Distinct neuronal populations in the human brain combine content and context.

ABSTRACT: The medial temporal lobe, and particularly the hippocampus, has been proposed to encode items in context^1,2. Although hippocampal memory representations are largely context-dependent in rodents^3,4, concept cells in humans appear to be context-invariant⁵. However, it remains unknown how item and context information are combined to form or retrieve integrated item-in-context memories at the single-neuron level in humans. Here we show that coordinated activity of distinct neuronal populations supports item-in-context memory. In a context-dependent picture-comparison task, we recorded 3,109 neurons from 16 neurosurgical patients, identifying 597 stimulus-modulated (pre-screened) and 200 context-modulated neurons (2.95% in the amygdala, 7.68% in the parahippocam

SUBMITTER: Bausch M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12916488 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature