A unified model of spatial and episodic memory

Abstract

Medial temporal lobe structures including the hippocampus are implicated by separate investigations in both episodic memory and spatial function. We show that a single recurrent attractor network can store both the discrete memories that characterize episodic memory and the continuous representations that characterize physical space. Combining both types of representation in a single network is actually necessary if objects and where they are located in space must be stored. We thus show that episodic memory and spatial theories of medial temporal lobe function can be combined in a unified model.