Hippocampal output area CA1 broadcasts a generalized novelty signal during an object-place recognition task.

Animals display an innate preference for novelty, spending more time exploring both novel objects and familiar objects in novel locations. This increase in exploration is thought to allow the animal to gather the information necessary to encode new experiences. Despite extensive evidence that increased exploration following spatial change requires the hippocampus, the pattern of hippocampal activity that supports this behavior remains unknown.