The Temporal Context Model in Spatial Navigation and Relational Learning: Toward a Common Explanation of Medial Temporal Lobe Function Across Domains

Overview

Journal Psychol Rev

Publisher American Psychological Association

Specialty Psychology

Date 2005 Jan 6

PMID 15631589

Citations 117

Authors

Marc W Howard

Mrigankka S Fotedar

Aditya V Datey

Michael E Hasselmo

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The medial temporal lobe (MTL) has been studied extensively at all levels of analysis, yet its function remains unclear. Theory regarding the cognitive function of the MTL has centered along 3 themes. Different authors have emphasized the role of the MTL in episodic recall, spatial navigation, or relational memory. Starting with the temporal context model (M. W. Howard & M. J. Kahana, 2002a), a distributed memory model that has been applied to benchmark data from episodic recall tasks, the authors propose that the entorhinal cortex supports a gradually changing representation of temporal context and the hippocampus proper enables retrieval of these contextual states. Simulation studies show this hypothesis explains the firing of place cells in the entorhinal cortex and the behavioral effects of hippocampal lesion in relational memory tasks. These results constitute a first step toward a unified computational theory of MTL function that integrates neurophysiological, neuropsychological, and cognitive findings.

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