Hippocampal-neocortical interactions sharpen over time for predictive actions

When an action is familiar, we are able to anticipate how it will change the state of the world. These expectations can result from retrieval of action-outcome associations in the hippocampus and the reinstatement of anticipated outcomes in visual cortex. How does this role for the hippocampus in action-based prediction change over time? We use high-resolution fMRI and a dual-training behavioral paradigm to examine how the hippocampus interacts with visual cortex during predictive and nonpredictive actions learned either three days earlier or immediately before the scan. Just-learned associations led to comparable background connectivity between the hippocampus and V1/V2, regardless of whether actions predicted outcomes. However, three-day-old associations led to stronger background connectivity and greater differentiation between neural patterns for predictive vs. nonpredictive actions. Hippocampal prediction may initially reflect indiscriminate binding of co-occurring events, with action information pruning weaker associations and leading to more selective and accurate predictions over time. In familiar environments, humans automatically anticipate the sensory consequences of their motor actions. Here, the authors show how action-based predictions arise from interactions between the hippocampus and visual cortex, and how these interactions strengthen and weaken over time.