Spatial view cells in the primate hippocampus: Allocentric view not head direction or eye position or place

Hippocampal function was analysed by making recordings from hippocampal neu rons in monkeys actively walking in the laboratory. 'Spatial view' cells, w hich respond when the monkey looks at a part of the environment, were analy sed. It is shown that these cells code for the allocentric position in spac e being viewed and not for eye position, head direction or the place where the monkey is located. This representation of space 'out there' would be an appropriate part of a primate memory system involved in memories of where in an environment an object was seen, and more generally in the memory of p articular events or episodes, for which a spatial component normally provid es part of the context.