Abstract:
The functional role of the entorhinal-hippocampal system has been a long withstanding
mystery. One key theory that has become most popular is that the entorhinalhippocampal
system represents space to facilitate navigation in one’s surroundings. In
this Perspective article, I introduce a novel idea that undermines the inherent uniqueness
of spatial information in favor of time driving entorhinal-hippocampal activity. Specifically,
by spatializing events that occur in succession (i.e., across time), the entorhinalhippocampal
system is critical for all types of cognitive representations. I back up this
argument with empirical evidence that hints at a role for the entorhinal-hippocampal
system in non-spatial representation, and computational models of the logarithmic
compression of time in the brain.