Hippocampal spatio-temporal cognitive maps adaptively guide reward generalization

ABSTRACT The brain forms cognitive maps of relational knowledge, an organizing principle thought to underlie our ability to generalize and make inferences. However, how can a relevant map be selected in situations where a stimulus is embedded in multiple relational structures? Here, we find that both spatial and temporal cognitive maps influence generalization in a choice task, where spatial location determines reward magnitude. Mirroring behavior, the hippocampus not only builds a map of spatial relationships but also encodes temporal distances. As the task progresses, participants’ choices become more influenced by spatial relationships, reflected in a strengthening of the spatial and a weakening of the temporal map. This change is driven by orbitofrontal cortex, which represents the evidence that an observed outcome is generated from the spatial rather than the temporal map and updates hippocampal representations accordingly. Taken together, this demonstrates how hippocampal cognitive maps are used and updated flexibly for inference.