Accommodating representation in the neuroscience of memory: a conceptual blending analysis of replay and preplay in hippocampal place cell research

Abstract

Abstract Neurons called place cells are selectively activated in correspondence with the location or place field that a rodent occupies. In a phenomenon that neuroscientists call replay, place cell activation sequences rapidly repeat during subsequent periods of rest and grooming. Replay has been theorized as a mechanism for reinforcement learning of the spatial trajectories represented by place cell coactivation. Preplay is a competing theory that suggests that these sequences also occur before a novel run and that sequences are not recordings of position made in real time, but rather pre-made repertoires that an organism selects from as it makes a trajectory through space. The preplay theory maintains the language of representation while breaking from the entailment of the conceptual metaphor “MEMORIES ARE RECORDINGS” that recordings are produced simultaneously to the experiences that they represent. It does so through a conceptual blend that affords preplay researchers flexibility in their theorizing about memory without requiring a break from representationalism. Broadly, these findings demonstrate how the blending of conceptual metaphors is a viable approach for the implicit development and contestation of theories of representation in the neural and cognitive sciences.