity differences along the longitudinal axis. Experiments in rodents and more recently in human subjects have stimulated several theories of functional longitudinal specialization. This question pertains directly to the management of neurosurgical patients, as nascent technologies permit more precise treatments that can selectively spare longitudinal regions. With this in mind, we investigated hippocampal longitudinal specialization in 32 human intracranial EEG subjects as they performed an associative recognition episodic memory task. Utilizing the behavioral contrasts available in this task, we characterize the neurophysiological features that distinguish the anterior versus posterior hippocampal activity during recollection and familiarity–based memory retrieval, as well as novelty processing. We use subspace representations to characterize longitudinal differences in the temporal dynamics of key computational processes ascribed to the hippocampus, namely pattern separation and pattern completion. We place our findings in the context of existing models, adding to sparse literature using direct brain recordings to explicate the functional differentiation along the hippocampal longitudinal axis in humans.

Suggested Citation

  • Tung V. To & David X. Wang & Cody B. Wolfe & Bradley C. Lega, 2025. "Neurophysiological evidence of human hippocampal longitudinal differentiation in associative memory," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-18, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-61464-z
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61464-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61464-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-61464-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manuela Costa & Diego Lozano-Soldevilla & Antonio Gil-Nagel & Rafael Toledano & Carina R. Oehrn & Lukas Kunz & Mar Yebra & Costantino Mendez-Bertolo & Lennart Stieglitz & Johannes Sarnthein & Nikolai , 2022. "Aversive memory formation in humans involves an amygdala-hippocampus phase code," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, December.
    2. Berens, Philipp, 2009. "CircStat: A MATLAB Toolbox for Circular Statistics," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 31(i10).
    3. Jie Zheng & Kristopher L. Anderson & Stephanie L. Leal & Avgusta Shestyuk & Gultekin Gulsen & Lilit Mnatsakanyan & Sumeet Vadera & Frank P. K. Hsu & Michael A. Yassa & Robert T. Knight & Jack J. Lin, 2017. "Amygdala-hippocampal dynamics during salient information processing," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, April.
    4. Anli A. Liu & Simon Henin & Saman Abbaspoor & Anatol Bragin & Elizabeth A. Buffalo & Jordan S. Farrell & David J. Foster & Loren M. Frank & Tamara Gedankien & Jean Gotman & Jennifer A. Guidera & Kari , 2022. "A consensus statement on detection of hippocampal sharp wave ripples and differentiation from other fast oscillations," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Tamara Gedankien & Ryan Joseph Tan & Salman Ehtesham Qasim & Haley Moore & David McDonagh & Joshua Jacobs & Bradley Lega, 2023. "Acetylcholine modulates the temporal dynamics of human theta oscillations during memory," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Manuela Costa & Diego Lozano-Soldevilla & Antonio Gil-Nagel & Rafael Toledano & Carina R. Oehrn & Lukas Kunz & Mar Yebra & Costantino Mendez-Bertolo & Lennart Stieglitz & Johannes Sarnthein & Nikolai , 2022. "Aversive memory formation in humans involves an amygdala-hippocampus phase code," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, December.
    2. Tim A. Guth & Armin Brandt & Peter C. Reinacher & Andreas Schulze-Bonhage & Joshua Jacobs & Lukas Kunz, 2025. "Theta-phase locking of single neurons during human spatial memory," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-20, December.
    3. Leslie J. Sibener & Alice C. Mosberger & Tiffany X. Chen & Vivek R. Athalye & James M. Murray & Rui M. Costa, 2025. "Dissociable roles of distinct thalamic circuits in learning reaches to spatial targets," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-18, December.
    4. N. B. Diamond & S. Simpson & D. Baena & B. Murray & S. Fogel & B. Levine, 2025. "Sleep selectively and durably enhances memory for the sequence of real-world experiences," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 9(4), pages 746-757, April.
    5. Joshua M. Diamond & Julio I. Chapeton & Weizhen Xie & Samantha N. Jackson & Sara K. Inati & Kareem A. Zaghloul, 2024. "Focal seizures induce spatiotemporally organized spiking activity in the human cortex," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    6. Irina Pochinok & Tristan M. Stöber & Jochen Triesch & Mattia Chini & Ileana L. Hanganu-Opatz, 2024. "A developmental increase of inhibition promotes the emergence of hippocampal ripples," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    7. Thomas Schreiner & Marit Petzka & Tobias Staudigl & Bernhard P. Staresina, 2023. "Respiration modulates sleep oscillations and memory reactivation in humans," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. János Körmendi & Eszter Ferentzi & Tara Petzke & Vera Gál & Ferenc Köteles, 2023. "Do we need to accurately perceive our heartbeats? Cardioceptive accuracy and sensibility are independent from indicators of negative affectivity, body awareness, body image dissatisfaction, and alexit," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(7), pages 1-17, July.
    9. Thomas Schreiner & Elisabeth Kaufmann & Soheyl Noachtar & Jan-Hinnerk Mehrkens & Tobias Staudigl, 2022. "The human thalamus orchestrates neocortical oscillations during NREM sleep," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, December.
    10. Ran Zhang & Xianyang Gan & Ting Xu & Fangwen Yu & Lan Wang & Xinwei Song & Guojuan Jiao & Xiqin Liu & Feng Zhou & Benjamin Becker, 2025. "A neurofunctional signature of affective arousal generalizes across valence domains and distinguishes subjective experience from autonomic reactivity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-21, December.
    11. Celia M. Gagliardi & Marc E. Normandin & Alexandra T. Keinath & Joshua B. Julian & Matthew R. Lopez & Manuel-Miguel Ramos-Alvarez & Russell A. Epstein & Isabel A. Muzzio, 2024. "Distinct neural mechanisms for heading retrieval and context recognition in the hippocampus during spatial reorientation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-22, December.
    12. Alireza Saeedi & Kun Wang & Ghazaleh Nikpourian & Andreas Bartels & Nikos K. Logothetis & Nelson K. Totah & Masataka Watanabe, 2024. "Brightness illusions drive a neuronal response in the primary visual cortex under top-down modulation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    13. Arthur Pewsey & Eduardo García-Portugués, 2021. "Recent advances in directional statistics," TEST: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 30(1), pages 1-58, March.
    14. Matteo Guardamagna & Oscar Chadney & Federico Stella & Qiangwei Zhang & Clifford Kentros & Francesco P. Battaglia, 2025. "Direct entorhinal control of CA1 temporal coding," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-12, December.
    15. César Henrique Mattos Pires & Felipe M. Pimenta & Carla A. D'Aquino & Osvaldo R. Saavedra & Xuerui Mao & Arcilan T. Assireu, 2020. "Coastal Wind Power in Southern Santa Catarina, Brazil," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-23, October.
    16. Matthijs J. Warrens & Bunga C. Pratiwi, 2016. "Kappa Coefficients for Circular Classifications," Journal of Classification, Springer;The Classification Society, vol. 33(3), pages 507-522, October.
    17. Lombard, F. & Hawkins, Douglas M. & Potgieter, Cornelis J., 2017. "Sequential rank CUSUM charts for angular data," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 268-279.
    18. Masataka Sawayama & Shin'ya Nishida, 2018. "Material and shape perception based on two types of intensity gradient information," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-40, April.
    19. Aguiar-Conraria, Luis & Martins, Manuel M.F. & Soares, Maria Joana, 2018. "Estimating the Taylor rule in the time-frequency domain," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 122-137.
    20. Daniel S. Kluger & Carina Forster & Omid Abbasi & Nikos Chalas & Arno Villringer & Joachim Gross, 2023. "Modulatory dynamics of periodic and aperiodic activity in respiration-brain coupling," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-61464-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.