Prof. Dr. Dr. Lukas Kunz | Probing the cellular correlates of cognitive maps through human single-neuron recordings

Cognitive maps are mental representations that organize information along continuous feature dimensions. Research in animal models indicates that functional cell types in the hippocampus and surrounding brain regions constitute the neural building blocks of cognitive maps, but it still remains uncertain whether such cell types also exist in the human medial temporal lobe. In this talk, I will discuss results from studies with single-unit recordings in epilepsy patients aimed at identifying cellular correlates of cognitive maps in humans. While tuning profiles are generally weaker than in animal models, these studies suggest the presence of human cell types with allocentric and egocentric tuning properties in both spatial and emotional contexts. These results provide an entry point for translating cellular observations from animals to the human brain, and for testing their role in human cognitive maps.

Poster