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Aziz A, Patil BK, Lakshmikanth K, Sreeharsha PSS, Mukhopadhyay A, Chakravarthy VS. Modeling hippocampal spatial cells in rodents navigating in 3D environments. Sci Rep 2024; 14:16714. [PMID: 39030197 PMCID: PMC11271631 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-66755-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2024] [Accepted: 07/03/2024] [Indexed: 07/21/2024] Open
Abstract
Studies on the neural correlates of navigation in 3D environments are plagued by several issues that need to be solved. For example, experimental studies show markedly different place cell responses in rats and bats, both navigating in 3D environments. In this study, we focus on modelling the spatial cells in rodents in a 3D environment. We propose a deep autoencoder network to model the place and grid cells in a simulated agent navigating in a 3D environment. The input layer to the autoencoder network model is the HD layer, which encodes the agent's HD in terms of azimuth (θ) and pitch angles (ϕ). The output of this layer is given as input to the Path Integration (PI) layer, which computes displacement in all the preferred directions. The bottleneck layer of the autoencoder model encodes the spatial cell-like responses. Both grid cell and place cell-like responses are observed. The proposed model is verified using two experimental studies with two 3D environments. This model paves the way for a holistic approach using deep neural networks to model spatial cells in 3D navigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Azra Aziz
- Computational Neuroscience Lab, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, India
| | - Bharat K Patil
- Computational Neuroscience Lab, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, India
| | - Kailash Lakshmikanth
- Computational Neuroscience Lab, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, India
| | | | - Ayan Mukhopadhyay
- Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, India
- Instituto de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile
| | - V Srinivasa Chakravarthy
- Computational Neuroscience Lab, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, India.
- Center for Complex Systems and Dynamics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, India.
- Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, India.
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2
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Subramanian DL, Miller AMP, Smith DM. A comparison of hippocampal and retrosplenial cortical spatial and contextual firing patterns. Hippocampus 2024; 34:357-377. [PMID: 38770779 DOI: 10.1002/hipo.23610] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2023] [Revised: 03/22/2024] [Accepted: 05/07/2024] [Indexed: 05/22/2024]
Abstract
The hippocampus (HPC) and retrosplenial cortex (RSC) are key components of the brain's memory and navigation systems. Lesions of either region produce profound deficits in spatial cognition and HPC neurons exhibit well-known spatial firing patterns (place fields). Recent studies have also identified an array of navigation-related firing patterns in the RSC. However, there has been little work comparing the response properties and information coding mechanisms of these two brain regions. In the present study, we examined the firing patterns of HPC and RSC neurons in two tasks which are commonly used to study spatial cognition in rodents, open field foraging with an environmental context manipulation and continuous T-maze alternation. We found striking similarities in the kinds of spatial and contextual information encoded by these two brain regions. Neurons in both regions carried information about the rat's current spatial location, trajectories and goal locations, and both regions reliably differentiated the contexts. However, we also found several key differences. For example, information about head direction was a prominent component of RSC representations but was only weakly encoded in the HPC. The two regions also used different coding schemes, even when they encoded the same kind of information. As expected, the HPC employed a sparse coding scheme characterized by compact, high contrast place fields, and information about spatial location was the dominant component of HPC representations. RSC firing patterns were more consistent with a distributed coding scheme. Instead of compact place fields, RSC neurons exhibited broad, but reliable, spatial and directional tuning, and they typically carried information about multiple navigational variables. The observed similarities highlight the closely related functions of the HPC and RSC, whereas the differences in information types and coding schemes suggest that these two regions likely make somewhat different contributions to spatial cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Adam M P Miller
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
| | - David M Smith
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
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3
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Miranda M, Silva A, Morici JF, Coletti MA, Belluscio M, Bekinschtein P. Retrieval of contextual memory can be predicted by CA3 remapping and is differentially influenced by NMDAR activity in rat hippocampus subregions. PLoS Biol 2024; 22:e3002706. [PMID: 38950066 PMCID: PMC11244845 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002706] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2023] [Revised: 07/12/2024] [Accepted: 06/12/2024] [Indexed: 07/03/2024] Open
Abstract
Episodic memory is essential to navigate in a changing environment by recalling past events, creating new memories, and updating stored information from experience. Although the mechanisms for acquisition and consolidation have been profoundly studied, much less is known about memory retrieval. Hippocampal spatial representations are key for retrieval of contextually guided episodic memories. Indeed, hippocampal place cells exhibit stable location-specific activity which is thought to support contextual memory, but can also undergo remapping in response to environmental changes. It is unclear if remapping is directly related to the expression of different episodic memories. Here, using an incidental memory recognition task in rats, we showed that retrieval of a contextually guided memory is reflected by the levels of CA3 remapping, demonstrating a clear link between external cues, hippocampal remapping, and episodic memory retrieval that guides behavior. Furthermore, we describe NMDARs as key players in regulating the balance between retrieval and memory differentiation processes by controlling the reactivation of specific memory traces. While an increase in CA3 NMDAR activity boosts memory retrieval, dentate gyrus NMDAR activity enhances memory differentiation. Our results contribute to understanding how the hippocampal circuit sustains a flexible balance between memory formation and retrieval depending on the environmental cues and the internal representations of the individual. They also provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the contributions of hippocampal subregions to generate this balance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Magdalena Miranda
- Laboratorio de Memoria y Cognición Molecular, Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional, CONICET-Fundación INECO-Universidad Favaloro, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Azul Silva
- Laboratorio Bases neuronales del comportamiento, Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- CONICET—Universidad de Buenos Aires, Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay (IFIBIO Houssay), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Juan Facundo Morici
- Laboratorio de Memoria y Cognición Molecular, Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional, CONICET-Fundación INECO-Universidad Favaloro, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Marcos Antonio Coletti
- Laboratorio Bases neuronales del comportamiento, Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- CONICET—Universidad de Buenos Aires, Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay (IFIBIO Houssay), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Mariano Belluscio
- Laboratorio Bases neuronales del comportamiento, Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- CONICET—Universidad de Buenos Aires, Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay (IFIBIO Houssay), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Pedro Bekinschtein
- Laboratorio de Memoria y Cognición Molecular, Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional, CONICET-Fundación INECO-Universidad Favaloro, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Stuart SA, Palacios-Filardo J, Domanski A, Udakis M, Duguid I, Jones MW, Mellor JR. Hippocampal-dependent navigation in head-fixed mice using a floating real-world environment. Sci Rep 2024; 14:14315. [PMID: 38906952 PMCID: PMC11192748 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-64807-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2024] [Indexed: 06/23/2024] Open
Abstract
Head-fixation of mice enables high-resolution monitoring of neuronal activity coupled with precise control of environmental stimuli. Virtual reality can be used to emulate the visual experience of movement during head fixation, but a low inertia floating real-world environment (mobile homecage, MHC) has the potential to engage more sensory modalities and provide a richer experimental environment for complex behavioral tasks. However, it is not known whether mice react to this adapted environment in a similar manner to real environments, or whether the MHC can be used to implement validated, maze-based behavioral tasks. Here, we show that hippocampal place cell representations are intact in the MHC and that the system allows relatively long (20 min) whole-cell patch clamp recordings from dorsal CA1 pyramidal neurons, revealing sub-threshold membrane potential dynamics. Furthermore, mice learn the location of a liquid reward within an adapted T-maze guided by 2-dimensional spatial navigation cues and relearn the location when spatial contingencies are reversed. Bilateral infusions of scopolamine show that this learning is hippocampus-dependent and requires intact cholinergic signalling. Therefore, we characterize the MHC system as an experimental tool to study sub-threshold membrane potential dynamics that underpin complex navigation behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah A Stuart
- Centre for Synaptic Plasticity, School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TD, UK
| | - Jon Palacios-Filardo
- Centre for Synaptic Plasticity, School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TD, UK
| | - Aleks Domanski
- Centre for Synaptic Plasticity, School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TD, UK
| | - Matt Udakis
- Centre for Synaptic Plasticity, School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TD, UK
| | - Ian Duguid
- Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, Edinburgh Medical School: Biomedical Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9XD, UK
| | - Matt W Jones
- Centre for Synaptic Plasticity, School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TD, UK
| | - Jack R Mellor
- Centre for Synaptic Plasticity, School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TD, UK.
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Li H, Zhao Z, Fassini A, Lee HK, Green RJ, Gomperts SN. Impaired Hippocampal Reactivation Preceding Robust Aβ Deposition in a Model of Alzheimer's Disease. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.05.26.595168. [PMID: 38853978 PMCID: PMC11160633 DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.26.595168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2024]
Abstract
Current therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer's disease (AD) target amyloid-beta (Aβ) fibrils and high molecular weight protofibrils associated with plaques, but other bioactive species may directly contribute to neural systems failure in AD. Employing hippocampal electrophysiological recordings and dynamic calcium imaging across the sleep-wake cycle in young mice expressing human Aβ and Aβ oligomers, we reveal marked impairments of hippocampal function long before amyloid plaques predominate. In slow wave sleep (SWS), Aβ increased the proportion of hypoactive cells and reduced place-cell reactivation. During awake behavior, Aβ impaired theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) and drove excessive synchronization of place cell calcium fluctuations with hippocampal theta. Remarkably, the on-line impairment of hippocampal theta-gamma PAC correlated with the SWS impairment of place-cell reactivation. Together, these results identify toxic effects of Aβ on memory encoding and consolidation processes before robust plaque deposition and support targeting soluble Aβ-related species to treat and prevent AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hanyan Li
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Zhuoyang Zhao
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Aline Fassini
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Han K. Lee
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Reese J. Green
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Stephen N. Gomperts
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
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6
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Piza DB, Corrigan BW, Gulli RA, Do Carmo S, Cuello AC, Muller L, Martinez-Trujillo J. Primacy of vision shapes behavioral strategies and neural substrates of spatial navigation in marmoset hippocampus. Nat Commun 2024; 15:4053. [PMID: 38744848 PMCID: PMC11093997 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48374-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2023] [Accepted: 04/29/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
The role of the hippocampus in spatial navigation has been primarily studied in nocturnal mammals, such as rats, that lack many adaptations for daylight vision. Here we demonstrate that during 3D navigation, the common marmoset, a new world primate adapted to daylight, predominantly uses rapid head-gaze shifts for visual exploration while remaining stationary. During active locomotion marmosets stabilize the head, in contrast to rats that use low-velocity head movements to scan the environment as they locomote. Pyramidal neurons in the marmoset hippocampus CA3/CA1 regions predominantly show mixed selectivity for 3D spatial view, head direction, and place. Exclusive place selectivity is scarce. Inhibitory interneurons are predominantly mixed selective for angular head velocity and translation speed. Finally, we found theta phase resetting of local field potential oscillations triggered by head-gaze shifts. Our findings indicate that marmosets adapted to their daylight ecological niche by modifying exploration/navigation strategies and their corresponding hippocampal specializations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diego B Piza
- Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, Canada
- Robarts Research Institute, Western University, London, ON, Canada
| | - Benjamin W Corrigan
- Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, Canada
- Robarts Research Institute, Western University, London, ON, Canada
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | | | - Sonia Do Carmo
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - A Claudio Cuello
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Lyle Muller
- Robarts Research Institute, Western University, London, ON, Canada
- Department of Applied Mathematics, Western University, London, ON, Canada
| | - Julio Martinez-Trujillo
- Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
- Robarts Research Institute, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
- Department of Psychiatry, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
- Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
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7
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Loetscher KB, Goldfarb EV. Integrating and fragmenting memories under stress and alcohol. Neurobiol Stress 2024; 30:100615. [PMID: 38375503 PMCID: PMC10874731 DOI: 10.1016/j.ynstr.2024.100615] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2023] [Revised: 02/03/2024] [Accepted: 02/06/2024] [Indexed: 02/21/2024] Open
Abstract
Stress can powerfully influence the way we form memories, particularly the extent to which they are integrated or situated within an underlying spatiotemporal and broader knowledge architecture. These different representations in turn have significant consequences for the way we use these memories to guide later behavior. Puzzlingly, although stress has historically been argued to promote fragmentation, leading to disjoint memory representations, more recent work suggests that stress can also facilitate memory binding and integration. Understanding the circumstances under which stress fosters integration will be key to resolving this discrepancy and unpacking the mechanisms by which stress can shape later behavior. Here, we examine memory integration at multiple levels: linking together the content of an individual experience, threading associations between related but distinct events, and binding an experience into a pre-existing schema or sense of causal structure. We discuss neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying each form of integration as well as findings regarding how stress, aversive learning, and negative affect can modulate each. In this analysis, we uncover that stress can indeed promote each level of integration. We also show how memory integration may apply to understanding effects of alcohol, highlighting extant clinical and preclinical findings and opportunities for further investigation. Finally, we consider the implications of integration and fragmentation for later memory-guided behavior, and the importance of understanding which type of memory representation is potentiated in order to design appropriate interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Elizabeth V. Goldfarb
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, USA
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, USA
- Wu Tsai Institute, Yale University, USA
- National Center for PTSD, West Haven VA, USA
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Herber CS, Pratt KJ, Shea JM, Villeda SA, Giocomo LM. Spatial Coding Dysfunction and Network Instability in the Aging Medial Entorhinal Cortex. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.04.12.588890. [PMID: 38659809 PMCID: PMC11042240 DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.12.588890] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
Across species, spatial memory declines with age, possibly reflecting altered hippocampal and medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) function. However, the integrity of cellular and network-level spatial coding in aged MEC is unknown. Here, we leveraged in vivo electrophysiology to assess MEC function in young, middle-aged, and aged mice navigating virtual environments. In aged grid cells, we observed impaired stabilization of context-specific spatial firing, correlated with spatial memory deficits. Additionally, aged grid networks shifted firing patterns often but with poor alignment to context changes. Aged spatial firing was also unstable in an unchanging environment. In these same mice, we identified 458 genes differentially expressed with age in MEC, 61 of which had expression correlated with spatial firing stability. These genes were enriched among interneurons and related to synaptic transmission. Together, these findings identify coordinated transcriptomic, cellular, and network changes in MEC implicated in impaired spatial memory in aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte S. Herber
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
- Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Karishma J.B. Pratt
- Department of Anatomy, University of California San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Avenue, Box 0452, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA
- These authors contributed equally
| | - Jeremy M. Shea
- Department of Anatomy, University of California San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Avenue, Box 0452, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA
- These authors contributed equally
| | - Saul A. Villeda
- Department of Anatomy, University of California San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Avenue, Box 0452, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA
- Bakar Aging Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA
| | - Lisa M. Giocomo
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
- Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
- Lead contact
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Chettih SN, Mackevicius EL, Hale S, Aronov D. Barcoding of episodic memories in the hippocampus of a food-caching bird. Cell 2024; 187:1922-1935.e20. [PMID: 38554707 PMCID: PMC11015962 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.02.032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2023] [Revised: 11/28/2023] [Accepted: 02/23/2024] [Indexed: 04/02/2024]
Abstract
The hippocampus is critical for episodic memory. Although hippocampal activity represents place and other behaviorally relevant variables, it is unclear how it encodes numerous memories of specific events in life. To study episodic coding, we leveraged the specialized behavior of chickadees-food-caching birds that form memories at well-defined moments in time whenever they cache food for subsequent retrieval. Our recordings during caching revealed very sparse, transient barcode-like patterns of firing across hippocampal neurons. Each "barcode" uniquely represented a caching event and transiently reactivated during the retrieval of that specific cache. Barcodes co-occurred with the conventional activity of place cells but were uncorrelated even for nearby cache locations that had similar place codes. We propose that animals recall episodic memories by reactivating hippocampal barcodes. Similarly to computer hash codes, these patterns assign unique identifiers to different events and could be a mechanism for rapid formation and storage of many non-interfering memories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Selmaan N Chettih
- Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Emily L Mackevicius
- Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Basis Research Institute, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Stephanie Hale
- Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Dmitriy Aronov
- Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
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10
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Chen X, Wei Z, Wolbers T. Repetition Suppression Reveals Cue-Specific Spatial Representations for Landmarks and Self-Motion Cues in the Human Retrosplenial Cortex. eNeuro 2024; 11:ENEURO.0294-23.2024. [PMID: 38519127 PMCID: PMC11007318 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0294-23.2024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2023] [Revised: 03/08/2024] [Accepted: 03/11/2024] [Indexed: 03/24/2024] Open
Abstract
The efficient use of various spatial cues within a setting is crucial for successful navigation. Two fundamental forms of spatial navigation, landmark-based and self-motion-based, engage distinct cognitive mechanisms. The question of whether these modes invoke shared or separate spatial representations in the brain remains unresolved. While nonhuman animal studies have yielded inconsistent results, human investigation is limited. In our previous work (Chen et al., 2019), we introduced a novel spatial navigation paradigm utilizing ultra-high field fMRI to explore neural coding of positional information. We found that different entorhinal subregions in the right hemisphere encode positional information for landmarks and self-motion cues. The present study tested the generalizability of our previous finding with a modified navigation paradigm. Although we did not replicate our previous finding in the entorhinal cortex, we identified adaptation-based allocentric positional codes for both cue types in the retrosplenial cortex (RSC), which were not confounded by the path to the spatial location. Crucially, the multi-voxel patterns of these spatial codes differed between the cue types, suggesting cue-specific positional coding. The parahippocampal cortex exhibited positional coding for self-motion cues, which was not dissociable from path length. Finally, the brain regions involved in successful navigation differed from our previous study, indicating overall distinct neural mechanisms recruited in our two studies. Taken together, the current findings demonstrate cue-specific allocentric positional coding in the human RSC in the same navigation task for the first time and that spatial representations in the brain are contingent on specific experimental conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoli Chen
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, P.R. China
| | - Ziwei Wei
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, P.R. China
| | - Thomas Wolbers
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg 39120, Germany
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg 39106, Germany
- Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences (CBBS), Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg 39106, Germany
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11
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Sun Y, Nitz DA, Xu X, Giocomo LM. Subicular neurons encode concave and convex geometries. Nature 2024; 627:821-829. [PMID: 38448584 PMCID: PMC10972755 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07139-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2023] [Accepted: 01/31/2024] [Indexed: 03/08/2024]
Abstract
Animals in the natural world constantly encounter geometrically complex landscapes. Successful navigation requires that they understand geometric features of these landscapes, including boundaries, landmarks, corners and curved areas, all of which collectively define the geometry of the environment1-12. Crucial to the reconstruction of the geometric layout of natural environments are concave and convex features, such as corners and protrusions. However, the neural substrates that could underlie the perception of concavity and convexity in the environment remain elusive. Here we show that the dorsal subiculum contains neurons that encode corners across environmental geometries in an allocentric reference frame. Using longitudinal calcium imaging in freely behaving mice, we find that corner cells tune their activity to reflect the geometric properties of corners, including corner angles, wall height and the degree of wall intersection. A separate population of subicular neurons encode convex corners of both larger environments and discrete objects. Both corner cells are non-overlapping with the population of subicular neurons that encode environmental boundaries. Furthermore, corner cells that encode concave or convex corners generalize their activity such that they respond, respectively, to concave or convex curvatures within an environment. Together, our findings suggest that the subiculum contains the geometric information needed to reconstruct the shape and layout of naturalistic spatial environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanjun Sun
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA.
| | - Douglas A Nitz
- Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Xiangmin Xu
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Neural Circuit Mapping (CNCM), University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Lisa M Giocomo
- Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
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12
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Wang C, Lee H, Rao G, Knierim JJ. Multiplexing of temporal and spatial information in the lateral entorhinal cortex. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.01.31.578307. [PMID: 38352543 PMCID: PMC10862918 DOI: 10.1101/2024.01.31.578307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/24/2024]
Abstract
Episodic memory involves the processing of spatial and temporal aspects of personal experiences. The lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) plays an essential role in subserving memory. However, the specific mechanism by which LEC integrates spatial and temporal information remains elusive. Here, we recorded LEC neurons while rats performed foraging and shuttling behaviors on one-dimensional, linear or circular tracks. Unlike open-field foraging tasks, many LEC cells displayed spatial firing fields in these tasks and demonstrated selectivity for traveling directions. Furthermore, some LEC neurons displayed changes in the firing rates of their spatial rate maps during a session, a phenomenon referred to as rate remapping. Importantly, this temporal modulation was consistent across sessions, even when the spatial environment was altered. Notably, the strength of temporal modulation was found to be greater in LEC compared to other brain regions, such as the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC), CA1, and CA3. Thus, the spatial rate mapping observed in LEC neurons may serve as a coding mechanism for temporal context, allowing for flexible multiplexing of spatial and temporal information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cheng Wang
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Precision Diagnosis and Treatment of Depression, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Behavior, CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Manipulation, the Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute (BCBDI), Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science-Shenzhen Fundamental Research Institutions, Shenzhen, 518055, China
- Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
| | - Heekyung Lee
- Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
| | - Geeta Rao
- Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
| | - James J Knierim
- Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
- Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
- Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
- Lead contact
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13
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Nataraj A, Kala A, Proskauer Pena SL, Jezek K, Blahna K. Impaired Dynamics of Positional and Contextual Neural Coding in an Alzheimer's Disease Rat Model. J Alzheimers Dis 2024; 101:259-276. [PMID: 39177594 DOI: 10.3233/jad-231386] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/24/2024]
Abstract
Background The hippocampal representation of space, formed by the collective activity of populations of place cells, is considered as a substrate of spatial memory. Alzheimer's disease (AD), a widespread severe neurodegenerative condition of multifactorial origin, typically exhibits spatial memory deficits among its early clinical signs before more severe cognitive impacts develop. Objective To investigate mechanisms of spatial memory impairment in a double transgenic rat model of AD. Methods In this study, we utilized 9-12-month-old double-transgenic TgF344-AD rats and age-matched controls to analyze the spatial coding properties of CA1 place cells. We characterized the spatial memory representation, assessed cells' spatial information content and direction-specific activity, and compared their population coding in familiar and novel conditions. Results Our findings revealed that TgF344-AD animals exhibited lower precision in coding, as evidenced by reduced spatial information and larger receptive zones. This impairment was evident in maps representing novel environments. While controls instantly encoded directional context during their initial exposure to a novel environment, transgenics struggled to incorporate this information into the newly developed hippocampal spatial representation. This resulted in impairment in orthogonalization of stored activity patterns, an important feature directly related to episodic memory encoding capacity. Conclusions Overall, the results shed light on the nature of impairment at both the single-cell and population levels in the transgenic AD model. In addition to the observed spatial coding inaccuracy, the findings reveal a significantly impaired ability to adaptively modify and refine newly stored hippocampal memory patterns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Athira Nataraj
- Biomedical Center, Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen, Charles University, , Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Annu Kala
- Biomedical Center, Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen, Charles University, , Prague, Czech Republic
| | | | - Karel Jezek
- Biomedical Center, Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen, Charles University, , Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Karel Blahna
- Biomedical Center, Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen, Charles University, , Prague, Czech Republic
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14
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Barth AM, Jelitai M, Vasarhelyi-Nagy MF, Varga V. Aversive stimulus-tuned responses in the CA1 of the dorsal hippocampus. Nat Commun 2023; 14:6841. [PMID: 37891171 PMCID: PMC10611787 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42611-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Accepted: 10/16/2023] [Indexed: 10/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Throughout life animals inevitably encounter unforeseen threatening events. Activity of principal cells in the hippocampus is tuned for locations and for salient stimuli in the animals' environment thus forming a map known to be pivotal for guiding behavior. Here, we explored if a code of threatening stimuli exists in the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus of mice by recording neuronal response to aversive stimuli delivered at changing locations. We have discovered a rapidly emerging, location independent response to innoxious aversive stimuli composed of the coordinated activation of subgroups of pyramidal cells and connected interneurons. Activated pyramidal cells had higher basal firing rate, more probably participated in ripples, targeted more interneurons than place cells and many of them lacked place fields. We also detected aversive stimulus-coupled assemblies dominated by the activated neurons. Notably, these assemblies could be observed even before the delivery of the first aversive event. Finally, we uncovered the systematic shift of the spatial code from the aversive to, surprisingly, the reward location during the fearful stimulus. Our results uncovered components of the dorsal CA1 circuit possibly key for re-sculpting the spatial map in response to abrupt aversive events.
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Affiliation(s)
- Albert M Barth
- Subcortical Modulation Research Group, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Budapest, 1083, Hungary.
- Cerebral Cortex Research Group, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Budapest, 1083, Hungary.
| | - Marta Jelitai
- Subcortical Modulation Research Group, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Budapest, 1083, Hungary
| | | | - Viktor Varga
- Subcortical Modulation Research Group, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Budapest, 1083, Hungary.
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15
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Chettih SN, Mackevicius EL, Hale S, Aronov D. Barcoding of episodic memories in the hippocampus of a food-caching bird. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.05.27.542597. [PMID: 37461442 PMCID: PMC10349996 DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.27.542597] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/24/2023]
Abstract
Episodic memory, or memory of experienced events, is a critical function of the hippocampus1-3. It is therefore important to understand how hippocampal activity represents specific events in an animal's life. We addressed this question in chickadees - specialist food-caching birds that hide food at scattered locations and use memory to find their caches later in time4,5. We performed high-density neural recordings in the hippocampus of chickadees as they cached and retrieved seeds in a laboratory arena. We found that each caching event was represented by a burst of firing in a unique set of hippocampal neurons. These 'barcode-like' patterns of activity were sparse (<10% of neurons active), uncorrelated even for immediately adjacent caches, and different even for separate caches at the same location. The barcode representing a specific caching event was transiently reactivated whenever a bird later interacted with the same cache - for example, to retrieve food. Barcodes co-occurred with conventional place cell activity6,7, as well as location-independent responses to cached seeds. We propose that barcodes are signatures of episodic memories evoked during memory recall. These patterns assign a unique identifier to each event and may be a mechanism for rapid formation and storage of many non-interfering memories.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Stephanie Hale
- Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University
| | - Dmitriy Aronov
- Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University
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16
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Geva N, Deitch D, Rubin A, Ziv Y. Time and experience differentially affect distinct aspects of hippocampal representational drift. Neuron 2023:S0896-6273(23)00378-1. [PMID: 37315556 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.05.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2022] [Revised: 02/22/2023] [Accepted: 05/08/2023] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Hippocampal activity is critical for spatial memory. Within a fixed, familiar environment, hippocampal codes gradually change over timescales of days to weeks-a phenomenon known as representational drift. The passage of time and the amount of experience are two factors that profoundly affect memory. However, thus far, it has remained unclear to what extent these factors drive hippocampal representational drift. Here, we longitudinally recorded large populations of hippocampal neurons in mice while they repeatedly explored two different familiar environments that they visited at different time intervals over weeks. We found that time and experience differentially affected distinct aspects of representational drift: the passage of time drove changes in neuronal activity rates, whereas experience drove changes in the cells' spatial tuning. Changes in spatial tuning were context specific and largely independent of changes in activity rates. Thus, our results suggest that representational drift is a multi-faceted process governed by distinct neuronal mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nitzan Geva
- Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Daniel Deitch
- Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Alon Rubin
- Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
| | - Yaniv Ziv
- Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
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17
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Chen L, Lin X, Ye Q, Nenadic Z, Holmes TC, Nitz DA, Xu X. Anatomical organization of temporally correlated neural calcium activity in the hippocampal CA1 region. iScience 2023; 26:106703. [PMID: 37250317 PMCID: PMC10214731 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106703] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2021] [Revised: 09/27/2022] [Accepted: 04/15/2023] [Indexed: 05/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Hippocampal CA1 neuronal ensembles generate sequential patterns of firing activity that contribute to episodic memory formation and spatial cognition. Here we used in vivo calcium imaging to record neural ensemble activities in mouse hippocampal CA1 and identified CA1 excitatory neuron sub-populations whose members are active across the same second-long period of time. We identified groups of hippocampal neurons sharing temporally correlated neural calcium activity during behavioral exploration and found that they also organized as clusters in anatomical space. Such clusters vary in membership and activity dynamics with respect to movement in different environments, but also appear during immobility in the dark suggesting an internal dynamic. The strong covariance between dynamics and anatomical location within the CA1 sub-region reveals a previously unrecognized form of topographic representation in hippocampus that may guide generation of hippocampal sequences across time and therefore organize the content of episodic memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lujia Chen
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-1275, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-2715, USA
- The Center for Neural Circuit Mapping, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Xiaoxiao Lin
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-1275, USA
- The Center for Neural Circuit Mapping, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Qiao Ye
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-1275, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-2715, USA
- The Center for Neural Circuit Mapping, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Zoran Nenadic
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-2715, USA
- The Center for Neural Circuit Mapping, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Todd C. Holmes
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697- 4560, USA
- The Center for Neural Circuit Mapping, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Douglas A. Nitz
- Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, La Jolla, La Jolla, CA 92093, San Diego
- The Center for Neural Circuit Mapping, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Xiangmin Xu
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-1275, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-2715, USA
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-4025, USA
- Department of Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-3435, USA
- The Center for Neural Circuit Mapping, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
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18
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Kim SH, GoodSmith D, Temme SJ, Moriya F, Ming GL, Christian KM, Song H, Knierim JJ. Global remapping in granule cells and mossy cells of the mouse dentate gyrus. Cell Rep 2023; 42:112334. [PMID: 37043350 PMCID: PMC10564968 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112334] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2022] [Revised: 02/02/2023] [Accepted: 03/17/2023] [Indexed: 04/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Hippocampal place cells exhibit spatially modulated firing, or place fields, which can remap to encode changes in the environment or other variables. Unique among hippocampal subregions, the dentate gyrus (DG) has two excitatory populations of place cells, granule cells and mossy cells, which are among the least and most active spatially modulated cells in the hippocampus, respectively. Previous studies of remapping in the DG have drawn different conclusions about whether granule cells exhibit global remapping and contribute to the encoding of context specificity. By recording granule cells and mossy cells as mice foraged in different environments, we found that by most measures, both granule cells and mossy cells remapped robustly but through different mechanisms that are consistent with firing properties of each cell type. Our results resolve the ambiguity surrounding remapping in the DG and suggest that most spatially modulated granule cells contribute to orthogonal representations of distinct spatial contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sang Hoon Kim
- Department of Neuroscience and Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Douglas GoodSmith
- Department of Neuroscience and Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; Department of Neurobiology and Neuroscience Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Stephanie J Temme
- Department of Neuroscience and Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Fumika Moriya
- Department of Neuroscience and Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Guo-Li Ming
- Department of Neuroscience and Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Kimberly M Christian
- Department of Neuroscience and Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
| | - Hongjun Song
- Department of Neuroscience and Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA; The Epigenetics Institute, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
| | - James J Knierim
- Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
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19
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Heldman R, Pang D, Zhao X, Wang Y. A CA1 circuit motif that signals the start of information integration. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.03.12.532295. [PMID: 36993346 PMCID: PMC10054991 DOI: 10.1101/2023.03.12.532295] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
Integrating information from the recent past is critical for guiding predictions and shaping behavior. The process of integrating information, such as tracking distance traveled or time elapsed, begins with establishing a starting point. Yet, the mechanisms by which neural circuits utilize relevant cues to initiate integration remain unknown. Our study sheds light on this question by identifying a subpopulation of CA1 pyramidal neurons called PyrDown. These neurons shut down their activity at the beginning of distance or time integration and then gradually ramp up their firing as the animal approaches the reward. PyrDown neurons provide a mechanism for representing integrated information through ramping activity, complementing the well-known place/time cells that respond to specific distances or time points. Our findings also reveal that parvalbumin inhibitory interneurons mediate the shutdown of PyrDown neurons, uncovering a circuit motif that enables the initiation of subsequent information integration to improve future predictions.
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20
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Sheintuch L, Geva N, Deitch D, Rubin A, Ziv Y. Organization of hippocampal CA3 into correlated cell assemblies supports a stable spatial code. Cell Rep 2023; 42:112119. [PMID: 36807137 PMCID: PMC9989830 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2022] [Revised: 11/30/2022] [Accepted: 01/30/2023] [Indexed: 02/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Hippocampal subfield CA3 is thought to stably store memories in assemblies of recurrently connected cells functioning as a collective. However, the collective hippocampal coding properties that are unique to CA3 and how such properties facilitate the stability or precision of the neural code remain unclear. Here, we performed large-scale Ca2+ imaging in hippocampal CA1 and CA3 of freely behaving mice that repeatedly explored the same, initially novel environments over weeks. CA3 place cells have more precise and more stable tuning and show a higher statistical dependence with their peers compared with CA1 place cells, uncovering a cell assembly organization in CA3. Surprisingly, although tuning precision and long-term stability are correlated, cells with stronger peer dependence exhibit higher stability but not higher precision. Overall, our results expose the three-way relationship between tuning precision, long-term stability, and peer dependence, suggesting that a cell assembly organization underlies long-term storage of information in the hippocampus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liron Sheintuch
- Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Nitzan Geva
- Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Daniel Deitch
- Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Alon Rubin
- Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
| | - Yaniv Ziv
- Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
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21
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Dumont NSY, Stöckel A, Furlong PM, Bartlett M, Eliasmith C, Stewart TC. Biologically-Based Computation: How Neural Details and Dynamics Are Suited for Implementing a Variety of Algorithms. Brain Sci 2023; 13:brainsci13020245. [PMID: 36831788 PMCID: PMC9954128 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13020245] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2022] [Revised: 01/28/2023] [Accepted: 01/28/2023] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
The Neural Engineering Framework (Eliasmith & Anderson, 2003) is a long-standing method for implementing high-level algorithms constrained by low-level neurobiological details. In recent years, this method has been expanded to incorporate more biological details and applied to new tasks. This paper brings together these ongoing research strands, presenting them in a common framework. We expand on the NEF's core principles of (a) specifying the desired tuning curves of neurons in different parts of the model, (b) defining the computational relationships between the values represented by the neurons in different parts of the model, and (c) finding the synaptic connection weights that will cause those computations and tuning curves. In particular, we show how to extend this to include complex spatiotemporal tuning curves, and then apply this approach to produce functional computational models of grid cells, time cells, path integration, sparse representations, probabilistic representations, and symbolic representations in the brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole Sandra-Yaffa Dumont
- Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
- Correspondence:
| | | | - P. Michael Furlong
- Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
| | - Madeleine Bartlett
- Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
| | - Chris Eliasmith
- Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
- Applied Brain Research Inc., Waterloo, ON N2T 1G9, Canada
| | - Terrence C. Stewart
- National Research Council, University of Waterloo Collaboration Centre, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
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22
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Shin J, Lee HW, Jin SW, Lee I. Subtle visual change in a virtual environment induces heterogeneous remapping systematically in CA1, but not CA3. Cell Rep 2022; 41:111823. [PMID: 36516763 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111823] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2022] [Revised: 08/10/2022] [Accepted: 11/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Environmental change may lead to new memories or modify old ones, but the underlying neural mechanisms are largely unclear. We recorded hippocampal place cells simultaneously from CA1 and CA3 in a virtual reality environment. Compared with CA1, place cells in CA3 are more tolerant of individual landmark changes but undergo orthogonal changes to code distinctively different environments. As visual noise (virtual fog) is introduced to a visually enriched environment, place cells in CA1 split into two subpopulations: in one, place cells maintain their field locations while changing their firing rates to reflect sensory changes; in the other, place cells exhibit global remapping in response to the contextual change. In contrast, place cells in CA3 exhibit mainly rate remapping under the same conditions. Our results suggest that CA1 may simultaneously represent heterogeneous maps of the same environment when subtle visual noise induces both sensory and contextual changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jhoseph Shin
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Gwanak-ro 1, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyun-Woo Lee
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Gwanak-ro 1, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Seung-Woo Jin
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Gwanak-ro 1, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Inah Lee
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Gwanak-ro 1, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
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23
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Zhou H, Li H, Gowravaram N, Quan M, Kausar N, Gomperts SN. Disruption of hippocampal neuronal circuit function depends upon behavioral state in the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Sci Rep 2022; 12:21022. [PMID: 36471155 PMCID: PMC9723144 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-25364-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2022] [Accepted: 11/29/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The Alzheimer's disease-associated peptide amyloid-beta (Aβ) has been associated with neuronal hyperactivity under anesthesia, but clinical trials of anticonvulsants or neural system suppressors have, so far, failed to improve symptoms in AD. Using simultaneous hippocampal calcium imaging and electrophysiology in freely moving mice expressing human Aβ, here we show that Aβ aggregates perturbed neural systems in a state-dependent fashion, driving neuronal hyperactivity in exploratory behavior and slow wave sleep (SWS), yet suppressing activity in quiet wakefulness (QW) and REM sleep. In exploratory behavior and REM sleep, Aβ impaired hippocampal theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling and altered neuronal synchronization with theta. In SWS, Aβ reduced cortical slow oscillation (SO) power, the coordination of hippocampal sharp wave-ripples with both the SO and thalamocortical spindles, and the coordination of calcium transients with the sharp wave-ripple. Physostigmine improved Aβ-associated hyperactivity in exploratory behavior and hypoactivity in QW and expanded the range of gamma that coupled with theta phase, but exacerbated hypoactivity in exploratory behavior. Together, these findings show that the effects of Aβ alone on hippocampal circuit function are profoundly state dependent and suggest a reformulation of therapeutic strategies aimed at Aβ induced hyperexcitability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heng Zhou
- MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
- Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Brain Disease and Bioinformation, Research Center for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, China
| | - Hanyan Li
- MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Niket Gowravaram
- MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Moqin Quan
- MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Naila Kausar
- MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Stephen N Gomperts
- MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA.
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24
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Lee SM, Shin J, Lee I. Significance of visual scene-based learning in the hippocampal systems across mammalian species. Hippocampus 2022; 33:505-521. [PMID: 36458555 DOI: 10.1002/hipo.23483] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2022] [Revised: 10/26/2022] [Accepted: 11/19/2022] [Indexed: 12/04/2022]
Abstract
The hippocampus and its associated cortical regions in the medial temporal lobe play essential roles when animals form a cognitive map and use it to achieve their goals. As the nature of map-making involves sampling different local views of the environment and putting them together in a spatially cohesive way, visual scenes are essential ingredients in the formative process of cognitive maps. Visual scenes also serve as important cues during information retrieval from the cognitive map. Research in humans has shown that there are regions in the brain that selectively process scenes and that the hippocampus is involved in scene-based memory tasks. The neurophysiological correlates of scene-based information processing in the hippocampus have been reported as "spatial view cells" in nonhuman primates. Like primates, it is widely accepted that rodents also use visual scenes in their background for spatial navigation and other kinds of problems. However, in rodents, it is not until recently that researchers examined the neural correlates of the hippocampus from the perspective of visual scene-based information processing. With the advent of virtual reality (VR) systems, it has been demonstrated that place cells in the hippocampus exhibit remarkably similar firing correlates in the VR environment compared with that of the real-world environment. Despite some limitations, the new trend of studying hippocampal functions in a visually controlled environment has the potential to allow investigation of the input-output relationships of network functions and experimental testing of traditional computational predictions more rigorously by providing well-defined visual stimuli. As scenes are essential for navigation and episodic memory in humans, further investigation of the rodents' hippocampal systems in scene-based tasks will provide a critical functional link across different mammalian species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Su-Min Lee
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Jhoseph Shin
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Inah Lee
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
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25
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Exercise increases information content and affects long-term stability of hippocampal place codes. Cell Rep 2022; 41:111695. [PMID: 36417871 PMCID: PMC9715913 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111695] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2022] [Revised: 06/14/2022] [Accepted: 10/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Physical exercise is known to augment brain functioning, improving memory and cognition. However, while some of the physiological effects of physical activity on the brain are known, little is known about its effects on the neural code. Using calcium imaging in freely behaving mice, we study how voluntary exercise affects the quality and long-term stability of hippocampal place codes. We find that running accelerates the emergence of a more informative spatial code in novel environments and increases code stability over days and weeks. Paradoxically, although runners demonstrated an overall more stable place code than their sedentary peers, their place code changed faster when controlling for code quality level. A model-based simulation shows that the combination of improved code quality and faster representational drift in runners, but neither of these effects alone, could account for our results. Thus, exercise may enhance hippocampal function via a more informative and dynamic place code.
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Gobbo F, Mitchell-Heggs R, Tse D, Al Omrani M, Spooner PA, Schultz SR, Morris RGM. Neuronal signature of spatial decision-making during navigation by freely moving rats by using calcium imaging. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2212152119. [PMID: 36279456 PMCID: PMC9636941 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2212152119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2022] [Accepted: 09/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
A challenge in spatial memory is understanding how place cell firing contributes to decision-making in navigation. A spatial recency task was created in which freely moving rats first became familiar with a spatial context over several days and thereafter were required to encode and then selectively recall one of three specific locations within it that was chosen to be rewarded that day. Calcium imaging was used to record from more than 1,000 cells in area CA1 of the hippocampus of five rats during the exploration, sample, and choice phases of the daily task. The key finding was that neural activity in the startbox rose steadily in the short period prior to entry to the arena and that this selective population cell firing was predictive of the daily changing goal on correct trials but not on trials in which the animals made errors. Single-cell and population activity measures converged on the idea that prospective coding of neural activity can be involved in navigational decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesco Gobbo
- Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, Edinburgh Neuroscience, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK
| | - Rufus Mitchell-Heggs
- Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, Edinburgh Neuroscience, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK
- Department of Bioengineering and Centre for Neurotechnology, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK
| | - Dorothy Tse
- Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, Edinburgh Neuroscience, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK
- Department of Psychology, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, L39 4QP, UK
| | - Meera Al Omrani
- MSc Program in Integrative Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK
| | - Patrick A. Spooner
- Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, Edinburgh Neuroscience, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK
- Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK
| | - Simon R. Schultz
- Department of Bioengineering and Centre for Neurotechnology, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK
| | - Richard G. M. Morris
- Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, Edinburgh Neuroscience, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK
- Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK
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Fuchsberger T, Clopath C, Jarzebowski P, Brzosko Z, Wang H, Paulsen O. Postsynaptic burst reactivation of hippocampal neurons enables associative plasticity of temporally discontiguous inputs. eLife 2022; 11:e81071. [PMID: 36226826 PMCID: PMC9612916 DOI: 10.7554/elife.81071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2022] [Accepted: 10/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
A fundamental unresolved problem in neuroscience is how the brain associates in memory events that are separated in time. Here, we propose that reactivation-induced synaptic plasticity can solve this problem. Previously, we reported that the reinforcement signal dopamine converts hippocampal spike timing-dependent depression into potentiation during continued synaptic activity (Brzosko et al., 2015). Here, we report that postsynaptic bursts in the presence of dopamine produce input-specific LTP in mouse hippocampal synapses 10 min after they were primed with coincident pre- and post-synaptic activity (post-before-pre pairing; Δt = -20 ms). This priming activity induces synaptic depression and sets an NMDA receptor-dependent silent eligibility trace which, through the cAMP-PKA cascade, is rapidly converted into protein synthesis-dependent synaptic potentiation, mediated by a signaling pathway distinct from that of conventional LTP. This synaptic learning rule was incorporated into a computational model, and we found that it adds specificity to reinforcement learning by controlling memory allocation and enabling both 'instructive' and 'supervised' reinforcement learning. We predicted that this mechanism would make reactivated neurons activate more strongly and carry more spatial information than non-reactivated cells, which was confirmed in freely moving mice performing a reward-based navigation task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tanja Fuchsberger
- Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, Physiological Laboratory, University of CambridgeCambridgeUnited Kingdom
| | - Claudia Clopath
- Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College LondonLondonUnited Kingdom
| | - Przemyslaw Jarzebowski
- Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, Physiological Laboratory, University of CambridgeCambridgeUnited Kingdom
| | - Zuzanna Brzosko
- Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, Physiological Laboratory, University of CambridgeCambridgeUnited Kingdom
| | - Hongbing Wang
- Department of Physiology, Michigan State UniversityEast LansingUnited States
| | - Ole Paulsen
- Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, Physiological Laboratory, University of CambridgeCambridgeUnited Kingdom
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Abstract
Astrocytic calcium dynamics has been implicated in the encoding of sensory information1-5, and modulation of calcium in astrocytes has been shown to affect behaviour6-10. However, longitudinal investigation of the real-time calcium activity of astrocytes in the hippocampus of awake mice is lacking. Here we used two-photon microscopy to chronically image CA1 astrocytes as mice ran in familiar or new virtual environments to obtain water rewards. We found that astrocytes exhibit persistent ramping activity towards the reward location in a familiar environment, but not in a new one. Shifting the reward location within a familiar environment also resulted in diminished ramping. After additional training, as the mice became familiar with the new context or new reward location, the ramping was re-established. Using linear decoders, we could predict the location of the mouse in a familiar environment from astrocyte activity alone. We could not do the same in a new environment, suggesting that the spatial modulation of astrocytic activity is experience dependent. Our results indicate that astrocytes can encode the expected reward location in spatial contexts, thereby extending their known computational abilities and their role in cognitive functions.
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Bhasin G, Nair IR. Dynamic Hippocampal CA2 Responses to Contextual Spatial Novelty. Front Syst Neurosci 2022; 16:923911. [PMID: 36003545 PMCID: PMC9393711 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2022.923911] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2022] [Accepted: 06/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Hippocampal place cells are functional units of spatial navigation and are present in all subregions: CA1, CA2, CA3, and CA4. Recent studies on CA2 have indicated its role in social and contextual memories, but its contribution to spatial novelty detection and encoding remains largely unknown. The current study aims to uncover how CA2 processes spatial novelty and to distinguish its functional role towards the same from CA1. Accordingly, a novel 3-day paradigm was designed where animals were introduced to a completely new environment on the first day, and on subsequent days, novel segments were inserted into the existing spatial environment while the other segments remained the same, allowing us to compare novel and familiar parts of the same closed-loop track on multiple days. We found that spatial novelty leads to dynamic and complex hippocampal place cell firings at both individual neuron and population levels. Place cells in both CA1 and CA2 had strong responses to novel segments, leading to higher average firing rates and increased pairwise cross correlations across all days. However, CA2 place cells that fired for novel areas had lower spatial information scores than CA1 place cells active in the same areas. At the ensemble level, CA1 only responded to spatial novelty on day 1, when the environment was completely novel, whereas CA2 responded to it on all days, each time novelty was introduced. Therefore, CA2 was more sensitive and responsive to novel spatial features even when introduced in a familiar environment, unlike CA1.
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Interrogating structural plasticity among synaptic engrams. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2022; 75:102552. [DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2022.102552] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2021] [Revised: 04/08/2022] [Accepted: 04/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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Crown LM, Gray DT, Schimanski LA, Barnes CA, Cowen SL. Aged Rats Exhibit Altered Behavior-Induced Oscillatory Activity, Place Cell Firing Rates, and Spatial Information Content in the CA1 Region of the Hippocampus. J Neurosci 2022; 42:4505-4516. [PMID: 35477900 PMCID: PMC9172068 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1855-21.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2021] [Revised: 03/18/2022] [Accepted: 04/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Hippocampal gamma and theta oscillations are associated with mnemonic and navigational processes and adapt to changes in the behavioral state of an animal to optimize spatial information processing. It has been shown that locomotor activity modulates gamma and theta frequencies in rats, although how age alters this modulation has not been well studied. Here, we examine gamma and theta local-field potential and place cell activity in the hippocampus CA1 region of young and old male rats as they performed a spatial eye-blink conditioning task across 31 d. Although mean gamma frequency was similar in both groups, gamma frequency increased with running speed at a slower rate in old animals. By contrast, theta frequencies scaled with speed similarly in both groups but were lower across speeds in old animals. Although these frequencies scaled equally well with deceleration and speed, acceleration was less correlated with gamma frequency in both age groups. Additionally, spike phase-locking to gamma, but not theta, was greater in older animals. Finally, aged rats had reduced within-field firing rates but greater spatial information per spike within the field. These data support a strong relationship between locomotor behavior and local-field potential activity and suggest that age significantly affects this relationship. Furthermore, observed changes in CA1 place cell firing rates and information content lend support to the hypothesis that age may result in more general and context-invariant hippocampal representations over more detailed information. These results may explain the observation that older adults tend to recall the gist of an experience rather than the details.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Hippocampal oscillations and place cell activity are sensitive to sensorimotor input generated from active locomotion, yet studies of aged hippocampal function often do not account for this. By considering locomotion and spatial location, we identify novel age-associated differences in the scaling of oscillatory activity with speed, spike-field coherence, spatial information content, and within-field firing rates of CA1 place cells. These results indicate that age has an impact on the relationship between locomotion and hippocampal oscillatory activity, perhaps indicative of alterations to afferent input. These data also support the hypothesis that aged hippocampal place cells, compared with young, may more often represent more general spatial information. If true, these results may help explain why older humans tend to recall less specific and more gist-like information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lindsey M Crown
- Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85724
- Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721
| | - Daniel T Gray
- Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85724
- Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85724
| | - Lesley A Schimanski
- Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85724
| | - Carol A Barnes
- Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85724
- Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721
- Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85724
| | - Stephen L Cowen
- Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85724
- Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721
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Wirtshafter HS, Disterhoft JF. In Vivo Multi-Day Calcium Imaging of CA1 Hippocampus in Freely Moving Rats Reveals a High Preponderance of Place Cells with Consistent Place Fields. J Neurosci 2022; 42:4538-4554. [PMID: 35501152 PMCID: PMC9172072 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1750-21.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2021] [Revised: 04/15/2022] [Accepted: 04/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Calcium imaging using GCaMP indicators and miniature microscopes has been used to image cellular populations during long timescales and in different task phases, as well as to determine neuronal circuit topology and organization. Because the hippocampus (HPC) is essential for tasks of memory, spatial navigation, and learning, calcium imaging of large populations of HPC neurons can provide new insight on cell changes over time during these tasks. All reported HPC in vivo calcium imaging experiments have been done in mouse. However, rats have many behavioral and physiological experimental advantages over mice. In this paper, we present the first (to our knowledge) in vivo calcium imaging from CA1 HPC in freely moving male rats. Using the UCLA Miniscope, we demonstrate that, in rat, hundreds of cells can be visualized and held across weeks. We show that calcium events in these cells are highly correlated with periods of movement, with few calcium events occurring during periods without movement. We additionally show that an extremely large percent of cells recorded during a navigational task are place cells (77.3 ± 5.0%, surpassing the percent seen during mouse calcium imaging), and that these cells enable accurate decoding of animal position and can be held over days with consistent place fields in a consistent spatial map. A detailed protocol is included, and implications of these advancements on in vivo imaging and place field literature are discussed.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In vivo calcium imaging in freely moving animals allows the visualization of cellular activity across days. In this paper, we present the first in vivo Ca2+ recording from CA1 hippocampus (HPC) in freely moving rats. We demonstrate that hundreds of cells can be visualized and held across weeks, and that calcium activity corresponds to periods of movement. We show that a high percentage (77.3 ± 5.0%) of imaged cells are place cells, and that these place cells enable accurate decoding and can be held stably over days with little change in field location. Because the HPC is essential for many tasks involving memory, navigation, and learning, imaging of large populations of HPC neurons can shed new insight on cellular activity changes and organization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah S Wirtshafter
- Department of Neuroscience, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois 60611
| | - John F Disterhoft
- Department of Neuroscience, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois 60611
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Manohar S, Chen GD, Ding D, Liu L, Wang J, Chen YC, Chen L, Salvi R. Unexpected Consequences of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss: Impaired Hippocampal Neurogenesis, Memory, and Stress. Front Integr Neurosci 2022; 16:871223. [PMID: 35619926 PMCID: PMC9127992 DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2022.871223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2022] [Accepted: 03/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), caused by direct damage to the cochlea, reduces the flow of auditory information to the central nervous system, depriving higher order structures, such as the hippocampus with vital sensory information needed to carry out complex, higher order functions. Although the hippocampus lies outside the classical auditory pathway, it nevertheless receives acoustic information that influence its activity. Here we review recent results that illustrate how NIHL and other types of cochlear hearing loss disrupt hippocampal function. The hippocampus, which continues to generate new neurons (neurogenesis) in adulthood, plays an important role in spatial navigation, memory, and emotion. The hippocampus, which contains place cells that respond when a subject enters a specific location in the environment, integrates information from multiple sensory systems, including the auditory system, to develop cognitive spatial maps to aid in navigation. Acute exposure to intense noise disrupts the place-specific firing patterns of hippocampal neurons, "spatially disorienting" the cells for days. More traumatic sound exposures that result in permanent NIHL chronically suppresses cell proliferation and neurogenesis in the hippocampus; these structural changes are associated with long-term spatial memory deficits. Hippocampal neurons, which contain numerous glucocorticoid hormone receptors, are part of a complex feedback network connected to the hypothalamic-pituitary (HPA) axis. Chronic exposure to intense intermittent noise results in prolonged stress which can cause a persistent increase in corticosterone, a rodent stress hormone known to suppress neurogenesis. In contrast, a single intense noise exposure sufficient to cause permanent hearing loss produces only a transient increase in corticosterone hormone. Although basal corticosterone levels return to normal after the noise exposure, glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) in the hippocampus remain chronically elevated. Thus, NIHL disrupts negative feedback from the hippocampus to the HPA axis which regulates the release of corticosterone. Preclinical studies suggest that the noise-induced changes in hippocampal place cells, neurogenesis, spatial memory, and glucocorticoid receptors may be ameliorated by therapeutic interventions that reduce oxidative stress and inflammation. These experimental results may provide new insights on why hearing loss is a risk factor for cognitive decline and suggest methods for preventing this decline.
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Affiliation(s)
- Senthilvelan Manohar
- Center for Hearing and Deafness, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States
| | - Guang-Di Chen
- Center for Hearing and Deafness, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States
| | - Dalian Ding
- Center for Hearing and Deafness, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States
| | - Lijie Liu
- Department of Physiology, Medical College, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Jian Wang
- School of Communication Science and Disorders, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
| | - Yu-Chen Chen
- Department of Radiology, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
| | - Lin Chen
- Auditory Research Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
| | - Richard Salvi
- Center for Hearing and Deafness, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States
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Topographically organized representation of space and context in the medial prefrontal cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:2117300119. [PMID: 35121665 PMCID: PMC8833199 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2117300119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The neocortex is composed of areas with specialized functions (e.g., sensory versus associational). Despite this functional diversity, emerging evidence suggests that the encoding of space might be a universal feature of cortical circuits. Here, we identified a gradient of spatial tuning depth along the dorsoventral axis. A complex topography of spatial tuning properties might support a division of labor among medial prefrontal cortical subnetworks to support local circuit computation relevant for the execution of context-dependent behavioral outcomes. Spatial tuning of neocortical pyramidal cells has been observed in diverse cortical regions and is thought to rely primarily on input from the hippocampal formation. Despite the well-studied hippocampal place code, many properties of the neocortical spatial tuning system are still insufficiently understood. In particular, it has remained unclear how the topography of direct anatomical connections from hippocampus to neocortex affects spatial tuning depth, and whether the dynamics of spatial coding in the hippocampal output region CA1, such as remapping in novel environments, is transmitted to the neocortex. Using mice navigating through virtual environments, we addressed these questions in the mouse medial prefrontal cortex, which receives direct input from the hippocampus. We found a rapidly emerging prefrontal representation of space in the absence of task rules, which discriminates familiar from novel environments and is reinstated upon reexposure to the same familiar environment. Topographical analysis revealed a dorsoventral gradient in the representation of the own position, which runs opposite to the innervation density of hippocampal inputs. Jointly, these results reveal a dynamically emerging and topographically organized prefrontal place code during spontaneous locomotion.
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Sheintuch L, Rubin A, Ziv Y. Bias-free estimation of information content in temporally sparse neuronal activity. PLoS Comput Biol 2022; 18:e1009832. [PMID: 35148310 PMCID: PMC8836373 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009832] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2021] [Accepted: 01/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Applying information theoretic measures to neuronal activity data enables the quantification of neuronal encoding quality. However, when the sample size is limited, a naïve estimation of the information content typically contains a systematic overestimation (upward bias), which may lead to misinterpretation of coding characteristics. This bias is exacerbated in Ca2+ imaging because of the temporal sparsity of elevated Ca2+ signals. Here, we introduce methods to correct for the bias in the naïve estimation of information content from limited sample sizes and temporally sparse neuronal activity. We demonstrate the higher accuracy of our methods over previous ones, when applied to Ca2+ imaging data recorded from the mouse hippocampus and primary visual cortex, as well as to simulated data with matching tuning properties and firing statistics. Our bias-correction methods allowed an accurate estimation of the information place cells carry about the animal's position (spatial information) and uncovered the spatial resolution of hippocampal coding. Furthermore, using our methods, we found that cells with higher peak firing rates carry higher spatial information per spike and exposed differences between distinct hippocampal subfields in the long-term evolution of the spatial code. These results could be masked by the bias when applying the commonly used naïve calculation of information content. Thus, a bias-free estimation of information content can uncover otherwise overlooked properties of the neural code.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liron Sheintuch
- Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Alon Rubin
- Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Yaniv Ziv
- Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
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36
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LaChance PA, Graham J, Shapiro BL, Morris AJ, Taube JS. Landmark-modulated directional coding in postrhinal cortex. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabg8404. [PMID: 35089792 PMCID: PMC8797796 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abg8404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2021] [Accepted: 12/07/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Visual landmarks can anchor an animal's internal sense of orientation to the external world. The rodent postrhinal cortex (POR) may facilitate this processing. Here, we demonstrate that, in contrast to classic head direction (HD) cells, which have a single preferred orientation, POR HD cells develop a second preferred orientation when an established landmark cue is duplicated along another environmental wall. We therefore refer to these cells as landmark-modulated-HD (LM-HD) cells. LM-HD cells discriminate between landmarks in familiar and novel locations, discriminate between visually disparate landmarks, and continue to respond to the previous location of a familiar landmark following its removal. Rats initially exposed to different stable landmark configurations show LM-HD tuning that may reflect the integration of visual landmark information into an allocentric HD signal. These results provide insight into how visual landmarks are integrated into a framework that supports the neural encoding of landmark-based orientation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick A. LaChance
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Jalina Graham
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Benjamin L. Shapiro
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Ashlyn J. Morris
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
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Ding L, Balsamo G, Chen H, Blanco-Hernandez E, Zouridis IS, Naumann R, Preston-Ferrer P, Burgalossi A. Juxtacellular opto-tagging of hippocampal CA1 neurons in freely moving mice. eLife 2022; 11:71720. [PMID: 35080491 PMCID: PMC8791633 DOI: 10.7554/elife.71720] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2021] [Accepted: 01/06/2022] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Neural circuits are made of a vast diversity of neuronal cell types. While immense progress has been made in classifying neurons based on morphological, molecular, and functional properties, understanding how this heterogeneity contributes to brain function during natural behavior has remained largely unresolved. In the present study, we combined the juxtacellular recording and labeling technique with optogenetics in freely moving mice. This allowed us to selectively target molecularly defined cell classes for in vivo single-cell recordings and morphological analysis. We validated this strategy in the CA1 region of the mouse hippocampus by restricting Channelrhodopsin expression to Calbindin-positive neurons. Directly versus indirectly light-activated neurons could be readily distinguished based on the latencies of light-evoked spikes, with juxtacellular labeling and post hoc histological analysis providing ‘ground-truth’ validation. Using these opto-juxtacellular procedures in freely moving mice, we found that Calbindin-positive CA1 pyramidal cells were weakly spatially modulated and conveyed less spatial information than Calbindin-negative neurons – pointing to pyramidal cell identity as a key determinant for neuronal recruitment into the hippocampal spatial map. Thus, our method complements current in vivo techniques by enabling optogenetic-assisted structure–function analysis of single neurons recorded during natural, unrestrained behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lingjun Ding
- Institute of Neurobiology, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.,Werner-Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen, Germany.,Graduate Training Centre of Neuroscience - International Max-Planck Research School (IMPRS), Tübingen, Germany
| | - Giuseppe Balsamo
- Institute of Neurobiology, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.,Werner-Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen, Germany.,Graduate Training Centre of Neuroscience - International Max-Planck Research School (IMPRS), Tübingen, Germany
| | - Hongbiao Chen
- Institute of Neurobiology, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.,Werner-Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen, Germany.,Graduate Training Centre of Neuroscience - International Max-Planck Research School (IMPRS), Tübingen, Germany
| | - Eduardo Blanco-Hernandez
- Institute of Neurobiology, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.,Werner-Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Ioannis S Zouridis
- Institute of Neurobiology, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.,Werner-Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen, Germany.,Graduate Training Centre of Neuroscience - International Max-Planck Research School (IMPRS), Tübingen, Germany
| | - Robert Naumann
- Chinese Academy of Sciences, Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Manipulation, The Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanshan, China.,Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science-Shenzhen Fundamental Research Institutions, Shenzhen, China
| | - Patricia Preston-Ferrer
- Institute of Neurobiology, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.,Werner-Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Andrea Burgalossi
- Institute of Neurobiology, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.,Werner-Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen, Germany
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38
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St Clere Smithe T, Stringer SM. The Role of Idiothetic Signals, Landmarks, and Conjunctive Representations in the Development of Place and Head-Direction Cells: A Self-Organizing Neural Network Model. Cereb Cortex Commun 2022; 3:tgab052. [PMID: 35047822 PMCID: PMC8763244 DOI: 10.1093/texcom/tgab052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2020] [Revised: 07/28/2021] [Accepted: 07/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Place and head-direction (HD) cells are fundamental to maintaining accurate representations of location and heading in the mammalian brain across sensory conditions, and are thought to underlie path integration-the ability to maintain an accurate representation of location and heading during motion in the dark. Substantial evidence suggests that both populations of spatial cells function as attractor networks, but their developmental mechanisms are poorly understood. We present simulations of a fully self-organizing attractor network model of this process using well-established neural mechanisms. We show that the differential development of the two cell types can be explained by their different idiothetic inputs, even given identical visual signals: HD cells develop when the population receives angular head velocity input, whereas place cells develop when the idiothetic input encodes planar velocity. Our model explains the functional importance of conjunctive "state-action" cells, implying that signal propagation delays and a competitive learning mechanism are crucial for successful development. Consequently, we explain how insufficiently rich environments result in pathology: place cell development requires proximal landmarks; conversely, HD cells require distal landmarks. Finally, our results suggest that both networks are instantiations of general mechanisms, and we describe their implications for the neurobiology of spatial processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Toby St Clere Smithe
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6NW, UK
| | - Simon M Stringer
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6NW, UK
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Sotskov VP, Pospelov NA, Plusnin VV, Anokhin KV. Calcium Imaging Reveals Fast Tuning Dynamics of Hippocampal Place Cells and CA1 Population Activity during Free Exploration Task in Mice. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms23020638. [PMID: 35054826 PMCID: PMC8775446 DOI: 10.3390/ijms23020638] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2021] [Revised: 01/01/2022] [Accepted: 01/04/2022] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Hippocampal place cells are a well-known object in neuroscience, but their place field formation in the first moments of navigating in a novel environment remains an ill-defined process. To address these dynamics, we performed in vivo imaging of neuronal activity in the CA1 field of the mouse hippocampus using genetically encoded green calcium indicators, including the novel NCaMP7 and FGCaMP7, designed specifically for in vivo calcium imaging. Mice were injected with a viral vector encoding calcium sensor, head-mounted with an NVista HD miniscope, and allowed to explore a completely novel environment (circular track surrounded by visual cues) without any reinforcement stimuli, in order to avoid potential interference from reward-related behavior. First, we calculated the average time required for each CA1 cell to acquire its place field. We found that 25% of CA1 place fields were formed at the first arrival in the corresponding place, while the average tuning latency for all place fields in a novel environment equaled 247 s. After 24 h, when the environment was familiar to the animals, place fields formed faster, independent of retention of cognitive maps during this session. No cumulation of selectivity score was observed between these two sessions. Using dimensionality reduction, we demonstrated that the population activity of rapidly tuned CA1 place cells allowed the reconstruction of the geometry of the navigated circular maze; the distribution of reconstruction error between the mice was consistent with the distribution of the average place field selectivity score in them. Our data thus show that neuronal activity recorded with genetically encoded calcium sensors revealed fast behavior-dependent plasticity in the mouse hippocampus, resulting in the rapid formation of place fields and population activity that allowed the reconstruction of the geometry of the navigated maze.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vladimir P. Sotskov
- Institute for Advanced Brain Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia;
- Correspondence: (V.P.S.); (K.V.A.)
| | - Nikita A. Pospelov
- Institute for Advanced Brain Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia;
| | - Viktor V. Plusnin
- National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”, 123098 Moscow, Russia;
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 141700 Dolgoprudny, Russia
| | - Konstantin V. Anokhin
- Institute for Advanced Brain Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia;
- P.K. Anokhin Institute of Normal Physiology RAS, 125315 Moscow, Russia
- Correspondence: (V.P.S.); (K.V.A.)
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Different encoding of reward location in dorsal and intermediate hippocampus. Curr Biol 2022; 32:834-841.e5. [PMID: 35016008 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.12.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2021] [Revised: 11/05/2021] [Accepted: 12/08/2021] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Hippocampal place cells fire at specific locations in the environment. They form a cognitive map that encodes spatial relations in the environment, including reward locations.1 As part of this encoding, dorsal CA1 (dCA1) place cells accumulate at reward.2-5 The encoding of learned reward location could vary between the dorsal and intermediate hippocampus, which differ in gene expression and cortical and subcortical connectivity.6 While the dorsal hippocampus is critical for spatial navigation, the involvement of intermediate CA1 (iCA1) in spatial navigation might depend on task complexity7 and learning phase.8-10 The intermediate-to-ventral hippocampus regulates reward-seeking,11-15 but little is known about the involvement in reward-directed navigation. Here, we compared the encoding of learned reward locations in dCA1 and iCA1 during spatial navigation. We used calcium imaging with a head-mounted microscope to track the activity of CA1 cells over multiple days during which mice learned different reward locations. In dCA1, the fraction of active place cells increased in anticipation of reward, but the pool of active cells changed with the reward location. In iCA1, the same cells anticipated multiple reward locations. Our results support a model in which the dCA1 cognitive map incorporates a changing population of cells that encodes reward proximity through increased population activity, while iCA1 provides a reward-predictive code through a dedicated subpopulation. Both of these location-invariant codes persisted over time, and together they provide a dual hippocampal reward location code, assisting goal-directed navigation.16,17.
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Zhao D, Zhang Z, Lu H, Cheng S, Si B, Feng X. Learning Cognitive Map Representations for Navigation by Sensory-Motor Integration. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CYBERNETICS 2022; 52:508-521. [PMID: 32275629 DOI: 10.1109/tcyb.2020.2977999] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
How to transform a mixed flow of sensory and motor information into memory state of self-location and to build map representations of the environment are central questions in the navigation research. Studies in neuroscience have shown that place cells in the hippocampus of the rodent brains form dynamic cognitive representations of locations in the environment. We propose a neural-network model called sensory-motor integration network model (SeMINet) to learn cognitive map representations by integrating sensory and motor information while an agent is exploring a virtual environment. This biologically inspired model consists of a deep neural network representing visual features of the environment, a recurrent network of place units encoding spatial information by sensorimotor integration, and a secondary network to decode the locations of the agent from spatial representations. The recurrent connections between the place units sustain an activity bump in the network without the need of sensory inputs, and the asymmetry in the connections propagates the activity bump in the network, forming a dynamic memory state which matches the motion of the agent. A competitive learning process establishes the association between the sensory representations and the memory state of the place units, and is able to correct the cumulative path-integration errors. The simulation results demonstrate that the network forms neural codes that convey location information of the agent independent of its head direction. The decoding network reliably predicts the location even when the movement is subject to noise. The proposed SeMINet thus provides a brain-inspired neural-network model for cognitive map updated by both self-motion cues and visual cues.
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Tomar A, McHugh TJ. The impact of stress on the hippocampal spatial code. Trends Neurosci 2021; 45:120-132. [PMID: 34916083 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2021.11.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2021] [Revised: 11/10/2021] [Accepted: 11/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Hippocampal function is severely compromised by prolonged, uncontrollable stress. However, how stress alters neural representations of our surroundings and events that occur within them remains less clear. We review hippocampal place cell studies that examine how spatial coding is affected by acute and chronic stress, as well as by stress accompanying fear conditioning. Emerging data suggest that chronic stress disrupts the acuity and specificity of CA1 spatial coding, both in familiar and novel contexts, and alters hippocampal oscillations. By contrast, acute stress may have a facilitatory impact on spatial representations. These findings encourage a fresh look at the documented stress-induced changes in hippocampal anatomy and in vitro excitability, and offer a new perspective on the links between stress and memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anupratap Tomar
- Center for Synaptic Plasticity, School of Physiology, Pharmacology, and Neuroscience, University of Bristol, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK.
| | - Thomas J McHugh
- Laboratory for Circuit and Behavioral Physiology, RIKEN Center for Brain Science, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako-shi, Saitama, Japan.
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Madhav MS, Jayakumar RP, Lashkari SG, Savelli F, Blair HT, Knierim JJ, Cowan NJ. The Dome: A virtual reality apparatus for freely locomoting rodents. J Neurosci Methods 2021; 368:109336. [PMID: 34453979 PMCID: PMC9178503 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2021.109336] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2021] [Revised: 08/09/2021] [Accepted: 08/20/2021] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
The cognitive map in the hippocampal formation of rodents and other mammals integrates multiple classes of sensory and motor information into a coherent representation of space. Here, we describe the Dome, a virtual reality apparatus for freely locomoting rats, designed to examine the relative contributions of various spatial inputs to an animal’s spatial representation. The Dome was designed to preserve the range of spatial inputs typically available to an animal in free, untethered locomotion while providing the ability to perturb specific sensory cues. We present the design rationale and corresponding specifications of the Dome, along with a variety of engineering and biological analyses to validate the efficacy of the Dome as an experimental tool to examine the interaction between visual information and path integration in place cells in rodents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manu S Madhav
- Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; School of Biomedical Engineering, Djawad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, BC, Canada.
| | - Ravikrishnan P Jayakumar
- Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Mechanical Engineering Department, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Shahin G Lashkari
- Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Mechanical Engineering Department, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Francesco Savelli
- Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Francesco Savelli is currently affiliated with the Department of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
| | - Hugh T Blair
- Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - James J Knierim
- Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Noah J Cowan
- Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Mechanical Engineering Department, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
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Wikenheiser AM, Gardner MPH, Mueller LE, Schoenbaum G. Spatial Representations in Rat Orbitofrontal Cortex. J Neurosci 2021; 41:6933-6945. [PMID: 34210776 PMCID: PMC8360685 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0830-21.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2021] [Revised: 06/09/2021] [Accepted: 06/20/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and hippocampus share striking cognitive and functional similarities. As a result, both structures have been proposed to encode "cognitive maps" that provide useful scaffolds for planning complex behaviors. However, while this function has been exemplified by spatial coding in neurons of hippocampal regions-particularly place and grid cells-spatial representations in the OFC have been investigated far less. Here we sought to address this by recording OFC neurons from male rats engaged in an open-field foraging task like that originally developed to characterize place fields in rodent hippocampal neurons. Single-unit activity was recorded as rats searched for food pellets scattered randomly throughout a large enclosure. In some sessions, particular flavors of food occurred more frequently in particular parts of the enclosure; in others, only a single flavor was used. OFC neurons showed spatially localized firing fields in both conditions, and representations changed between flavored and unflavored foraging periods in a manner reminiscent of remapping in the hippocampus. Compared with hippocampal recordings taken under similar behavioral conditions, OFC spatial representations were less temporally reliable, and there was no significant evidence of grid tuning in OFC neurons. These data confirm that OFC neurons show spatial firing fields in a large, two-dimensional environment in a manner similar to hippocampus. Consistent with the focus of the OFC on biological meaning and goals, spatial coding was weaker than in hippocampus and influenced by outcome identity.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and hippocampus have both been proposed to encode "cognitive maps" that provide useful scaffolds for planning complex behaviors. This function is exemplified by place and grid cells identified in hippocampus, the activity of which maps spatial environments. The current study directly demonstrates very similar, though not identical, spatial representatives in OFC neurons, confirming that OFC-like hippocampus-can represent a spatial map under the appropriate experimental conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew M Wikenheiser
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095
- Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095
| | - Matthew P H Gardner
- Behavioral Neurophysiology Research Section, Cellular Neurobiology Research Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Baltimore, Maryland 21224
| | - Lauren E Mueller
- Behavioral Neurophysiology Research Section, Cellular Neurobiology Research Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Baltimore, Maryland 21224
| | - Geoffrey Schoenbaum
- Behavioral Neurophysiology Research Section, Cellular Neurobiology Research Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Baltimore, Maryland 21224
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Payne HL, Lynch GF, Aronov D. Neural representations of space in the hippocampus of a food-caching bird. Science 2021; 373:343-348. [PMID: 34437154 DOI: 10.1126/science.abg2009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2020] [Accepted: 06/08/2021] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Spatial memory in vertebrates requires brain regions homologous to the mammalian hippocampus. Between vertebrate clades, however, these regions are anatomically distinct and appear to produce different spatial patterns of neural activity. We asked whether hippocampal activity is fundamentally different even between distant vertebrates that share a strong dependence on spatial memory. We studied tufted titmice, food-caching birds capable of remembering many concealed food locations. We found mammalian-like neural activity in the titmouse hippocampus, including sharp-wave ripples and anatomically organized place cells. In a non-food-caching bird species, spatial firing was less informative and was exhibited by fewer neurons. These findings suggest that hippocampal circuit mechanisms are similar between birds and mammals, but that the resulting patterns of activity may vary quantitatively with species-specific ethological needs.
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Affiliation(s)
- H L Payne
- Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - G F Lynch
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - D Aronov
- Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
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Rechnitz O, Slutsky I, Morris G, Derdikman D. Hippocampal sub-networks exhibit distinct spatial representation deficits in Alzheimer's disease model mice. Curr Biol 2021; 31:3292-3302.e6. [PMID: 34146487 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.05.039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2020] [Revised: 01/03/2021] [Accepted: 05/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Not much is known about how the dentate gyrus (DG) and hippocampal CA3 networks, critical for memory and spatial processing, malfunction in Alzheimer's disease (AD). While studies of associative memory deficits in AD have focused mainly on behavior, here, we directly measured neurophysiological network dysfunction. We asked what the pattern of deterioration of different networks is during disease progression. We investigated how the associative memory-processing capabilities in different hippocampal subfields are affected by familial AD (fAD) mutations leading to amyloid-β dyshomeostasis. Specifically, we focused on the DG and CA3, which are known to be involved in pattern completion and separation and are susceptible to pathological alterations in AD. To identify AD-related deficits in neural-ensemble dynamics, we recorded single-unit activity in wild-type (WT) and fAD model mice (APPSwe+PSEN1/ΔE9) in a novel tactile morph task, which utilizes the extremely developed somatosensory modality of mice. As expected from the sub-network regional specialization, we found that tactile changes induced lower rate map correlations in the DG than in CA3 of WT mice. This reflects DG pattern separation and CA3 pattern completion. In contrast, in fAD model mice, we observed pattern separation deficits in the DG and pattern completion deficits in CA3. This demonstration of region-dependent impairments in fAD model mice contributes to understanding of brain networks deterioration during fAD progression. Furthermore, it implies that the deterioration cannot be studied generally throughout the hippocampus but must be researched at a finer resolution of microcircuits. This opens novel systems-level approaches for analyzing AD-related neural network deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ohad Rechnitz
- Department of Neuroscience, Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Research Institute, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, 31096 Haifa, Israel
| | - Inna Slutsky
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel; Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Genela Morris
- Department of Neuroscience, Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Research Institute, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, 31096 Haifa, Israel
| | - Dori Derdikman
- Department of Neuroscience, Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Research Institute, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, 31096 Haifa, Israel.
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Harland B, Contreras M, Souder M, Fellous JM. Dorsal CA1 hippocampal place cells form a multi-scale representation of megaspace. Curr Biol 2021; 31:2178-2190.e6. [PMID: 33770492 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2020] [Revised: 01/13/2021] [Accepted: 03/01/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Spatially firing "place cells" within the hippocampal CA1 region form internal maps of the environment necessary for navigation and memory. In rodents, these neurons have been almost exclusively studied in small environments (<4 m2). It remains unclear how place cells encode a very large open 2D environment that is commensurate with the natural environments experienced by rodents and other mammals. Such an ethologically realistic environment would require a complex spatial representation, capable of simultaneously representing space at multiple overlapping fine-to-coarse informational scales. Here, we show that in a "megaspace" (18.6 m2), the majority of dorsal CA1 place cells exhibited multiple place subfields of different sizes, akin to those observed along the septo-temporal axis. Furthermore, the total area covered by the subfields of each cell was not correlated with the number of subfields, and increased with the scale of the environment. The multiple different-sized subfields exhibited by place cells in the megaspace suggest that the ensemble population of subfields form a multi-scale representation of space within the dorsal hippocampus. Our findings point to a new dorsal hippocampus ensemble coding scheme that simultaneously supports navigational processes at both fine- and coarse-grained resolutions. VIDEO ABSTRACT.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bruce Harland
- Computational and Experimental Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; School of Pharmacy, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Marco Contreras
- Computational and Experimental Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Madeline Souder
- Computational and Experimental Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Jean-Marc Fellous
- Computational and Experimental Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
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Crucial role for CA2 inputs in the sequential organization of CA1 time cells supporting memory. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2020698118. [PMID: 33431691 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2020698118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
There is considerable evidence for hippocampal time cells that briefly activate in succession to represent the temporal structure of memories. Previous studies have shown that time cells can be disrupted while leaving place cells intact, indicating that spatial and temporal information can be coded in parallel. However, the circuits in which spatial and temporal information are coded have not been clearly identified. Here we investigated temporal and spatial coding by dorsal hippocampal CA1 (dCA1) neurons in mice trained on a classic spatial working-memory task. On each trial, the mice approached the same choice point on a maze but were trained to alternate between traversing one of two distinct spatial routes (spatial coding phase). In between trials, there was a 10-s mnemonic delay during which the mouse continuously ran in a fixed location (temporal coding phase). Using cell-type-specific optogenetic methods, we found that inhibiting dorsal CA2 (dCA2) inputs into dCA1 degraded time cell coding during the mnemonic delay and impaired the mouse's subsequent memory-guided choice. Conversely, inhibiting dCA2 inputs during the spatial coding phase had a negligible effect on place cell activity in dCA1 and no effect on behavior. Collectively, our work demonstrates that spatial and temporal coding in dCA1 is largely segregated with respect to the dCA2-dCA1 circuit and suggests that CA2 plays a critical role in representing the flow of time in memory within the hippocampal network.
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Sato M, Mizuta K, Islam T, Kawano M, Sekine Y, Takekawa T, Gomez-Dominguez D, Schmidt A, Wolf F, Kim K, Yamakawa H, Ohkura M, Lee MG, Fukai T, Nakai J, Hayashi Y. Distinct Mechanisms of Over-Representation of Landmarks and Rewards in the Hippocampus. Cell Rep 2021; 32:107864. [PMID: 32640229 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.107864] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2019] [Revised: 04/06/2020] [Accepted: 06/16/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022] Open
Abstract
In the hippocampus, locations associated with salient features are represented by a disproportionately large number of neurons, but the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying this over-representation remain elusive. Using longitudinal calcium imaging in mice learning to navigate in virtual reality, we find that the over-representation of reward and landmark locations are mediated by persistent and separable subsets of neurons, with distinct time courses of emergence and differing underlying molecular mechanisms. Strikingly, we find that in mice lacking Shank2, an autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-linked gene encoding an excitatory postsynaptic scaffold protein, the learning-induced over-representation of landmarks was absent whereas the over-representation of rewards was substantially increased, as was goal-directed behavior. These findings demonstrate that multiple hippocampal coding processes for unique types of salient features are distinguished by a Shank2-dependent mechanism and suggest that abnormally distorted hippocampal salience mapping may underlie cognitive and behavioral abnormalities in a subset of ASDs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Masaaki Sato
- RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan; PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan; Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, Saitama 338-8570, Japan; Brain and Body System Science Institute, Saitama University, Saitama 338-8570, Japan; RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
| | - Kotaro Mizuta
- RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan; Department of Pharmacology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
| | - Tanvir Islam
- RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan; RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
| | - Masako Kawano
- RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
| | - Yukiko Sekine
- RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan; RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
| | - Takashi Takekawa
- RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan; Faculty of Informatics, Kogakuin University, Tokyo 163-8677, Japan
| | - Daniel Gomez-Dominguez
- RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan; Instituto Cajal, CSIC, Madrid 28002, Spain
| | - Alexander Schmidt
- Department of Pharmacology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan; Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen 37077, Germany; Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, Göttingen 37075, Germany; Campus Institute for Dynamics of Biological Networks, Göttingen 37075, Germany; Center for Biostructural Imaging of Neurodegeneration, Göttingen 37075, Germany
| | - Fred Wolf
- Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen 37077, Germany; Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, Göttingen 37075, Germany; Campus Institute for Dynamics of Biological Networks, Göttingen 37075, Germany; Center for Biostructural Imaging of Neurodegeneration, Göttingen 37075, Germany
| | - Karam Kim
- RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
| | - Hiroshi Yamakawa
- RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan; The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8654, Japan; Whole Brain Architecture Initiative, Tokyo 133-0057, Japan; RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Osaka 565-0874, Japan
| | - Masamichi Ohkura
- Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, Saitama 338-8570, Japan; Brain and Body System Science Institute, Saitama University, Saitama 338-8570, Japan
| | - Min Goo Lee
- National Creative Research Initiative Center for Cell Membrane Transport, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 120-752, Republic of Korea
| | - Tomoki Fukai
- Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Onna, Okinawa, 904-0495, Japan
| | - Junichi Nakai
- Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, Saitama 338-8570, Japan; Brain and Body System Science Institute, Saitama University, Saitama 338-8570, Japan
| | - Yasunori Hayashi
- Brain and Body System Science Institute, Saitama University, Saitama 338-8570, Japan; RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan; Department of Pharmacology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.
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