Fig. 3: Generality and temporal dynamics of context representations imply relevance for stimulus processing.

Abstract context representations invariant to picture identity or position combine with content representations across temporal gaps during picture presentations via context reactivation until context-dependent decisions. a, Population SVM-decoding accuracies of context (16 patients) during picture presentations comparing different questions (colours) using all versus only context neurons. b, Pooled context (green) or stimulus (red) decoding accuracies from context (left) and stimulus (right) neurons, for cross-validation or generalization across pictures (red), contexts (green) and serial picture positions (blue). c, A heat map of context decoding across time. The green diagonal line denotes identical training or testing times (see panel d). The dashed lines show event onsets (white) and offsets (yellow). The boxes indicate times analysed in panel e. d, Patient-wise context (top; green) or stimulus decoding (bottom; picture 1 or picture 2 in grey or lavender, respectively) and label-shuffled controls (red). Data are mean ± s.e.m. (solid lines and shaded areas, respectively), with dashed lines indicating chance. Significant differences (cluster permutation test, P < 0.01) from controls (top) or chance (below) are shown as solid lines below. Context decoding exceeded chance throughout, peaking after stimulus representations and remaining elevated. e, Patient-wise context-decoding accuracies trained with context neuron activity during questions (400 neurons per region) or baseline, and decoded during late first (red) or second (blue) picture presentations (boxes in panel c). The dashed line indicates chance. Question activity was reactivated during pictures, especially in the hippocampus. f, As in panel d, but before context-dependent decisions. Both context and content representations exceeded chance (dashed lines) until decisions (red line). CN, context neuron; SN, stimulus neuron. For the boxplots (a,b,e), quantile 1, median, quantile 3 and whiskers (points within ±1.5× the interquartile range) are shown, with the asterisks denoting differences from zero (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, uncorrected) or each other (Mann–Whitney U-test, uncorrected). ****P < 0.0001, ***P < 0.001, **P < 0.01 and *P < 0.05.