EN
To understand how sensory experiences are stored in the brain, we examined neuronal fi ring in hippocampus during tactile behavior. Rats learned to associate stimulus texture with reward location; multiple textures were associated with the same reward location and thus formed a behavioral category. Rapid fi ring rate modulation carried texture identity information (10% of neurons), free from spatial and behavioral confounds; slow fi ring rate modulation carried behavioral category information (63% of neurons). Category information appeared during texture contact, simultaneous with an increase in theta power in the local fi eld potential; it persisted or recurred during reward collection, when theta power was suppressed and “reward neurons” (8%) fi red. Reward-triggered recurrence of category information could be a mechanism to link stimulus, action, and outcome when separated in time.