[2604.00036] When and Where: A Model Hippocampal Network Unifies Formation of Time Cells and Place Cells

Quantitative Biology > Neurons and Cognition arXiv:2604.00036 (q-bio) [Submitted on 22 Mar 2026] Title:When and Where: A Model Hippocampal Network Unifies Formation of Time Cells and Place Cells Authors:Qiaorong S. Yu, Zhaoze Wang, Vijay Balasubramanian View a PDF of the paper titled When and Where: A Model Hippocampal Network Unifies Formation of Time Cells and Place Cells, by Qiaorong S. Yu and Zhaoze Wang and Vijay Balasubramanian View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Hippocampal place and time cells encode spatial and temporal aspects of experience. Both have the same neural substrate, but have been modeled as having different functions and mechanistic origins, place cells as continuous attractors, and time cells as leaky integrators. Here, we show that both types emerge from two dynamical regimes of a single recurrent network (RNN) modeling hippocampal CA3 as a predictive autoencoder. The network receives simulated, partially occluded ``experience vectors" containing spatial patterns (location-specific activity sampled during environmental traversal) and/or temporal patterns (correlated activity pairs separated by ``void" intervals), and is trained to reconstruct missing input. During spatial navigation, the network generates stable attractor-like place fields. But trained on temporally structured inputs, the network produces sequentially broadened fields, recapitulating time cells. By varying spatio-temporal input patterning, we observe hidden units transition smooth...