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Neural encoding of individual words and faces by the human hippocampus and amygdala

Nature volume 333, pages 773–775 (1988)Cite this article

Abstract

Patients with lesions in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) of the brain, which includes the hippocampus, amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus, are severely impaired in their ability to remember and recognize words or faces which they saw only a short time ago1,2. These lesions also prevent the effect of word repetition on cortical event-related potentials that are associated with these tasks3. We have been able to study the response of individual neurons in the human medial temporal lobe to such delayed recognition tasks in epileptic patients undergoing neurosurgery. We found that some MTL neurons preferentially fired on sight of one particular word from a set of ten words used in a memory task, and others fired in response to one particular face. This stimulus-specific firing was maximal during the time that the neocortical event potentials are most sensitive to stimulus repetition, suggesting that the MTL contributes specific information to the cortex during the retrieval of recent memories4,5.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brain Research Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, 90024, USA

    Gary Heit & Eric Halgren

  2. Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, 90024, USA

    Michael E. Smith

  3. Department of Psychiatry, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, 90024, USA

    Eric Halgren

  4. Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, 95403, USA

    Gary Heit

  5. Epilepsy Center, Wadsworth Veterans Administration MedicalCenter, Los Angeles, California, 90073, USA

    Eric Halgren

  6. INSERM U.97, Hospital St Anne, Paris, France

    Michael E. Smith & Eric Halgren

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  3. Eric Halgren
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Heit, G., Smith, M. & Halgren, E. Neural encoding of individual words and faces by the human hippocampus and amygdala. Nature 333, 773–775 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/333773a0

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