Hippocampus does more than store memories: It predicts rewards, study finds

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A preclinical study published in Nature has found evidence that the hippocampus, the brain region that stores memory, also reorganizes memories to anticipate future outcomes.

The findings, from researchers at the Brandon Lab at McGill University and their collaborators at Harvard University, reveal a learning process that had not been directly observed before.

"The hippocampus is often described as the brain's internal model of the world," said senior author Mark Brandon, Associate Professor in McGill's Department of Psychiatry and Researcher at the Douglas Research Center. "What we are seeing is that this model is not static; it is updated day by day as the brain learns from prediction errors. As outcomes become expected, hippocampal neurons start to respond earlier as they learn what will happen next."