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The hippocampus as a predictive map

An Author Correction to this article was published on 25 April 2018

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Abstract

A cognitive map has long been the dominant metaphor for hippocampal function, embracing the idea that place cells encode a geometric representation of space. However, evidence for predictive coding, reward sensitivity and policy dependence in place cells suggests that the representation is not purely spatial. We approach this puzzle from a reinforcement learning perspective: what kind of spatial representation is most useful for maximizing future reward? We show that the answer takes the form of a predictive representation. This representation captures many aspects of place cell responses that fall outside the traditional view of a cognitive map. Furthermore, we argue that entorhinal grid cells encode a low-dimensionality basis set for the predictive representation, useful for suppressing noise in predictions and extracting multiscale structure for hierarchical planning.

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Figure 1: Updating value with the SR following change in reward.
Figure 2: SR illustration and model comparison.
Figure 3: Behaviorally dependent changes in place fields.
Figure 4: Hippocampal representations in nonspatial task.
Figure 5: Hippocampal representations in spatiotemporal task.
Figure 6: Grid fields in geometric environments.
Figure 7: Grid fragmentation in compartmentalized maze.
Figure 8: Grid fields in a multicompartment environment.

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  • 25 April 2018

    In the version of this article initially published, equation (7) read It should have read The error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to T. Behrens, I. Mommenejad, and K. Miller for helpful discussions, and to A. Mathis, H. Sanders, M. Chadwick, and D. Kumaran for comments on an earlier draft of the paper. This research was supported by the NSF Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS) Program Grant IIS-120 7833 and The John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies.

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All authors conceived the model and wrote the manuscript. Simulations were carried out by K.S.

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Correspondence to Kimberly L Stachenfeld.

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Stachenfeld, K., Botvinick, M. & Gershman, S. The hippocampus as a predictive map. Nat Neurosci 20, 1643–1653 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4650

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