Concept and location neurons in the human brain provide the ‘what’ and ‘where’ in memory formation

This study investigated the neuronal mechanisms underlying memory formation by measuring single neuron activity in the human medial temporal lobe during encoding of item-location associations. The researchers identified two specialized neuron subgroups: concept cells (in the hippocampus, amygdala, and entorhinal cortex) representing the 'what' of an experience, and location-selective neurons (in the parahippocampal cortex) representing the 'where'. Higher firing rates in both groups were observed during successful encoding trials, supporting the idea that these distinct neuron populations contribute to the 'what' and 'where' aspects of episodic memory.

Sina Mackay, Thomas P. Reber, Marcel Bausch, Jan Boström, Christian E. Elger, Florian Mormann