The study by Hassabis et al. investigates whether patients with hippocampal amnesia can imagine new experiences. The researchers tested a group of amnesic patients with bilateral hippocampal damage and matched control subjects on a task where they were asked to imagine new experiences based on verbal cues. The results showed that the patients were significantly impaired in imagining new experiences compared to the controls. The patients' imagined experiences lacked spatial coherence, consisting of fragmented images rather than a holistic representation of the environmental setting. This suggests that the hippocampus plays a critical role in creating new experiences by providing the spatial context necessary for binding disparate elements of an experience. The findings challenge the traditional view that the hippocampus's role in episodic memory is time-limited and highlight the importance of the hippocampus in both remembering the past and imagining the future.The study by Hassabis et al. investigates whether patients with hippocampal amnesia can imagine new experiences. The researchers tested a group of amnesic patients with bilateral hippocampal damage and matched control subjects on a task where they were asked to imagine new experiences based on verbal cues. The results showed that the patients were significantly impaired in imagining new experiences compared to the controls. The patients' imagined experiences lacked spatial coherence, consisting of fragmented images rather than a holistic representation of the environmental setting. This suggests that the hippocampus plays a critical role in creating new experiences by providing the spatial context necessary for binding disparate elements of an experience. The findings challenge the traditional view that the hippocampus's role in episodic memory is time-limited and highlight the importance of the hippocampus in both remembering the past and imagining the future.