Year: 1996
Type: review
Abstract: The hippocampal formation appears to play an important role in the ability of rats and other mammals to perform sophisticated spatial tasks, beyond simply following a familiar route or approaching a visible cue. Evidence for this role came from the observation of selective spatial deficits after hippocampal lesions (O'Keefe et al., 1975; O'Keefe and Nadel, 1978; Morris et al., 1982; Sutherland et al., 1982) and from the spatially selective firing of hippocampal complex spike cells (O'Keefe and Dostrovsky, 1971; McNaughton et al., 1983; Muller et al., 1987) ("place cells"), and led to the suggestion that the hippocampus was the locus of a cognitive map in the mammalian brain (O'Keefe and Nadel, 1978). The hippocampus is thought to have a broader mnemonic function in higher mammals like monkeys and humans,
Authors: N Burgess, J O'Keefe
Institution: University College London
Language: English
Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2055152157