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experienced in order to ensure that memories are stored and re-mapped separately, and not mixed up when retrieved. In addition, Buzsaki (2005) cites that the neuron networks within the hippocampus encode the information received into "firing patterns", and these patterns are what form the maps that are used to retrieve the episodic memories.

Most important, these patterns are then revisited during sleep, information is purged and stored, and research now shows that it is during this process that learning actually occurs (Miller, 2005). Current research has shown that REM sleep actually plays a big part in the processing of our memories and the learning process, and actually aids in the "consolidation of procedural learning and memory tasks" (Stickgold et. al, 2001). More specifically, it is now thought that our dreams are actually the representation of this process, and go much father than Freud could have ever imagined. This implies that there is actually a "physiology of sleep" and, research on memory, sleeps and rats suggests the following:

"Theta rhythms in REM may support information transfer from neocortex to hippocampus, where theta waves enhance LTP, considered critical for hippocampal memory formation. Neural network simulations have suggested that such an alternating "hippocampo-neocortical dialog" could enhance the encoding of hippocampally dependent memories in the neocortex. Phasic ponto-geniculo-occipital (PGO) waves, which activate visual and motor cortices as well as the amygdala and hippocampus, are seen during the transition from NREM to REM and throughout REM. These waves may play an important role in memory consolidation in the rat and have been proposed to reactivate memory traces during REM dreaming"(Stickgold et. al., 2001).

Current research also suggests that there are varied forms of neuron patterns that can occur within the hippocampus, and which imply that the codes used to separate neuronal patterns for episodic and spatial memory can differ. This is thought to be the result of different "firing rates" within the networks of neurons within the hippocampus, however the locations of the firings within the neuron networks did not change. This is important because "these independent encoding schemes may enable simultaneous representation of spatial and episodic memory information", which means the hippocampus does have the ability to create spatial and non-spatial episodic memories (Leutgeb et. al, 2005) depending on the place condition

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