Precisely timed theta oscillations are selectively required during the encoding phase of memory
- 4 October 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Neuroscience
- Vol. 24 (11), 1614-1627
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-021-00919-0
Abstract
Brain oscillations have been hypothesized to support cognitive function by coordinating spike timing within and across brain regions, yet it is often not known when timing is either critical for neural computations or an epiphenomenon. The entorhinal cortex and hippocampus are necessary for learning and memory and exhibit prominent theta oscillations (6–9 Hz), which are controlled by pacemaker cells in the medial septal area. Here we show that entorhinal and hippocampal neuronal activity patterns were strongly entrained by rhythmic optical stimulation of parvalbumin-positive medial septal area neurons in mice. Despite strong entrainment, memory impairments in a spatial working memory task were not observed with pacing frequencies at or below the endogenous theta frequency and only emerged at frequencies ≥10 Hz, and specifically when pacing was targeted to maze segments where encoding occurs. Neural computations during the encoding phase were therefore selectively disrupted by perturbations of the timing of neuronal firing patterns.Keywords
Funding Information
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32 GM007240)
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH119179, R21 MH100354)
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01 NS102915, R01 NS084324, R01 NS097772)
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