Neuronal ensemble dynamics in associative learning.

Associative learning restructures the activity of numerous neurons distributed across cortical and subcortical regions. Individual neurons change the rate or timing of spiking patterns in response to environmental stimuli as they become associated with salient outcomes. Recent large-scale activity monitoring in rodents has uncovered that these learning-related changes occur concertedly across groups of neurons within and between brain regions. These changes yield neuronal representations of learned associations in three types of ensemble dynamics: ensemble firing rates, multineuron coactivity, and sequential activity. Here, I review some of the most robust demonstrations of these dynamics in the rodent neocortex and hippocampus and discuss their potential function in memory encoding, consolidation, and retrieval.