Sensory information about the environment is represented throughout the cerebral cortex and is funneled into to the hippocampus, a region critical for the formation of episodic memories. Faced with a continuous stream of data, the hippocampus must strike a balance between forming new, discrete memories (pattern separation) and generalizing information across similar experiences (pattern completion). Computational and experimental studies over the past 50 years have begun to delineate the hippocampal circuits involved in these processes, yet a fundamental question has been largely neglected: How does the hippocampus integrate time-varying information during experience to form episodic memories? Whether exploring a novel environment, scanning a visual scene, or recognizing a familiar tune, the sensations used to construct and recall memories are not experienced simultaneously but rather as a dynamic stream of information or temporal pattern. We study how the hippocampus, and in particular the dentate gyrus, integrates time-varying information during experience to form distinct memories during pattern separation, and how adult neurogenesis influences this process.
Shtrahman Lab 