Time cells might be optimized for predictive capacity, not redundancy reduction or memory capacity

TL;DR

This paper argues that hippocampal time cells are optimized for predicting future stimuli rather than reconstructing past events or reducing redundancy, supported by new reservoir model analyses.

Contribution

It proposes that time cells are primarily for stimulus prediction, challenging previous theories of stimulus reconstruction, and introduces novel reservoir computing analyses.

Findings

Time cells are better explained by predictive functions.

Reservoir models support the prediction hypothesis.

Challenges existing views on hippocampal time cell functions.

Abstract

Recently, researchers have found time cells in the hippocampus that appear to contain information about the timing of past events. Some researchers have argued that time cells are taking a Laplace transform of their input in order to reconstruct the past stimulus. We argue that stimulus prediction, not stimulus reconstruction or redundancy reduction, is in better agreement with observed responses of time cells. In the process, we introduce new analyses of nonlinear, continuous-time reservoirs that model these time cells.