Fig. 5. Bidirectional and graded representations of temporal structure in hippocampus but not early visual cortex.

a Gaussian curve in visual cortex for the cued path order. Visual cortex strongly represented the cue environment while it was on the screen (above-baseline amplitude) and did not represent nearby environments (narrow forward and backward widths (σ)), instead showing suppression of environments other than the cue (below-baseline asymptote). The visual cortex Gaussian fit was significantly better than the shuffled null including the cue, but not the shuffled null excluding the cue. N = 32 participants. Permutation test (10,000 shuffles) comparing observed data to shuffled null including and excluding cue, two-tailed, *** p < 0.001 b Gaussian curve in the hippocampus for the cued path order. The hippocampus represented the cue environment while it was on the screen (above-baseline amplitude), represented nearby environments in a graded manner, in both the forward and backward direction (wide forward and backward widths (σ)), and suppressed environments that were furthest away (below-baseline asymptote). The hippocampus Gaussian fit was significantly better than both the shuffled null including and excluding the cue. Points indicate average pattern similarity at each step from the cue and error bars indicate standard error of the mean. Colored line indicates the average Gaussian fit across participants, with the red end of the rainbow scale indicating higher pattern similarity and the purple end indicating lower pattern similarity, applied to values in each brain region separately. Gray lines indicate each participant’s Gaussian curve. N = 32 participants. Permutation test (10,000 shuffles) comparing observed data to shuffled null including and excluding cue, two-tailed, Left: * p = 0.029, Right: * p = 0.023.