# Hippocampal-cortical interactions supporting memory and value-guided decision-making

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2022 · $41,797

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
 Prior experiences can profoundly shape subsequent decisions. Mental simulation of potential futures
based on memories of prior actions and resultant outcomes is one strategy to support making adaptive
decisions. Substantial evidence demonstrates that the hippocampus (HC) is involved in this process: planning
and imagining future events based on previous spatial experiences. More specifically, the HC exhibits
temporally compressed sequences of neural firing that are thought to internally represent prospective locations
distinct from the animal’s current place in an environment. This “nonlocal” activity may enable consideration of
alternate routes during learning, when the optimal choice is unclear. In order to make a decision about which
trajectory to take, however, the brain must not only internally represent potential paths, but also the expected
value of each choice. Neural activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) can encode the value of a choice’s outcome
and is modulated by reward. This evidence makes the PFC a strong candidate site for the evaluation of
potential spatial choices based on reward history. Despite substantial research on the respective functions of
either the HC or PFC in memory or value-guided decisions, little is known about how these circuits interact to
support behavior. Coordinated neural activity across these circuits may facilitate spatial evaluation in service of
adaptive decisions and may be modulated by learning. Specifically, this project tests the hypothesis that
nonlocal representations in the HC are a mechanism of spatial deliberation, and that they are
coordinated with PFC value representations to support reward history-guided adaptive decisions.
 Testing this hypothesis requires uniting approaches typically used to study either the HC and spatial
memory or the PFC and decision-making. The proposed experiments therefore comprise simultaneous
recordings of the HC and PFC in rats during the performance of a spatial decision-making task with changing
reward contingencies (Aims 1 and 2) and closed-loop optical inactivation of the HC based on neural feedback
during behavior (Aim 3). By working at the intersection of established but often separate lines of investigation
on memory and decisions, the proposed Specific Aims have the potential to test prominent hypotheses and
elucidate the neural underpinnings of experience-based decision processes. Furthermore, understanding the
neural substrates that enable memory-guided decision-making is critical to understanding related
psychiatric disorders in which HC and PFC circuits malfunction, such as addiction, obsessive-compulsive
disorder, and schizophrenia. The proposed research strategy is bolstered by a training plan with experimental
and analytical strength and is necessarily guided by a sponsor who is a leader in the technical and conceptual
aspects of the project. The research environment is accordingly equipped with mentorship, technology, and
...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10463588
- **Project number:** 5F31MH124366-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Alison E. Comrie
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $41,797
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-01 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10463588

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10463588, Hippocampal-cortical interactions supporting memory and value-guided decision-making (5F31MH124366-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10463588. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*