{
  "abstract": "The cognitive ability to go beyond the present to consider alternative possibilities, including potential futures and counterfactual pasts, can support adaptive decision-making. Complex and changing real-world environments, however, have many possible alternatives. Whether and how the brain can select among them to represent alternatives that meet current cognitive needs remains unknown. We therefore examined neural representations of alternative spatial locations in the rat hippocampus during navigation in a complex patch-foraging environment with changing reward probabilities. We found representations of multiple alternatives along paths ahead and behind the animal, including in distant alternative patches. Critically, these representations showed distinct patterns of modulation across successive trials: alternative paths were represented proportionate to their evolving relative value and predicted subsequent decisions, whereas distant alternatives were prevalent during value updating. These results demonstrate that the brain modulates the generation of alternative possibilities to meet changing cognitive needs for adaptive behavior.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA. Electronic address: comriea@janelia.hhmi.org",
    "Department of Physiology and Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA",
    "Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA",
    "Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA",
    "Medical Scientist Training Program, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA",
    "Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA",
    "Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA; Department of Neurology and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, and Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA",
    "Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA",
    "Department of Physiology and Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA; Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA. Electronic address: loren.frank@ucsf.edu"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 10,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Alison E. Comrie",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-2251-4892"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Emily J. Monroe",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-5751-231X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Ari E. Kahn",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-2127-0507"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Eric L. Denovellis",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4606-087X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Abhilasha Joshi",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0511-3747"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Jennifer A. Guidera",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4013-214X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "Timothy A. Krausz",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9561-8641"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        6
      ],
      "name": "Joshua D. Berke",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-1436-6823"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "Nathaniel D. Daw",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5029-1430"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        8
      ],
      "name": "Loren M. Frank",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1752-5677"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/af0yjfk578crh.bib",
  "cited_by": 15,
  "doi": "10.1016/j.neuron.2026.08.023",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "af0yjfk578crh",
  "issns": [
    "0896-6273",
    "1097-4199"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2026.08.023",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2805|Memory and Neural Mechanisms"
    ]
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  "openalex": "W7214287266",
  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": "PMC11463554",
  "pmid": "39386651",
  "published": "2026-09-01",
  "publisher": "Cell Press",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/af0yjfk578crh.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-04T13:21:11Z",
      "native_id": "W7214287266",
      "source": "openalex",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2026.08.023"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:2805|Memory and Neural Mechanisms",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Hippocampal representations of alternative possibilities are flexibly generated to meet cognitive demands",
  "title_text": "Hippocampal representations of alternative possibilities are flexibly generated to meet cognitive demands",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-09T13:21:12Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/af0yjfk578crh",
  "venue": "Neuron",
  "versions": []
}