From a Preview Commentary to LeBron James
Milenna's dentate paper inspired a Preview commentary in Neuron and a LeBron James piece in the Washington Post
The findings in the dentate gyrus place cell paper, akin to how scale free correlations in a flock of starlings defines the state of the flock, seem to resonate within the community and the community is broad! Xiaojing Chen and Jim Knierim do a nice job of explaining how the findings clarify and correct some long standing ideas. Their double entendre "It's about time" riffs on the finding that the signature of hippocampal memories is expressed in the relative timing of action potential discharge and not where the cells discharge, as has been thought and investigated for decades. It is also about time, that the field starts to think about discharge timing amongst neurons rather than just single cell tuning when we investigate cognitive variables and cognitive representations. Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins was fantastic to talk with about how the brain builds models of what we know and can execute those models to remember, execute and plan. See how she uses these ideas to fathom Lebron James' genius.