Place cells are hippocampal neurons whose discharge is strongly related
to a rats location in its environment. The existence of place cells
has led to the proposal that they are part of an integrated neural
system dedicated to spatial navigation, an idea supported by the
discovery
of strong relationships between place cell activity and spatial problem
solving. To further understand such relationships, we examined
the discharge of place cells recorded while rats solved a place navigation
task. We report that, in addition to having widely distributed
firing fields, place cells also discharge selectively while the hungry
rat waits in an unmarked goal location to release a food pellet.
Such
firing is not duplicated in other locations outside the main firing
field even when the rats behavior is constrained to be extremely
similar
to the behavior at the goal.We therefore propose that place cells
provide both a geometric representation of the current environment
and
a reflection of the rats expectancy that it is located correctly
at the goal. This on-line feedback about a critical aspect of navigational
performance is proposed to be signaled by the synchronous activity
of the large fraction of place cells active at the goal. In combination
with other (prefrontal) cells that provide coarse encoding of goal
location, hippocampal place cells may therefore participate in a
neural
network allowing the rat to plan accurate trajectories in space.
%0 Journal Article
%1 Hok:2007
%A Hok, Vincent
%A Lenck-Santini, Pierre-Pascal
%A andEtienne Save, Se´bastien Roux
%A Muller, Robert U.
%A Poucet, Bruno
%D 2007
%J The Journal of Neuroscience
%K cells; coding; goal hippocampus; place processing; rat recordings; spatial unit
%P 472 482
%T Goal-Related Activity in Hippocampal Place Cells
%V 27
%X Place cells are hippocampal neurons whose discharge is strongly related
to a rats location in its environment. The existence of place cells
has led to the proposal that they are part of an integrated neural
system dedicated to spatial navigation, an idea supported by the
discovery
of strong relationships between place cell activity and spatial problem
solving. To further understand such relationships, we examined
the discharge of place cells recorded while rats solved a place navigation
task. We report that, in addition to having widely distributed
firing fields, place cells also discharge selectively while the hungry
rat waits in an unmarked goal location to release a food pellet.
Such
firing is not duplicated in other locations outside the main firing
field even when the rats behavior is constrained to be extremely
similar
to the behavior at the goal.We therefore propose that place cells
provide both a geometric representation of the current environment
and
a reflection of the rats expectancy that it is located correctly
at the goal. This on-line feedback about a critical aspect of navigational
performance is proposed to be signaled by the synchronous activity
of the large fraction of place cells active at the goal. In combination
with other (prefrontal) cells that provide coarse encoding of goal
location, hippocampal place cells may therefore participate in a
neural
network allowing the rat to plan accurate trajectories in space.
@article{Hok:2007,
abstract = {Place cells are hippocampal neurons whose discharge is strongly related
to a rats location in its environment. The existence of place cells
has led to the proposal that they are part of an integrated neural
system dedicated to spatial navigation, an idea supported by the
discovery
of strong relationships between place cell activity and spatial problem
solving. To further understand such relationships, we examined
the discharge of place cells recorded while rats solved a place navigation
task. We report that, in addition to having widely distributed
firing fields, place cells also discharge selectively while the hungry
rat waits in an unmarked goal location to release a food pellet.
Such
firing is not duplicated in other locations outside the main firing
field even when the rats behavior is constrained to be extremely
similar
to the behavior at the goal.We therefore propose that place cells
provide both a geometric representation of the current environment
and
a reflection of the rats expectancy that it is located correctly
at the goal. This on-line feedback about a critical aspect of navigational
performance is proposed to be signaled by the synchronous activity
of the large fraction of place cells active at the goal. In combination
with other (prefrontal) cells that provide coarse encoding of goal
location, hippocampal place cells may therefore participate in a
neural
network allowing the rat to plan accurate trajectories in space.},
added-at = {2009-06-26T15:25:19.000+0200},
author = {Hok, Vincent and Lenck-Santini, Pierre-Pascal and andEtienne Save, Se´bastien Roux and Muller, Robert U. and Poucet, Bruno},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/244003f8f2fca3c5fe171a639d791bfdd/butz},
description = {diverse cognitive systems bib},
interhash = {963870d7dc37408b532625e3515b057c},
intrahash = {44003f8f2fca3c5fe171a639d791bfdd},
journal = {The Journal of Neuroscience},
keywords = {cells; coding; goal hippocampus; place processing; rat recordings; spatial unit},
owner = {butz},
pages = {472 482},
timestamp = {2009-06-26T15:25:34.000+0200},
title = {Goal-Related Activity in Hippocampal Place Cells},
volume = 27,
year = 2007
}