Grid-like hexadirectional modulation of human entorhinal theta oscillations

Abstract

The entorhinal cortex contains a network of grid cells that play a fundamental part in the brain's spatial system, supporting tasks such as path integration and spatial memory. In rodents, grid cells are thought to rely on network theta oscillations, but such signals are not evident in all species, challenging our understanding of the physiological basis of the grid network. We analyzed intracranial recordings from neurosurgical patients during virtual navigation to identify oscillatory characteristics of the human entorhinal grid network. The power of entorhinal theta oscillations showed six-fold modulation according to the virtual heading during navigation, which is a hypothesized signature of grid representations. Furthermore, modulation strength correlated with spatial memory performance. These results demonstrate the connection between theta oscillations and the human entorhinal grid network and show that features of grid-like neuronal representations can be identified from population electrophysiological recordings.