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Henin S, Turk-Browne NB, Friedman D, Liu A, Dugan P, Flinker A, Doyle W, Devinsky O, Melloni L. Learning hierarchical sequence representations across human cortex and hippocampus. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2021; 7:eabc4530. [PMID: 33608265 PMCID: PMC7895424 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abc4530] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2020] [Accepted: 01/07/2021] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Sensory input arrives in continuous sequences that humans experience as segmented units, e.g., words and events. The brain's ability to discover regularities is called statistical learning. Structure can be represented at multiple levels, including transitional probabilities, ordinal position, and identity of units. To investigate sequence encoding in cortex and hippocampus, we recorded from intracranial electrodes in human subjects as they were exposed to auditory and visual sequences containing temporal regularities. We find neural tracking of regularities within minutes, with characteristic profiles across brain areas. Early processing tracked lower-level features (e.g., syllables) and learned units (e.g., words), while later processing tracked only learned units. Learning rapidly shaped neural representations, with a gradient of complexity from early brain areas encoding transitional probability, to associative regions and hippocampus encoding ordinal position and identity of units. These findings indicate the existence of multiple, parallel computational systems for sequence learning across hierarchically organized cortico-hippocampal circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon Henin
- New York University Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, 223 34th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA.
- Department of Neurology, New York University School of Medicine, 240 East 38th Street, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | | | - Daniel Friedman
- New York University Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, 223 34th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA
- Department of Neurology, New York University School of Medicine, 240 East 38th Street, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Anli Liu
- New York University Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, 223 34th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA
- Department of Neurology, New York University School of Medicine, 240 East 38th Street, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Patricia Dugan
- New York University Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, 223 34th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA
- Department of Neurology, New York University School of Medicine, 240 East 38th Street, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Adeen Flinker
- New York University Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, 223 34th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA
- Department of Neurology, New York University School of Medicine, 240 East 38th Street, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Werner Doyle
- New York University Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, 223 34th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA
- Department of Neurology, New York University School of Medicine, 240 East 38th Street, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Orrin Devinsky
- New York University Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, 223 34th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA
- Department of Neurology, New York University School of Medicine, 240 East 38th Street, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Lucia Melloni
- New York University Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, 223 34th Street, New York, NY 10016, USA.
- Department of Neurology, New York University School of Medicine, 240 East 38th Street, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10016, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Grüneburgweg 14, 60322 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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