Skip to main content

Cognitive psychology of human memory (CogMemo thesaurus)

Search from vocabulary

Concept information

Preferred term

cell assembly  

Definition

  • A functional anatomical entity comprising a network of functionally interconnected and synchronized neurons, characterized by autonomous and dynamic activity, whose synaptic connections, strengthened by learning or experience, encode and represent concepts, perceptions, or memories.

Synonym(s)

  • Hebbian cell assembly
  • neuronal assembly

Scope note

  • The Canadian neuropsychologist Donald O. Hebb introduced the concept of cell assembly in his 1949 seminal work The Organization of Behavior, which he defines as: “a diffuse structure comprising cells in the cortex and diencephalon (and also, perhaps, in the basal ganglia of the cerebrum), capable of acting briefly as a closed system, delivering facilitation to other such systems and usually having a specific motor facilitation. A series of such events constitutes a ‘phase sequence’—the thought process.” (Hebb, 1949, p. xix).

Bibliographic citation(s)

  • • Buzsáki, G. (2010). Neural syntax: Cell assemblies, synapsembles, and readers. Neuron, 68(3), 362–385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2010.09.023

    • Document type: literature review

    • Access: open

  • • Hebb, D. O. (1949). The organization of behavior: A neuropsychological theory. Wiley.

    • Document type: literature review

    • Access: closed

  • • Huyck, C. R., & Passmore, P. J. (2013). A review of cell assemblies. Biological Cybernetics, 107(3), 263–288. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-013-0555-5

    • Document type: literature review

    • Access: closed

  • • Palm, G., Knoblauch, A., Hauser, F., & Schüz, A. (2014). Cell assemblies in the cerebral cortex. Biological Cybernetics, 108(5), 559–572. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-014-0596-4

    • Document type: literature review

    • Access: closed

  • • Sakurai, Y., Osako, Y., Tanisumi, Y., Ishihara, E., Hirokawa, J., & Manabe, H. (2018). Multiple approaches to the investigation of cell assembly in memory research—Present and future. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2018.00021

    • Document type: literature review

    • Access: open

Creator

  • Frank Arnould

In other languages

URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/P66-Q1S4W2QW-Z

Download this concept:

RDF/XML TURTLE JSON-LD Created 3/13/26, last modified 3/13/26