Conserved fMRI and LFP Signals during New Associative Learning in the Human and Macaque Monkey Medial Temporal Lobe

SummaryWe measured local field potential (LFP) and blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the medial temporal lobes of monkeys and humans, respectively, as they performed the same conditional motor associative learning task. Parallel analyses were used to examine both data sets. Despite significantly faster learning in humans relative to monkeys, we found equivalent neural signals differentiating new versus highly familiar stimuli, first stimulus presentation, trial outcome, and learning strength in the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus of both species. Thus, the use of parallel behavioral tasks and analyses in monkeys and humans revealed conserved patterns of neural activity across the medial temporal lobe during an associative learning task.

► Humans and monkeys performed the same visuomotor associative learning task
► Parallel analyses revealed strong similarities in human fMRI and monkey LFP signals
► Primate MTL showed familiarity, first presentation, outcome, and learning signals
► Neural signals during associative learning tasks are conserved across species