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Published March 16, 2006 | Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

Single-trial learning of novel stimuli by individual neurons of the human hippocampus-amygdala complex

Abstract

The ability to distinguish novel from familiar stimuli allows nervous systems to rapidly encode significant events following even a single exposure to a stimulus. This detection of novelty is necessary for many types of learning. Neurons in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) are critically involved in the acquisition of long-term declarative memories. During a learning task, we recorded from individual MTL neurons in vivo using microwire electrodes implanted in human epilepsy surgery patients. We report here the discovery of two classes of neurons in the hippocampus and amygdala that exhibit single-trial learning: novelty and familiarity detectors, which show a selective increase in firing for new and old stimuli, respectively. The neurons retain memory for the stimulus for 24 hr. Thus, neurons in the MTL contain information sufficient for reliable novelty-familiarity discrimination and also show rapid plasticity as a result of single-trial learning.

Additional Information

We thank all patients for their participation in this study. We would like to acknowledge the support we have received from the Staff of the Epilepsy and Brain Mapping Department at the Huntington Memorial Hospital. We thank Farshad Moradi, Melissa Saenz, and Dinah Thyerlei for advice regarding the processing of structural MRIs. This research was funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Gimbel Discovery Fund.

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August 22, 2023
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