Interaction between the Human Hippocampus and the Caudate Nucleus during Route Recognition

Navigation through familiar environments can rely upon distinct neural representations that are related to different memory systems with either the hippocampus or the caudate nucleus at their core. However, it is a fundamental question whether and how these systems interact during route recognition....

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Published inNeuron (Cambridge, Mass.) Vol. 43; no. 3; pp. 427 - 435
Main Authors Voermans, Nicol C., Petersson, Karl Magnus, Daudey, Leonie, Weber, Bernd, van Spaendonck, Karel P., Kremer, Hubertus P.H., Fernández, Guillén
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Elsevier Inc 05.08.2004
Elsevier Limited
Subjects
Acquisitions & mergers
Adult
Behavior
Brain
Caudate Nucleus - physiology
Experiments
Female
Hippocampus - physiology
Humans
Huntington Disease - physiopathology
Huntington Disease - psychology
Information storage
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Medical imaging
Medicin och hälsovetenskap
Memory
Middle Aged
Neural networks
Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data
Photic Stimulation - methods
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Recognition (Psychology) - physiology
Studies
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Summary:Navigation through familiar environments can rely upon distinct neural representations that are related to different memory systems with either the hippocampus or the caudate nucleus at their core. However, it is a fundamental question whether and how these systems interact during route recognition. To address this issue, we combined a functional neuroimaging approach with a naturally occurring, well-controlled human model of caudate nucleus dysfunction (i.e., preclinical and early-stage Huntington's disease). Our results reveal a noncompetitive interaction so that the hippocampus compensates for gradual caudate nucleus dysfunction with a gradual activity increase, maintaining normal behavior. Furthermore, we revealed an interaction between medial temporal and caudate activity in healthy subjects, which was adaptively modified in Huntington patients to allow compensatory hippocampal processing. Thus, the two memory systems contribute in a noncompetitive, cooperative manner to route recognition, which enables the hippocampus to compensate seamlessly for the functional degradation of the caudate nucleus.
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ISSN:0896-6273
1097-4199
DOI:10.1016/j.neuron.2004.07.009