A SLOW OSCILLATORY ARCHITECTURE INTEGRATES ONLINE AND OFFLINE MEMORY PROCESSES ACROSS THE HUMAN MEDIAL TEMPORAL LOBE

Memory requires coordination of neural activity across multiple temporal scales, brain states, and distributed networks. How such coordination is organized in the human medial temporal lobe remains unclear. Here we show that human memory dynamics are structured by a slow oscillatory architecture that links neuronal spiking and network synchronization during online learning to offline consolidation and subsequent recall. Using intracranial recordings with simultaneous local field potentials and single-neuron activity in human participants, we identify transient, task-evoked slow oscillatory bursts that emerge in the hippocampus during learning and recall and pace neuronal coactivity patterns while synchronizing gamma-band activity across medial temporal lobe regions. Coactivity motifs organized by this temporal architecture during learning are selectively reactivated during hippocampal ripple events in post-learning rest, with the strength of this reactivation predicting subsequent recall accuracy. These findings identify a slow oscillatory architecture that integrates memory-related network dynamics across learning, consolidation, and recall in humans.