Human hippocampus represents space and time during retrieval of real-world memories

The rodent hippocampus contains neurons that code for space on the scale of meters, a discovery that was recently awarded a Nobel Prize. However, it remains unclear whether humans harness similar representations for memory at the scale of their lives. Our results reveal that the human hippocampus represents the spatial and temporal location of memories for real-life events at scales of up to 30 km and a month of time. They further suggest that real-world representations of space and time are more intimately entwined in the hippocampus than previously thought, validating the relevance of decades of rodent studies for human memory and providing a potential mechanism for how we weave the episodic memories of our lives.