Sequential replay of non-spatial task states in the human hippocampus

August 06, 2019

While resting, our brain replays experiences we made while making decisions

Schuck, N. W., & Niv, Y. (2019). Sequential replay of non-spatial task states in the human hippocampus. Science, 364(6447). doi:10.1126/science.aaw5181

The way we experience the world while making decisions leads to specific activity patterns in the brain. In a new study, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and at Princeton University have shown that when we rest after decision making, the hippocampus “replays” the same activity patterns. In the course of such replay events, the patterns are activated in the same order in which they occurred during decision making, but possibly at a highly accelerated speed. Using a newly developed method that combines magnetic resonance imaging and machine learning enabled the researchers to now study this process more closely in humans. The study was published in the journal Science.

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