Toward a model of the hippocampus

A model for part of the function of the hippocampus which involves associative learning and accounts for the shift of some place fields corresponding to biologically significant places is presented. The model involves a learning mode consistent with the associative phenomena found by P.K. Stanton and T.J. Sejnowski (1989) in the hippocampus. It is based on the assumption that the hippocampal cells which have come to be called place cells are the output layer of a network which associates input sensory patterns with satisfaction signals so that the animal, by attending to the proper output, can guide itself to the location where it can obtain a desired satisfaction