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Fenton AA. Remapping revisited: how the hippocampus represents different spaces. Nat Rev Neurosci 2024; 25:428-448. [PMID: 38714834 DOI: 10.1038/s41583-024-00817-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/04/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
The representation of distinct spaces by hippocampal place cells has been linked to changes in their place fields (the locations in the environment where the place cells discharge strongly), a phenomenon that has been termed 'remapping'. Remapping has been assumed to be accompanied by the reorganization of subsecond cofiring relationships among the place cells, potentially maximizing hippocampal information coding capacity. However, several observations challenge this standard view. For example, place cells exhibit mixed selectivity, encode non-positional variables, can have multiple place fields and exhibit unreliable discharge in fixed environments. Furthermore, recent evidence suggests that, when measured at subsecond timescales, the moment-to-moment cofiring of a pair of cells in one environment is remarkably similar in another environment, despite remapping. Here, I propose that remapping is a misnomer for the changes in place fields across environments and suggest instead that internally organized manifold representations of hippocampal activity are actively registered to different environments to enable navigation, promote memory and organize knowledge.
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Affiliation(s)
- André A Fenton
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
- Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
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2
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Levy ERJ, Carrillo-Segura S, Park EH, Redman WT, Hurtado JR, Chung S, Fenton AA. A manifold neural population code for space in hippocampal coactivity dynamics independent of place fields. Cell Rep 2023; 42:113142. [PMID: 37742193 PMCID: PMC10842170 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.113142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2021] [Revised: 06/14/2023] [Accepted: 08/30/2023] [Indexed: 09/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Hippocampus place cell discharge is temporally unreliable across seconds and days, and place fields are multimodal, suggesting an "ensemble cofiring" spatial coding hypothesis with manifold dynamics that does not require reliable spatial tuning, in contrast to hypotheses based on place field (spatial tuning) stability. We imaged mouse CA1 (cornu ammonis 1) ensembles in two environments across three weeks to evaluate these coding hypotheses. While place fields "remap," being more distinct between than within environments, coactivity relationships generally change less. Decoding location and environment from 1-s ensemble location-specific activity is effective and improves with experience. Decoding environment from cell-pair coactivity relationships is also effective and improves with experience, even after removing place tuning. Discriminating environments from 1-s ensemble coactivity relies crucially on the cells with the most anti-coactive cell-pair relationships because activity is internally organized on a low-dimensional manifold of non-linear coactivity relationships that intermittently reregisters to environments according to the anti-cofiring subpopulation activity.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Simón Carrillo-Segura
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA; Graduate Program in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Tandon School of Engineering, New York University, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA
| | - Eun Hye Park
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - William Thomas Redman
- Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Dynamical Neuroscience, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | | | - SueYeon Chung
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA; Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Neuroscience, New York, NY 10010, USA
| | - André Antonio Fenton
- Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA; Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA.
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3
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Parra-Barrero E, Vijayabaskaran S, Seabrook E, Wiskott L, Cheng S. A map of spatial navigation for neuroscience. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 152:105200. [PMID: 37178943 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105200] [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: 01/25/2023] [Revised: 04/13/2023] [Accepted: 04/24/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
Spatial navigation has received much attention from neuroscientists, leading to the identification of key brain areas and the discovery of numerous spatially selective cells. Despite this progress, our understanding of how the pieces fit together to drive behavior is generally lacking. We argue that this is partly caused by insufficient communication between behavioral and neuroscientific researchers. This has led the latter to under-appreciate the relevance and complexity of spatial behavior, and to focus too narrowly on characterizing neural representations of space-disconnected from the computations these representations are meant to enable. We therefore propose a taxonomy of navigation processes in mammals that can serve as a common framework for structuring and facilitating interdisciplinary research in the field. Using the taxonomy as a guide, we review behavioral and neural studies of spatial navigation. In doing so, we validate the taxonomy and showcase its usefulness in identifying potential issues with common experimental approaches, designing experiments that adequately target particular behaviors, correctly interpreting neural activity, and pointing to new avenues of research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eloy Parra-Barrero
- Institute for Neural Computation, Faculty of Computer Science, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany; International Graduate School of Neuroscience, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | - Sandhiya Vijayabaskaran
- Institute for Neural Computation, Faculty of Computer Science, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | - Eddie Seabrook
- Institute for Neural Computation, Faculty of Computer Science, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | - Laurenz Wiskott
- Institute for Neural Computation, Faculty of Computer Science, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany; International Graduate School of Neuroscience, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | - Sen Cheng
- Institute for Neural Computation, Faculty of Computer Science, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany; International Graduate School of Neuroscience, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
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4
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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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5
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Scaplen KM, Talay M, Fisher JD, Cohn R, Sorkaç A, Aso Y, Barnea G, Kaun KR. Transsynaptic mapping of Drosophila mushroom body output neurons. eLife 2021; 10:e63379. [PMID: 33570489 PMCID: PMC7877909 DOI: 10.7554/elife.63379] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2020] [Accepted: 01/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The mushroom body (MB) is a well-characterized associative memory structure within the Drosophila brain. Analyzing MB connectivity using multiple approaches is critical for understanding the functional implications of this structure. Using the genetic anterograde transsynaptic tracing tool, trans-Tango, we identified divergent projections across the brain and convergent downstream targets of the MB output neurons (MBONs). Our analysis revealed at least three separate targets that receive convergent input from MBONs: other MBONs, the fan-shaped body (FSB), and the lateral accessory lobe (LAL). We describe, both anatomically and functionally, a multilayer circuit in which inhibitory and excitatory MBONs converge on the same genetic subset of FSB and LAL neurons. This circuit architecture enables the brain to update and integrate information with previous experience before executing appropriate behavioral responses. Our use of trans-Tango provides a genetically accessible anatomical framework for investigating the functional relevance of components within these complex and interconnected circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristin M Scaplen
- Department of Neuroscience, Brown UniversityProvidenceUnited States
- Department of Psychology, Bryant UniversitySmithfieldUnited States
- Center for Health and Behavioral Sciences, Bryant UniversitySmithfieldUnited States
| | - Mustafa Talay
- Department of Neuroscience, Brown UniversityProvidenceUnited States
| | - John D Fisher
- Department of Neuroscience, Brown UniversityProvidenceUnited States
| | - Raphael Cohn
- Laboratory of Neurophysiology and Behavior, The Rockefeller UniversityNew YorkUnited States
| | - Altar Sorkaç
- Department of Neuroscience, Brown UniversityProvidenceUnited States
| | - Yoshi Aso
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical InstituteAshburnUnited States
| | - Gilad Barnea
- Department of Neuroscience, Brown UniversityProvidenceUnited States
| | - Karla R Kaun
- Department of Neuroscience, Brown UniversityProvidenceUnited States
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Manohar S, Adler HJ, Chen GD, Salvi R. Blast-induced hearing loss suppresses hippocampal neurogenesis and disrupts long term spatial memory. Hear Res 2020; 395:108022. [PMID: 32663733 PMCID: PMC9063718 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2020.108022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2020] [Revised: 06/07/2020] [Accepted: 06/11/2020] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Acoustic information transduced by cochlear hair cells is continuously relayed from the auditory pathway to other sensory, motor, emotional and cognitive centers in the central nervous system. Human epidemiological studies have suggested that hearing loss is a risk factor for dementia and cognitive decline, but the mechanisms contributing to these memory and cognitive impairments are poorly understood. To explore these issues in a controlled experimental setting, we exposed adult rats to a series of intense blast wave exposures that significantly reduced the neural output of the cochlea. Several weeks later, we used the Morris Water Maze test, a hippocampal-dependent memory task, to assess the ability of Blast Wave and Control rats to learn a spatial navigation task (memory acquisition) and to remember what they had learned (spatial memory retention) several weeks earlier. The elevated plus maze and open field arena were used to test for anxiety-like behaviors. Afterwards, hippocampal cell proliferation and neurogenesis were evaluated using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), doublecortin (DCX), and Neuronal Nuclei (NeuN) immunolabeling. The Blast Wave and Control rats learned the spatial navigation task equally well and showed no differences on tests of anxiety. However, the Blast Wave rats performed significantly worse on the spatial memory retention task, i.e., remembering where they had been two weeks earlier. Deficits on the spatial memory retention task were associated with significant decreases in hippocampal cell proliferation and neurogenesis. Our blast wave results are consistent with other experimental manipulations that link spatial memory retention deficits (long term memory) with decreased cell proliferation and neurogenesis in the hippocampus. These results add to the growing body of knowledge linking blast-induced cochlear hearing loss with the cognitive deficits often seen in combat personnel and provide mechanistic insights into these extra auditory disorders that could lead to therapeutic interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Senthilvelan Manohar
- Center for Hearing and Deafness, State University of New York at Buffalo, 137 Cary Hall, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY, 14214, USA
| | - Henry J Adler
- Center for Hearing and Deafness, State University of New York at Buffalo, 137 Cary Hall, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY, 14214, USA
| | - Guang-Di Chen
- Center for Hearing and Deafness, State University of New York at Buffalo, 137 Cary Hall, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY, 14214, USA
| | - Richard Salvi
- Center for Hearing and Deafness, State University of New York at Buffalo, 137 Cary Hall, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY, 14214, USA.
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7
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Hippocampal Global Remapping Can Occur without Input from the Medial Entorhinal Cortex. Cell Rep 2019; 22:3152-3159. [PMID: 29562172 PMCID: PMC5929481 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.02.082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2017] [Revised: 12/26/2017] [Accepted: 02/21/2018] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The high storage capacity of the episodic memory system relies on distinct representations for events that are separated in time and space. The spatial component of these computations includes the formation of independent maps by hippocampal place cells across environments, referred to as global re-mapping. Such remapping is thought to emerge by the switching of input patterns from specialized spatially selective cells in medial entorhinal cortex (mEC), such as grid and border cells. Although it has been shown that acute manipulations of mEC firing patterns are sufficient for inducing hippocampal remapping, it remains unknown whether specialized spatial mEC inputs are necessary for the reorganization of hippocampal spatial representations. Here, we examined remapping in rats without mEC input to the hippocampus and found that highly distinct spatial maps emerged rapidly in every individual rat. Our data suggest that hippocampal spatial computations do not depend on inputs from specialized cell types in mEC.
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8
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Arora K, Sequeira JM, Hernández AI, Alarcon JM, Quadros EV. Behavioral alterations are associated with vitamin B12 deficiency in the transcobalamin receptor/CD320 KO mouse. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0177156. [PMID: 28545069 PMCID: PMC5436650 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177156] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/26/2016] [Accepted: 04/24/2017] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) deficiency is prevalent worldwide and causes megaloblastic anemia and neurologic deficits. While the anemia can be treated, the neurologic deficits can become refractive to treatment as the disease progresses. Therefore, timely intervention is critical for a favorable outcome. Moreover, the metabolic basis for the neuro-pathologic changes and the role of cobalamin deficiency in the pathology still remains unexplained. Using a transcobalamin receptor / CD320 knockout mouse that lacks the receptor for cellular uptake of transcobalamin bound cobalamin, we aimed to determine whether cobalamin deficiency in the central nervous system produced functional neurologic deficits in the mouse that would parallel those observed in humans. Our behavioral analyses indicate elevated anxiety and deficits in learning, memory and set-shifting of a spatial memory task in the KO mouse. Consistent with the behavioral deficits, the knockout mouse shows impaired expression of the early phase of hippocampal long-term potentiation along with reduced expression of GluR1, decreased brain mass and a significant reduction in the size of nuclei of the hippocampal pyramidal neurons. Our study suggests that the CD320 knockout mouse develops behavioral deficits associated with cobalamin deficiency and therefore could provide a model to understand the metabolic and genetic basis of neuro-pathologic changes due to cobalamin deficiency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaveri Arora
- Graduate Program in Molecular and Cellular Biology, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America
| | - Jeffrey M. Sequeira
- Department of Medicine, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America
| | - Alejandro I. Hernández
- Department of Pathology, The Robert F. Furchgott Center for Neural and Behavioral Science, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America
| | - Juan M. Alarcon
- Department of Pathology, The Robert F. Furchgott Center for Neural and Behavioral Science, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America
| | - Edward V. Quadros
- Department of Medicine, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America
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9
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Park SB, Lee I. Increased Variability and Asymmetric Expansion of the Hippocampal Spatial Representation in a Distal Cue-Dependent Memory Task. Hippocampus 2016; 26:1033-50. [PMID: 26972836 DOI: 10.1002/hipo.22585] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/29/2016] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Place cells in the hippocampus fire at specific positions in space, and distal cues in the environment play critical roles in determining the spatial firing patterns of place cells. Many studies have shown that place fields are influenced by distal cues in foraging animals. However, it is largely unknown whether distal-cue-dependent changes in place fields appear in different ways in a memory task if distal cues bear direct significance to achieving goals. We investigated this possibility in this study. Rats were trained to choose different spatial positions in a radial arm in association with distal cue configurations formed by visual cue sets attached to movable curtains around the apparatus. The animals were initially trained to associate readily discernible distal cue configurations (0° vs. 80° angular separation between distal cue sets) with different food-well positions and then later experienced ambiguous cue configurations (14° and 66°) intermixed with the original cue configurations. Rats showed no difficulty in transferring the associated memory formed for the original cue configurations when similar cue configurations were presented. Place field positions remained at the same locations across different cue configurations, whereas stability and coherence of spatial firing patterns were significantly disrupted when ambiguous cue configurations were introduced. Furthermore, the spatial representation was extended backward and skewed more negatively at the population level when processing ambiguous cue configurations, compared with when processing the original cue configurations only. This effect was more salient for large cue-separation conditions than for small cue-separation conditions. No significant rate remapping was observed across distal cue configurations. These findings suggest that place cells in the hippocampus dynamically change their detailed firing characteristics in response to a modified cue environment and that some of the firing properties previously reported in a foraging task might carry more functional weight than others when tested in a distal-cue-dependent memory task. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seong-Beom Park
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
| | - Inah Lee
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
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10
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Kelemen E, Fenton AA. Coordinating different representations in the hippocampus. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2016; 129:50-9. [DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2015.12.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2015] [Revised: 12/23/2015] [Accepted: 12/25/2015] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
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11
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Abstract
The role of the hippocampus in spatial cognition is incontrovertible yet controversial. Place cells, initially thought to be location-specifiers, turn out to respond promiscuously to a wide range of stimuli. Here we test the idea, which we have recently demonstrated in a computational model, that the hippocampal place cells may ultimately be interested in a space's topological qualities (its connectivity) more than its geometry (distances and angles); such higher-order functioning would be more consistent with other known hippocampal functions. We recorded place cell activity in rats exploring morphing linear tracks that allowed us to dissociate the geometry of the track from its topology. The resulting place fields preserved the relative sequence of places visited along the track but did not vary with the metrical features of the track or the direction of the rat's movement. These results suggest a reinterpretation of previous studies and new directions for future experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuri Dabaghian
- The Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, United States Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
| | - Vicky L Brandt
- The Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, United States Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
| | - Loren M Frank
- Sloan-Swartz Center for Theoretical Neurobiology, W.M. Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, United States Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, United States
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12
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Scaplen KM, Gulati AA, Heimer-McGinn VL, Burwell RD. Objects and landmarks: hippocampal place cells respond differently to manipulations of visual cues depending on size, perspective, and experience. Hippocampus 2014; 24:1287-99. [PMID: 25045010 DOI: 10.1002/hipo.22331] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/11/2014] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Human navigation studies show that landmarks are used for orientation, whereas objects contribute to the contextual representation of an environment. What constitutes a landmark? Classic rodent studies show that hippocampal place fields are controlled by distal, polarizing cues. Place fields, however, are also influenced by local cues. One difficulty in examining mechanisms by which distal and local cues influence the activity of hippocampal cells is that distant cues are necessarily processed visually, whereas local cues are generally multimodal. Here, we compared the effects of 90° rotations under different cue conditions in which cues were restricted to the visual modality. Three two-dimensional visual cue conditions were presented in a square open field: a large vertical cue on one wall, a large floor cue in a corner abutting two walls, and a smaller complex floor cue in a corner adjacent to two walls. We show that rotations of large distal cues, whether on the wall or floor, were equally effective in controlling place fields. Rotations of the smaller floor cues were significantly more likely to result in remapping, whether or not animals were also exposed to the distal polarizing cues. Responses of distal and local cues were affected differently by extended experience. Our data provide evidence that hippocampal place cell responses to visual cues are influenced by perspective, salience of the cue, and prior experience. The hippocampus processes visual cues either as stable landmarks useful for orientation and navigation or as nonstationary objects or features of the local environment available for associative learning or binding items in context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristin M Scaplen
- Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
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13
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Poucet B, Sargolini F, Song EY, Hangya B, Fox S, Muller RU. Independence of landmark and self-motion-guided navigation: a different role for grid cells. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2013; 369:20130370. [PMID: 24366147 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0370] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent interest in the neural bases of spatial navigation stems from the discovery of neuronal populations with strong, specific spatial signals. The regular firing field arrays of medial entorhinal grid cells suggest that they may provide place cells with distance information extracted from the animal's self-motion, a notion we critically review by citing new contrary evidence. Next, we question the idea that grid cells provide a rigid distance metric. We also discuss evidence that normal navigation is possible using only landmarks, without self-motion signals. We then propose a model that supposes that information flow in the navigational system changes between light and dark conditions. We assume that the true map-like representation is hippocampal and argue that grid cells have a crucial navigational role only in the dark. In this view, their activity in the light is predominantly shaped by landmarks rather than self-motion information, and so follows place cell activity; in the dark, their activity is determined by self-motion cues and controls place cell activity. A corollary is that place cell activity in the light depends on non-grid cells in ventral medial entorhinal cortex. We conclude that analysing navigational system changes between landmark and no-landmark conditions will reveal key functional properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bruno Poucet
- Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives UMR 7291, , Fédération 3C FR 3512, Marseille, France
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14
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Hangya B, Li Y, Muller RU, Czurkó A. Complementary spatial firing in place cell-interneuron pairs. J Physiol 2011; 588:4165-75. [PMID: 20819942 DOI: 10.1113/jphysiol.2010.194274] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The hippocampal formation plays a pivotal role in representing the physical environment. While CA1 pyramidal cells display sharply tuned location-specific firing, the activity of many interneurons show weaker but significant spatial modulation. Although hippocampal interneurons were proposed to participate in the representation of space, their interplay with pyramidal cells in formation of spatial maps is not well understood. In this study, we investigated the spatial correlation between CA1 pyramidal cells and putative interneurons recorded concurrently in awake rats. Positively and negatively correlated pairs were found to be simultaneously present in the CA1 region. While pyramidal cell-interneuron pairs with positive spatial correlation showed similar firing maps, negative spatial correlation was often accompanied by complementary place maps, which could occur even in the presence of a monosynaptic excitation between the cells. Thus, location-specific firing increase of hippocampal interneurons is not necessarily a simple product of excitation by a pyramidal cell with a similarly positioned firing field. Based on our observation of pyramidal cells firing selectively in the low firing regions of interneurons, we speculate that the location-specific firing of place cells is partly determined by the location-specific decrease of interneuron activity that can release place cells from inhibition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Balázs Hangya
- Laboratory of Cerebral Cortex Research, Department of Cellular and Network Neurobiology, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.
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15
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Lee I, Kim J. The shift from a response strategy to object-in-place strategy during learning is accompanied by a matching shift in neural firing correlates in the hippocampus. Learn Mem 2010; 17:381-93. [PMID: 20671146 DOI: 10.1101/lm.1829110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Hippocampal-dependent tasks often involve specific associations among stimuli (including egocentric information), and such tasks are therefore prone to interference from irrelevant task strategies before a correct strategy is found. Using an object-place paired-associate task, we investigated changes in neural firing patterns in the hippocampus in association with a shift in strategy during learning. We used an object-place paired-associate task in which a pair of objects was presented in two different arms of a radial maze. Each object was associated with reward only in one of the arms, thus requiring the rats to consider both object identity and its location in the maze. Hippocampal neurons recorded in CA1 displayed a dynamic transition in their firing patterns during the acquisition of the task across days, and this corresponded to a shift in strategy manifested in behavioral data. Specifically, before the rats learned the task, they chose an object that maintained a particular egocentric relationship with their body (response strategy) irrespective of the object identity. However, as the animal acquired the task, it chose an object according to both its identity and the associated location in the maze (object-in-place strategy). We report that CA1 neurons in the hippocampus changed their prospective firing correlates according to the dominant strategy (i.e., response versus object-in-place strategy) employed at a given stage of learning. The results suggest that neural firing pattern in the hippocampus is heavily influenced by the task demand hypothesized by the animal and the firing pattern changes flexibly as the perceived task demand changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Inah Lee
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-746, Korea.
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16
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Lenck-Santini PP, Holmes GL. Altered phase precession and compression of temporal sequences by place cells in epileptic rats. J Neurosci 2008; 28:5053-62. [PMID: 18463258 PMCID: PMC3304586 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.5024-07.2008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 83] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2007] [Revised: 04/01/2008] [Accepted: 04/02/2008] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
In the hippocampus, pyramidal cells encode information in two major ways: rate coding and temporal coding. Rate coding, in which information is coded through firing frequency, is exemplarily illustrated by place cells, characterized by their location-specific firing. In addition, the precise temporal organization of firing of multiple place cells provides information, in a compressed time window, about the temporal sequence of the locations visited by the animal. This encoding is accomplished through phase precession, a phenomenon whereby unit firing is linked to theta rhythm, one of the major hippocampal EEG oscillations. Although it is likely that this type of processing is critical for normal brain function, its involvement in pathologies associated with cognitive disorders is unknown. In this experiment, we determined whether the temporal organization of place cell firing is affected in an animal model of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE), a disease accompanied with cognitive impairment. We investigated hippocampal coding and its relationship to theta rhythm in rats after status epilepticus (SE), a condition that leads to MTLE. We found a great proportion of SE place cells had aberrant phase/precession pattern and temporal organization of firing among pairs of neurons, which constitutes the compression of temporal sequences, was altered in SE rats. The same animals were also markedly impaired in the water maze task, a measure of spatial memory. We propose that the synaptic and cellular alterations observed in MTLE induce aberrant temporal coding in the hippocampus, contributing in turn to cognitive dysfunction.
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Abstract
Following Hartley et al. (Hartley et al. (2000) Hippocampus 10:369-379), we present a simple feed-forward model of place cell (PC) firing predicated on neocortical information regarding the environmental geometry surrounding the animal. Incorporating the idea of boundaries with distinct sensory qualities, we show that synaptic plasticity mediated by a BCM-like rule (Bienenstock et al. (1982) J Neurosci 2:32-48) produces PCs that encode position relative to specific extended landmarks. In an unchanging environment the model is shown to undergo an initial phase of learning, resulting in the formation of stable place fields. In familiar environments, perturbation of environmental cues produces graded changes in the firing rate and position of place fields. Model simulations are compared favorably with three sets of experimental data: (1) Results published by Barry et al. (Barry et al. (2006) Rev Neurosci 17:71-97) showing the slow disappearance of duplicate place fields produced when a barrier is placed into a familiar environment. (2) Rivard et al.'s (Rivard et al. (2004) J Gen Physiol 124:9-25) study showing a graded response in PC firing such that fields near to a centrally placed object encode space relative to the object, whereas more distant fields respond to the surrounding environment. (3) Fenton et al.'s (Fenton et al. (2000a) J Gen Physiol 116:191-209) observation that inconsistent rotation of cue cards produces parametric changes in place field positions. The merits of the model are discussed in terms of its extensibility and biological plausibility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caswell Barry
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London, United Kingdom.
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Touretzky DS, Weisman WE, Fuhs MC, Skaggs WE, Fenton AA, Muller RU. Deforming the hippocampal map. Hippocampus 2005; 15:41-55. [PMID: 15390166 DOI: 10.1002/hipo.20029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
To investigate conjoint stimulus control over place cells, Fenton et al. (J Gen Physiol 116:191-209, 2000a) recorded while rats foraged in a cylinder with 45 degrees black and white cue cards on the wall. Card centers were 135 degrees apart. In probe trials, the cards were rotated together or apart by 25 degrees . Firing field centers shifted during these trials, stretching and shrinking the cognitive map. Fenton et al. (2000b) described this deformation with an ad hoc vector field equation. We consider what sorts of neural network mechanisms might be capable of accounting for their observations. In an abstract, maximum likelihood formulation, the rat's location is estimated by a conjoint probability density function of landmark positions. In an attractor neural network model, recurrent connections produce a bump of activity over a two-dimensional array of cells; the bump's position is influenced by landmark features such as distances or bearings. If features are chosen with appropriate care, the attractor network and maximum likelihood models yield similar results, in accord with previous demonstrations that recurrent neural networks can efficiently implement maximum likelihood computations (Pouget et al. Neural Comput 10:373-401, 1998; Deneve et al. Nat Neurosci 4:826-831, 2001).
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Affiliation(s)
- David S Touretzky
- Computer Science Department and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213-3891, USA.
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Dawson MRW, Boechler PM, Orsten J. An Artificial Neural Network That Uses Coarse Allocentric Coding of Direction to Represent Distances Between Locations in a Metric Space. SPATIAL COGNITION AND COMPUTATION 2005. [DOI: 10.1207/s15427633scc0501_2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
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Klement D, Past'alková E, Fenton AA. Tetrodotoxin infusions into the dorsal hippocampus block non-locomotor place recognition. Hippocampus 2005; 15:460-71. [PMID: 15744735 DOI: 10.1002/hipo.20072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
The hippocampus is critical for navigation in an open field. One component of this navigation requires the subject to recognize the target place using distal cues. The experiments presented in this report tested whether blocking hippocampal function would impair open field place recognition. Hungry rats were trained to press a lever on a feeder for food. In Experiment 1, they were passively transported with the feeder along a circular trajectory. Lever pressing was reinforced only if the feeder was passing through a 60 degrees -wide sector. Thus, rats preferentially lever pressed in the vicinity of the reward sector indicating that they recognized its location. Tetrodotoxin (TTX) infusions aimed at the dorsal hippocampi caused rats to substantially increase lever pressing with no preference for any region. The aim of Experiment 2 was to determine whether the TTX injections caused a loss of place recognition or a general increase of lever pressing. A separate group of rats was conditioned in a stationary apparatus to press the lever in response to a light. The TTX injections did not abolish preferential lever pressing in response to light. Lever pressing increased less than half as much as the TTX-induced increase in Experiment 1. When these animals with functional hippocampi could not determine the rewarded period because the light was always off, lever pressing increased much more and was similar to the TTX-induced increase in Experiment 1. We conclude that the TTX inactivation of the hippocampi impaired the ability to recognize the reward place.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Klement
- Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic
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21
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Knierim JJ, Rao G. Distal landmarks and hippocampal place cells: effects of relative translation versus rotation. Hippocampus 2003; 13:604-17. [PMID: 12921350 DOI: 10.1002/hipo.10092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Hippocampal neurons are selectively active when a rat occupies restricted locations in an environment. These place cells derive their specificity from a multitude of sources, including idiothetic cues and sensory input derived from both distal and local landmarks. Most experiments have attempted to dissociate the relative strengths and roles played by these sources by rotating one set against the other. Few studies have addressed the effects of relative translation of the local cue set versus salient distal landmarks. To address this question, ensembles of place cells were recorded as a rectangular or circular track was moved to different locations in a room with controlled visual landmarks. Place cells primarily maintained their firing fields relative to the track (i.e., occupying new locations relative to the distal landmarks), even though the track could occupy completely nonoverlapping regions of the room. When the distal landmarks were rotated around the circular track, however, the place fields rotated with the landmarks, demonstrating that the cues were perceptible to the rat. These results suggest that, under these conditions, the spatial tuning of place cells may derive from an interaction between local and idiothetic cues, which define the precise firing locations of the cells and the relationships between them, and distal landmarks, which set the orientation of the ensemble representation relative to the external environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- James J Knierim
- Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Texas-Houston Medical School, Houston, Texas 77225, USA.
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Olypher AV, Lánský P, Muller RU, Fenton AA. Quantifying location-specific information in the discharge of rat hippocampal place cells. J Neurosci Methods 2003; 127:123-35. [PMID: 12906942 DOI: 10.1016/s0165-0270(03)00123-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
The informational content in the location-specific discharge of rat hippocampal cells is usually quantified by an average for the entire behaviorally accessible space. In contrast to such "global" information measures, we consider here information that can be obtained from "local" spike counts at each position. The properties of these local information measures are first illustrated using simulated data with predetermined distributions of location-specific spike counts. Next, place cell recordings from rats foraging in a cylindrical arena with two cue cards on its walls are analyzed; time windows as short as 100 ms were used to accumulate spike counts in locations. We show that information at the centers of firing fields is higher for fields nearer to the cues. Neither firing rates or "global" information measures detected differences between fields near and far from the cues. Thus, analyses of the location-specific information provides a new valuable tool for studying the location-specific activity of rat hippocampal cells. Generalizations of location-specific information can be used to investigate place cell responses to other factors such as running speed or the state of the hippocampal EEG in addition to current position.
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Affiliation(s)
- A V Olypher
- Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Vídenská 1083, 142 20 Prague 4, Czech Republic.
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Olypher AV, Lánský P, Fenton AA. On the location-specific positional and extra-positional information in the discharge of rat hippocampal cells. Biosystems 2002; 67:167-75. [PMID: 12459296 DOI: 10.1016/s0303-2647(02)00074-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
The informational content in the location-specific discharge of rat hippocampal cells is usually quantified by an average for the entire experimental space. In contrast, in the present work the information that can be obtained from spike counts at each position is considered. Along with the local positional information, measures for the total and extra-positional information are introduced. Their properties are studied and illustrated on simulated and experimentally obtained data. It is demonstrated that these information measures provide a new valuable tool for studying the location-specific activity of rat hippocampal cells even on time scales as short as 100 ms. The measures can be used to investigate place cell responses to arbitrary signals in addition to current position.
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Affiliation(s)
- A V Olypher
- Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Videnská 1083, 142 20 Prague 4, Czech Republic.
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Olypher AV, Lánský P, Fenton AA. Properties of the extra-positional signal in hippocampal place cell discharge derived from the overdispersion in location-specific firing. Neuroscience 2002; 111:553-66. [PMID: 12031343 DOI: 10.1016/s0306-4522(01)00586-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 61] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
There is a good deal of evidence that in the rodent, an internal model of the external world is encoded by hippocampal pyramidal cells, called 'place cells'. During free exploration, the activity of place cells is higher within a small part of the space, called the firing field, and virtually silent elsewhere. We have previously shown that the spiking activity during passes through the firing field is characterized not only by the high firing rate, but also by its very high variability ('overdispersion'). This overdispersion indicates that place cells carry information in addition to position. Here we demonstrate by simulations of an integrate-and-fire neuronal model that while a rat is foraging in an open space this additional information may arise from a process that alternatingly modulates the inputs to place cells by about 10% with a mean period of about 1 s. We propose that the overdispersion reflects switches of the rats attention between different spatial reference frames of the environment. This predicts that the overdispersion will not be observed in rats that use only room-based cues for navigation. We show that while place cell firing is overdispersed in rats during foraging in an open arena, the firing is less overdispersed during the same behavior in the same environment, when the rats have been trained to use only room-based and not arena-based cues to navigate.
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Affiliation(s)
- A V Olypher
- Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague
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Cimadevilla JM, Wesierska M, Fenton AA, Bures J. Inactivating one hippocampus impairs avoidance of a stable room-defined place during dissociation of arena cues from room cues by rotation of the arena. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2001; 98:3531-6. [PMID: 11248112 PMCID: PMC30687 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.051628398] [Citation(s) in RCA: 131] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Unilateral intrahippocampal injections of tetrodotoxin were used to temporarily inactivate one hippocampus during specific phases of training in an active allothetic place avoidance task. The rat was required to use landmarks in the room to avoid a room-defined sector of a slowly rotating circular arena. The continuous rotation dissociated room cues from arena cues and moved the arena surface through a part of the room in which foot-shock was delivered. The rat had to move away from the shock zone to prevent being transported there by the rotation. Unilateral hippocampal inactivations profoundly impaired acquisition and retrieval of the allothetic place avoidance. Posttraining unilateral hippocampal inactivation also impaired performance in subsequent sessions. This allothetic place avoidance task seems more sensitive to hippocampal disruption than the standard water maze task because the same unilateral hippocampal inactivation does not impair performance of the variable-start, fixed hidden goal task after procedural training. The results suggest that the hippocampus not only encodes allothetic relationships amongst landmarks, it also organizes perceived allothetic stimuli into systems of mutually stable coordinates. The latter function apparently requires greater hippocampal integrity.
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Affiliation(s)
- J M Cimadevilla
- Department of Experimental Psychology and Psychobiology, University of Almeria, 04120, La Cañada de San Urbano, Spain
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Fenton AA, Csizmadia G, Muller RU. Conjoint control of hippocampal place cell firing by two visual stimuli. I. The effects of moving the stimuli on firing field positions. J Gen Physiol 2000; 116:191-209. [PMID: 10919866 PMCID: PMC2229496 DOI: 10.1085/jgp.116.2.191] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
To better understand how hippocampal place cell activity is controlled by sensory stimuli, and to further elucidate the nature of the environmental representation provided by place cells, we have made recordings in the presence of two distinct visual stimuli under standard conditions and after several manipulations of these stimuli. In line with a great deal of earlier work, we find that place cell activity is constant when repeated recordings are made in the standard conditions in which the centers of the two stimuli, a black card and a white card, are separated by 135 degrees on the wall of a cylindrical recording chamber. Rotating the two stimuli by 45 degrees causes equal rotations of place cell firing fields. Removing either card and rotating the other card also causes fields to rotate equally, showing that the two stimuli are individually salient. Increasing or decreasing the card separation (card reconfiguration) causes a topological distortion of the representation of the cylinder floor such that field centers move relative to each other. We also found that either kind of reconfiguration induces a position-independent decrease in the intensity of place cell firing. We argue that these results are not compatible with either of two previously stated views of the place cell representation; namely, a nonspatial theory in which each place cell is tuned to an arbitrarily selected subset of available stimuli or a rigid map theory. We propose that our results imply that the representation is map-like but not rigid; it is capable of undergoing stretches without altering the local arrangement of firing fields.
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Affiliation(s)
- André A. Fenton
- Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic 14220
| | - Gyorgy Csizmadia
- State University of New York-Health Science Center at Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York 11203
| | - Robert U. Muller
- State University of New York-Health Science Center at Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York 11203
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