SPATIAL VIEW CELLS IN THE PRIMATE HIPPOCAMPUS

Hippocampal function was analysed by making recordings in rhesus monke ys actively walking in the laboratory. In a sample of 352 cells record ed in the hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex, a population of 'spa tial view' cells was found to respond when the monkey looked at a part of the environment, The responses of these hippocampal neurons (i) oc cur to a view of space 'out there', not to the place where the monkey is, (ii) depend on where the monkey is looking, as shown by measuring eye position, (iii) do not encode head direction, and (iv) provide a s patial representation that is allocentric, i.e, in world coordinates. This representation of space 'out there' would be an appropriate part of a primate memory system involved in memories of where in an environ ment an object was seen, and more generally in the memory of particula r events or episodes, for which a spatial component normally provides part of the context.