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A scientific theory of ars memoriae : spatial view cells in a continuous attractor network with linked items
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Rolls, Edmund T. (2017) A scientific theory of ars memoriae : spatial view cells in a continuous attractor network with linked items. Hippocampus, 27 (5). pp. 570-579. doi:10.1002/hipo.22713 ISSN 1050-9631.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hipo.22713
Abstract
The art of memory (ars memoriae) used since classical times includes using a well-known scene to associate each view or part of the scene with a different item in a speech. This memory technique is also known as the “method of loci.” The new theory is proposed that this type of memory is implemented in the CA3 region of the hippocampus where there are spatial view cells in primates that allow a particular view to be associated with a particular object in an event or episodic memory. Given that the CA3 cells with their extensive recurrent collateral system connecting different CA3 cells, and associative synaptic modifiability, form an autoassociation or attractor network, the spatial view cells with their approximately Gaussian view fields become linked in a continuous attractor network. As the view space is traversed continuously (e.g., by self-motion or imagined self-motion across the scene), the views are therefore successively recalled in the correct order, with no view missing, and with low interference between the items to be recalled. Given that each spatial view has been associated with a different discrete item, the items are recalled in the correct order, with none missing. This is the first neuroscience theory of ars memoriae. The theory provides a foundation for understanding how a key feature of ars memoriae, the ability to use a spatial scene to encode a sequence of items to be remembered, is implemented.
Item Type: | Journal Article | |||||||||||||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Computer Science | |||||||||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Mnemonics, Neurosciences | |||||||||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Hippocampus | |||||||||||||||
Publisher: | John Wiley & Sons, Inc., | |||||||||||||||
ISSN: | 1050-9631 | |||||||||||||||
Official Date: | May 2017 | |||||||||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 27 | |||||||||||||||
Number: | 5 | |||||||||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 570-579 | |||||||||||||||
DOI: | 10.1002/hipo.22713 | |||||||||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | |||||||||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | |||||||||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | |||||||||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 12 April 2017 | |||||||||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 15 February 2018 | |||||||||||||||
Funder: | Medical Research Council (Great Britain) (MRC), Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP), European Economic Community (EEC), University of Oxford. McDonnell Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience | |||||||||||||||
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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