Visual cue-related activity of cells in the medial entorhinal cortex during navigation in virtual reality
During spatial navigation, animals use self-motion to estimate positions through path integration. However, estimation errors accumulate over time and it is unclear how they are corrected. Here we report a new cell class (‘cue cell’) encoding visual cues that could be used to correct errors in path...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2020-03-01
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| Series: | eLife |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/43140 |
| _version_ | 1811180726588014592 |
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| author | Amina A Kinkhabwala Yi Gu Dmitriy Aronov David W Tank |
| author_facet | Amina A Kinkhabwala Yi Gu Dmitriy Aronov David W Tank |
| author_sort | Amina A Kinkhabwala |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | During spatial navigation, animals use self-motion to estimate positions through path integration. However, estimation errors accumulate over time and it is unclear how they are corrected. Here we report a new cell class (‘cue cell’) encoding visual cues that could be used to correct errors in path integration in mouse medial entorhinal cortex (MEC). During virtual navigation, individual cue cells exhibited firing fields only near visual cues and their population response formed sequences repeated at each cue. These cells consistently responded to cues across multiple environments. On a track with cues on left and right sides, most cue cells only responded to cues on one side. During navigation in a real arena, they showed spatially stable activity and accounted for 32% of unidentified, spatially stable MEC cells. These cue cell properties demonstrate that the MEC contains a code representing spatial landmarks, which could be important for error correction during path integration. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T09:07:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-55ba272338e3470d9a6e5f91e8dd61ee |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T09:07:04Z |
| publishDate | 2020-03-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj.art-55ba272338e3470d9a6e5f91e8dd61ee2022-12-22T04:32:35ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2020-03-01910.7554/eLife.43140Visual cue-related activity of cells in the medial entorhinal cortex during navigation in virtual realityAmina A Kinkhabwala0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0778-1677Yi Gu1Dmitriy Aronov2David W Tank3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9423-4267Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States; Bezos Center for Neural Circuit Dynamics, Princeton University, Princeton, United States; Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United StatesPrinceton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States; Bezos Center for Neural Circuit Dynamics, Princeton University, Princeton, United States; Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United StatesPrinceton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States; Bezos Center for Neural Circuit Dynamics, Princeton University, Princeton, United States; Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United StatesPrinceton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States; Bezos Center for Neural Circuit Dynamics, Princeton University, Princeton, United States; Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, United StatesDuring spatial navigation, animals use self-motion to estimate positions through path integration. However, estimation errors accumulate over time and it is unclear how they are corrected. Here we report a new cell class (‘cue cell’) encoding visual cues that could be used to correct errors in path integration in mouse medial entorhinal cortex (MEC). During virtual navigation, individual cue cells exhibited firing fields only near visual cues and their population response formed sequences repeated at each cue. These cells consistently responded to cues across multiple environments. On a track with cues on left and right sides, most cue cells only responded to cues on one side. During navigation in a real arena, they showed spatially stable activity and accounted for 32% of unidentified, spatially stable MEC cells. These cue cell properties demonstrate that the MEC contains a code representing spatial landmarks, which could be important for error correction during path integration.https://elifesciences.org/articles/43140medial entorhinal cortexgrid cellspath integrationcue cellsvisual cuesvirtual reality |
| spellingShingle | Amina A Kinkhabwala Yi Gu Dmitriy Aronov David W Tank Visual cue-related activity of cells in the medial entorhinal cortex during navigation in virtual reality eLife medial entorhinal cortex grid cells path integration cue cells visual cues virtual reality |
| title | Visual cue-related activity of cells in the medial entorhinal cortex during navigation in virtual reality |
| title_full | Visual cue-related activity of cells in the medial entorhinal cortex during navigation in virtual reality |
| title_fullStr | Visual cue-related activity of cells in the medial entorhinal cortex during navigation in virtual reality |
| title_full_unstemmed | Visual cue-related activity of cells in the medial entorhinal cortex during navigation in virtual reality |
| title_short | Visual cue-related activity of cells in the medial entorhinal cortex during navigation in virtual reality |
| title_sort | visual cue related activity of cells in the medial entorhinal cortex during navigation in virtual reality |
| topic | medial entorhinal cortex grid cells path integration cue cells visual cues virtual reality |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/43140 |
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