ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a seminal contribution to understanding of the functions of the hippocampal system. It shows how hippocampal input to the cortex can, at other times, lead to interleaved learning. The chapter also shows that such interleaved learning can also occur in the absence of the hippocampal formation. Attempts to gain an idea of the way in which an environment is represented in the hippocampus strongly suggest the absence of any topographic isomorphism between the map and the environment. One major similarity between the way in which information can be stored on a holographic plate, and the way environments can be represented in the hippocampus is that the same hippocampal cells can participate in the representation of several environments. The other major similarity between the holographic recording technique and the construction of environmental maps in the hippocampus is the use of interference patterns between sinusoidal waves to determine the pattern of activity in the recording substrate.
