I have made significant contributions to both basic neuroscience theory and research, and novel research technology (such as tetrode recording). Although my past theoretical and experimental work has focused largely on information coding and intrinsic dynamics of the hippocampus itself, my focus for the next decade will be on the question: what does the hippocampus do for the neocortex? How does hippocampal outflow integrate and shape cortical activity and representational structure? I am interested in the impact of hippocampal outflow on neocortical information processing, intrinsic dynamics, connectivity dynamics, and ‘semantic’ encoding. My guiding hypothesis is that hippocampus serves initially to link new information distributed in sparsely connected neocortical autoassociative modules and to orchestrate the offline creation of semantic knowledge from this episodic memory (see McClelland et al, 1995).To address questions related to this hypothesis I am using a range of neuroscience enabling technologies in rats and genetically modified mice (e.g., multi neuron ensemble recording, Ca++, voltage, and structural imaging).
Euston, D.R., Tatsuno, M., and McNaughton, B.L. (2007) Fast-forward playback of recent memory sequences in prefrontal cortex during sleep. Science, 318:1147-1150. PMID: 18006749
Takehara-Nishiuchi, K. & McNaughton, B.L. (2008) Spontaneous changes in neocortical code for associative memory during consolidation. Science, 322:960-963 PMID: 18988855
Johnson L.A., Euston D.R., Tatsuno M., and McNaughton, B.L. (2010) “Stored-trace reactivation in rat prefrontal cortex is correlated with down-to-up state fluctuation density.” The Journal of Neuroscience, 30:2650-2661. PMID: 20164349
Colgin, L.L., Leutgeb, S., Jezek, K., Leutgeb, J.K., Moser, E.I., McNaughton, B.L., and Moser, M.B. (2010) Attractor-Map Versus Autoassociation Based Attractor Dynamics in the Hippocampal Network. The Journal of Neurophysiol, 104:35-50. PMID: 20445029
McNaughton, B.L. (2010) Cortical hierarchies, sleep, and the extraction of knowledge from memory. Artificial Intelligence, 174:205-214.
Navratilova, Z., Giocomo, L.M., Fellous, J.M., Hasselmo, M.E., and McNaughton, B.L. (2011). Phase Precession and Variable Spatial Scaling in a Periodic Attractor Map Model of Medial Entorhinal Grid Cells with Realistic After-Spike Dynamics. Hippocampus, 22(4):772-789. PMID: 21484936
Euston, D.R., Gruber, A.J., and McNaughton, B.L. (2012). The role of medial prefrontal cortex in memory and decision making. Neuron, 76(6):1057-1070. PMID: 23259943
Schwindel, C.D., Ali, K., McNaughton, B.L., Tatsuno, M. (2014). Long-term recordings improve the detection of weak excitatory–excitatory connections in rat prefrontal cortex. The Journal of Neuroscience, 34(16):5454-5467. PMID: 24741036
Moser, E.I., Moser, M.B., and McNaughton, B. (2017) Spatial representation in the hippocampal formation: a history. Nature Neuroscience, 11: 1446-1464.
Mao, D., Neumann, A.R., Sun, J., Bonin, V., Mohajerani, M., and McNaughton, B.L. (2018). Hippocampus-dependent emergence of spatial sequence coding in retrosplenial cortex. PNAS, 115(31):1-4. PMID: 30012620; PMCID: PMC6077725; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1803224115.
McClelland J.L., McNaughton B.L., Lampinen A.K. (2020). Integration of new information in memory: new insights from a complementary learning systems perspective. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 375 (1799), 20190637. DOI:10.1098/rstb.2019.0637