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SUMMARY:“Single neurons in the human medial temporal lobe: Hierarchical 
 processing and domain specificity”
DTSTART:20100322T121500
DTSTAMP:20260506T132909Z
UID:f495326bfdc0d40a31312b90be8f18af7ef5d1d103e5bd1ecedead67
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr. Florian Mormann\, University of Bonn\, Department of Epile
 ptology\, Germany\nNeurons in the temporal lobe of both monkeys and humans
  show selective responses to classes of visual stimuli and even to specifi
 c individuals. We investigated the latency and selectivity of visually res
 ponsive neurons recorded from microelectrodes in the parahippocampal corte
 x\, entorhinal cortex\, hippocampus\, and amygdala of human subjects durin
 g a visual object presentation task. We found direct evidence for hierarch
 ical processing of sensory information at the interface between the visual
  pathway and the limbic system\, by which increasingly refined and specifi
 c representations of stimulus identity are generated over time along the a
 natomic pathways of the medial temporal lobe.\n\nIn an investigation of re
 gional preferences for certain stimulus categories\, we found a preferenti
 al response of parahippocampal neurons to landmarks and outdoor scenes\, p
 resumably representing single-neuron correlates of the parahippocampal pla
 ce area described in functional imaging studies. In addition\, we demonstr
 ate that single neurons in the right\, but not the left\, human amygdala r
 espond preferentially to pictures of animals rather than persons\, landmar
 ks or objects. Moreover\, animals and non-animals created distinguishable 
 clusters in the population code of the right amygdala. The observed respon
 ses appeared to be domain-specific for the category of animals and were in
 dependent of emotional arousal or valence\, a finding we replicated in an 
 independent neuroimaging study. Our combined electrophysiological and neur
 oimaging results demonstrate a previously unknown role of the right amygda
 la in processing animals that could reflect the broad ancestral significan
 ce of this stimulus category.
LOCATION:AI 1-153
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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