Phase precession in the human hippocampus and entorhinal cortex

Highlights

• In phase precession, neurons code information by spiking faster than local oscillations
  
• Neurons in the human brain exhibit phase precession during a spatial memory task
  
• As in rodents, precession occurs relative to space in the hippocampal formation
  
• In the frontal cortex, non-spatial precession occurs while seeking specific goals
  

Summary
Knowing where we are, where we have been, and where we are going is critical to many behaviors, including navigation and memory. One potential neuronal mechanism underlying this ability is phase precession, in which spatially tuned neurons represent sequences of positions by activating at progressively earlier phases of local network theta oscillations. Based on studies in rodents, researchers have hypothesized that phase precession may be a general neural pattern for representing sequential events for learning and memory. By recording human single-neuron activity during spatial navigation, we show that spatially tuned neurons in the human hippocampus and entorhinal cortex exhibit phase precession.

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Phase precession in the human hippocampus and entorhinal cortex