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Published on: July 1, 2018
Positive and Negative Retinotopic Codes in the Human Hippocampus
Peter A Angeli1, Adam Steel2,3, Caroline E Robertson1
1Department of Psychology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA peter.a.angeli@dartmouth.edu caroline.e.robertson@dartmouth.edu.
Summary
Researchers discovered a bivalent retinotopic code in the human hippocampus, revealing its visual properties. This code, comprising positive and negative responses, suggests a link between sensory and memory systems.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Background:
- The hippocampus, crucial for memory, is at the visual hierarchy's apex.
- Its visual properties remain largely unknown.
- Recent studies suggest latent retinotopic codes in memory networks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if a bivalent retinotopic code exists within the human hippocampus.
- To characterize the visual properties of this hippocampal code.
Main Methods:
- High-resolution 7T functional MRI (fMRI) was employed.
- Voxel-scale population receptive field (pRF) modeling was used.
- Data was collected from 7 densely-sampled individuals.
Main Results:
- A robust, voxel-scale retinotopic code was found across hippocampal subfields.
- This code featured roughly equal positive and negative amplitude pRF responses.
- Hippocampal pRFs showed stable visual field preferences and contralateral bias.
- Retinotopic structure persisted even at rest, influencing functional connectivity.
Conclusions:
- The human hippocampus possesses a bivalent retinotopic organization.
- This code suggests a coupling between visual sensory and mnemonic systems.
- The bivalent code may be an intrinsic hippocampal principle for perceptual-mnemonic integration.
