RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Structuring time: The hippocampus constructs sequence memories that generalize temporal relations across experiences
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.04.23.440002
DO 10.1101/2021.04.23.440002
A1 Jacob L. S. Bellmund
A1 Lorena Deuker
A1 Nicole D. Montijn
A1 Christian F. Doeller
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/07/28/2021.04.23.440002.abstract
AB The hippocampal-entorhinal region supports memory for episodic details, such as temporal relations of sequential events, and mnemonic constructions combining experiences for inferential reasoning. However, it is unclear whether hippocampal event memories reflect temporal relations derived from mnemonic constructions, event order, or elapsing time, and whether these sequence representations generalize temporal relations across similar sequences. Here, participants mnemonically constructed times of events from multiple sequences using infrequent cues and their experience of passing time. After learning, event representations in the anterior hippocampus reflected temporal relations based on constructed times. Temporal relations were generalized across sequences, revealing distinct representational formats for events from the same or different sequences. Structural knowledge about time patterns, abstracted from different sequences, biased the construction of specific event times. These findings demonstrate that mnemonic construction and the generalization of relational knowledge combine in the hippocampus, consistent with the simulation of scenarios from episodic details and structural knowledge.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.