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Seeing into the future

2011; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 469; Issue: 7330 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/469303a

1476-4687

Edvard I Moser, May‐Britt Moser,

Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research

The resting brain recapitulates activity patterns that occurred during a recent experience, possibly to aid long-term memory formation. Surprisingly, corresponding brain activity also occurs before an event happens. See Letter p.397 Place cells in the hippocampus track an animal's position in its environment. Previous work contends that sequential place-cell maps are produced during the first visit to a new area, and later consolidated at rest or during sleep. George Dragoi and Susumu Tonegawa report that place-cell firing patterns occur during rest or sleep before a novel spatial experience. They call this 'preplay', and because these sequences are distinct from the replay of previous experience, they suggest that it serves to prepare cell assemblies for any novel encoding that may occur in the near future.