Hippocampal representations of alternative possibilities are flexibly generated to meet cognitive demands
9 affiliations
- 1Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA. Electronic address: [email protected]
- 2Department of Physiology and Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
- 3Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- 4Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA
- 5Medical Scientist Training Program, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA
- 6Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
- 7Kavli 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
- 8Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- 9Department 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: [email protected]
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.
Related
- Hippocampal-Prefrontal Cortical Interactions and Neural Representations of Memory
- Plasticity degeneracy underlies flexible formation and reconfiguration of spatial representations in hippocampal granule cells
- Shared neural geometries for bilingual semantic representations in human hippocampal neurons
- Predictive consequences of alternative representations of metabolic measurements: A controlled synthetic study of categories, longitudinal information and transition preservation
- Brain injury degrades the precision of hippocampal spatial representations
BibTeX
@article{comrie2026hippocampal,
title = {{Hippocampal representations of alternative possibilities are flexibly generated to meet cognitive demands}},
author = {Alison E. Comrie and Emily J. Monroe and Ari E. Kahn and Eric L. Denovellis and Abhilasha Joshi and Jennifer A. Guidera and Timothy A. Krausz and Joshua D. Berke and Nathaniel D. Daw and Loren M. Frank},
journal = {Neuron},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1016/j.neuron.2026.08.023},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2026.08.023},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Hippocampal representations of alternative possibilities are flexibly generated to meet cognitive demands
AU - Alison E. Comrie
AU - Emily J. Monroe
AU - Ari E. Kahn
AU - Eric L. Denovellis
AU - Abhilasha Joshi
AU - Jennifer A. Guidera
AU - Timothy A. Krausz
AU - Joshua D. Berke
AU - Nathaniel D. Daw
AU - Loren M. Frank
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
JO - Neuron
DO - 10.1016/j.neuron.2026.08.023
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2026.08.023
AB - 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.
SN - 0896-6273
SN - 1097-4199
ER -