Abstract
SUMMARYThe offline “replay” of neural firing patterns underlying waking experience, previously observed in non-human animals, is thought to be a mechanism for memory consolidation. Here, we test for replay in the human brain by recording spiking activity from the motor cortex of two participants who had intracortical microelectrode arrays placed chronically as part of a brain-computer interface pilot clinical trial. Participants took a nap before and after playing a neurally controlled sequence-copying game that consists of many repetitions of one “repeated” sequence sparsely interleaved with varying “control” sequences. Both participants performed repeated sequences more accurately than control sequences, consistent with learning. We compare the firing rate patterns that caused the cursor movements when performing each sequence to firing rate patterns throughout both rest periods. Correlations with repeated sequences increase more from pre- to post-task rest than do correlations with control sequences, providing direct evidence of learning-related replay in the human brain.
Highlights
There is strong convergent evidence from behavioral, cognitive, lesion, and computational studies that following the initial encoding of new memories, offline mechanisms—yet to be fully elucidated—are involved in their long-term consolidation (Abel et al, 2013; Atherton et al, 2015)
The offline ‘‘replay’’ of neural firing sequences that occurred during learning has been proposed as a potential mechanism of memory consolidation and was initially described in rodents whose hippocampal ‘‘place cells’’ were found to fire in the same order during rest as they had while the animals ran along a recently traversed path (Pavlides and Winson, 1989; Skaggs and McNaughton, 1996; Wilson and McNaughton, 1994)
By presenting associated odor cues during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, a set of studies reported that odor re-exposure was associated with hippocampal activation during sleep (Diekelmann et al, 2011; Rasch et al, 2007)
Summary
There is strong convergent evidence from behavioral, cognitive, lesion, and computational studies that following the initial encoding of new memories, offline mechanisms—yet to be fully elucidated—are involved in their long-term consolidation (Abel et al, 2013; Atherton et al, 2015).
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