scholarly journals Neurophysiology of Spatial Cognition

Physiology ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 233-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Bures ◽  
André A. Fenton
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Hippocampal Neurons ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Daily Experience ◽  
Robust Model ◽  
Spatial Memories ◽  
The Brain

Understanding of the neurophysiology of cognition is advancing through the study of how animals navigate and understand space. Manipulating various classes of spatial information and recording from hippocampal neurons provides a robust model for understanding how the brain stores and constructs the spatial memories that are critical for organizing daily experience.

scholarly journals Space in the brain: how the hippocampal formation supports spatial cognition

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1635) ◽  
pp. 20120510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Hartley ◽  
Colin Lever ◽  
Neil Burgess ◽  
John O'Keefe
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Neural Coding ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Hippocampal Formation ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Test Bed ◽  
Current Location ◽  
Spatial Parameters ◽  
The Brain

Over the past four decades, research has revealed that cells in the hippocampal formation provide an exquisitely detailed representation of an animal's current location and heading. These findings have provided the foundations for a growing understanding of the mechanisms of spatial cognition in mammals, including humans. We describe the key properties of the major categories of spatial cells: place cells, head direction cells, grid cells and boundary cells, each of which has a characteristic firing pattern that encodes spatial parameters relating to the animal's current position and orientation. These properties also include the theta oscillation, which appears to play a functional role in the representation and processing of spatial information. Reviewing recent work, we identify some themes of current research and introduce approaches to computational modelling that have helped to bridge the different levels of description at which these mechanisms have been investigated. These range from the level of molecular biology and genetics to the behaviour and brain activity of entire organisms. We argue that the neuroscience of spatial cognition is emerging as an exceptionally integrative field which provides an ideal test-bed for theories linking neural coding, learning, memory and cognition.

Sex Differences in Cognition

2019 ◽  
pp. 41-66
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Hampson
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Sex Differences ◽  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Sex Steroids ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Laboratory Animals ◽  
Human Central Nervous System ◽  
The Brain

Organizational and activational effects of sex steroids were first discovered in laboratory animals, but these concepts extend to hormonal actions in the human central nervous system. This chapter begins with a brief overview of how sex steroids act in the brain and how the organizational-activational hypothesis originated in the field of endocrinology. It then reviews common methods used to study these effects in humans. Interestingly, certain cognitive functions appear to be subject to modification by sex steroids, and these endocrine influences may help explain the sex differences often seen in these functions. The chapter considers spatial cognition as a representative example because the spatial family of functions has received the most study by researchers interested in the biological roots of sex differences in cognition. The chapter reviews evidence that supports an influence of both androgens and estrogens on spatial functions, and concludes with a glimpse of where the field is headed.

scholarly journals Dissociation of exteroceptive and idiothetic orientation cues⋮ effect on hippocampal place cells and place navigation

1997 ◽  
Vol 352 (1360) ◽  
pp. 1515-1524 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Bures ◽  
A. A. Fenton ◽  
Yu. Kaminsky ◽  
J. Rossier ◽  
B. Sacchetti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Reference Frames ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Place Cells ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Place Navigation ◽  
Preference Task ◽  
Spatial Memories ◽  
Place Avoidance ◽  
Orientation Cues

Navigation by means of cognitive maps appears to require the hippocampus; hippocampal place cells (PCs) appear to store spatial memories because their discharge is confined to cell–specific places called firing fields (FFs). Experiments with rats manipulated idiothetic and landmark–related information to understand the relationship between PC activity and spatial cognition. Rotating a circular arena in the light caused a discrepancy between these cues. This discrepancy caused most FFs to disappear in both the arena and room reference frames. However, FFs persisted in the rotating arena frame when the discrepancy was reduced by darkness or by a card in the arena. The discrepancy was increased by ’field clamping’the rat in a room–defined FF location by rotations that countered its locomotion. Most FFs dissipated and reappeared an hour or more after the clamp. Place–avoidance experiments showed that navigation uses independent idiothetic and exteroceptive memories. Rats learned to avoid the unmarked footshock region within a circular arena. When acquired on the stable arena in the light, the location of the punishment was learned by using both room and idiothetic cues; extinction in the dark transferred to the following session in the light. If, however, extinction occurred during rotation, only the arena–frame avoidance was extinguished in darkness; the room–defined location was avoided when the lights were turned back on. Idiothetic memory of room–defined avoidance was not formed during rotation in light; regardless of rotation, there was no avoidance when the lights were turned off, but room–frame avoidance reappeared when the lights were turned back on. The place–preference task rewarded visits to an allocentric target location with a randomly dispersed pellet. The resulting behaviour alternated between random pellet searching and target–directed navigation, making it possible to examine PC correlates of these two classes of spatial behaviour. The independence of idiothetic and exteroceptive spatial memories and the disruption of PC firing during rotation suggest that PCs may not be necessary for spatial cognition; this idea can be tested by recordings during the place–avoidance and preference tasks.

scholarly journals Adaptive brain activity changes during tongue movement with palatal coverage from fMRI data

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuka Inamochi ◽  
Kenji Fueki ◽  
Nobuo Usui ◽  
Masato Taira ◽  
Noriyuki Wakabayashi
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Information ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Motor Impairment ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Tongue Movement ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Oral Environment ◽  
Motor Dexterity ◽  
The Brain

AbstractSuccessful adaptation to wearing dentures with palatal coverage may be associated with cortical activity changes related to tongue motor control. The purpose was to investigate the brain activity changes during tongue movement in response to a new oral environment. Twenty-eight fully dentate subjects (mean age: 28.6-years-old) who had no experience with removable dentures wore experimental palatal plates for 7 days. We measured tongue motor dexterity, difficulty with tongue movement, and brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging during tongue movement at pre-insertion (Day 0), as well as immediately (Day 1), 3 days (Day 3), and 7 days (Day 7) post-insertion. Difficulty with tongue movement was significantly higher on Day 1 than on Days 0, 3, and 7. In the subtraction analysis of brain activity across each day, activations in the angular gyrus and right precuneus on Day 1 were significantly higher than on Day 7. Tongue motor impairment induced activation of the angular gyrus, which was associated with monitoring of the tongue’s spatial information, as well as the activation of the precuneus, which was associated with constructing the tongue motor imagery. As the tongue regained the smoothness in its motor functions, the activation of the angular gyrus and precuneus decreased.

Learning Where to Look for Danger: Integrating Affective and Spatial Information

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 449-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Elizabeth Crawford ◽  
John T. Cacioppo
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Activation Functions ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Avoidance Behaviors ◽  
Affective Information ◽  
Do So

Although not previously addressed by researchers of spatial cognition or affect, the combination of spatial and affective information is essential for many approach and avoidance behaviors, and thus for survival. We provide the first evidence that through incidental experience, people form representations that capture correlations between affective and spatial information. Participants were able to do so even when the correlation was weak, they were not told to look for the correlation, and the stimuli varied on multiple other dimensions besides valence. In addition, people were more sensitive to the presented correlation when stimuli were negative than when they were positive. This asymmetry in representation may stem from underlying differences in the activation functions for positive and negative hedonic information processing.

scholarly journals Post-status epilepticus treatment with the Fyn inhibitor, saracatinib, improves cognitive function in mice

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin-Ming Luo ◽  
Jing Zhao ◽  
Wen-Yue Wu ◽  
Jie Fu ◽  
Zheng-Yu Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Status Epilepticus ◽  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Tyrosine Kinases ◽  
Hippocampal Neurons ◽  
Water Maze ◽  
Behavioral Tests ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Normal Object

Abstract Background Status epilepticus (SE) is a life-threatening neurological disorder. The hippocampus, as an important area of the brain that regulates cognitive function, is usually damaged after SE, and cognitive deficits often result from hippocampal neurons lost after SE. Fyn, a non-receptor Src family of tyrosine kinases, is potentially associated with the onset of seizure. Saracatinib, a Fyn inhibitor, suppresses epileptogenesis and reduces epileptiform spikes. However, whether saracatinib inhibits cognitive deficits after SE is still unknown. Methods In the present study, a pilocarpine-induced SE mouse model was used to answer this question by using the Morris water maze and normal object recognition behavioral tests. Results We found that saracatinib inhibited the loss in cognitive function following SE. Furthermore, we found that the number of hippocampal neurons in the saracatinib treatment group was increased, when compared to the SE group. Conclusions These results showed that saracatinib can improve cognitive functions by reducing the loss of hippocampal neurons after SE, suggesting that Fyn dysfunction is involved in cognitive deficits after SE, and that the inhibition of Fyn is a possible treatment to improve cognitive function in SE patients.

scholarly journals Latent learning drives sleep-dependent plasticity in distinct CA1 subpopulations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Guo ◽  
Jie J. Zhang ◽  
Jonathan P. Newman ◽  
Matthew A. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Hippocampal Neurons ◽  
Dimensional Manifold ◽  
Latent Learning ◽  
Neural Ensembles ◽  
Correlated Activity ◽  
Place Fields ◽  
Internal States ◽  
Low Dimensional ◽  
Low Dimensional Manifold ◽  
The Brain

AbstractLatent learning allows the brain the transform experiences into cognitive maps, a form of implicit memory, without reinforced training. Its mechanism is unclear. We tracked the internal states of the hippocampal neural ensembles and discovered that during latent learning of a spatial map, the state space evolved into a low-dimensional manifold that topologically resembled the physical environment. This process requires repeated experiences and sleep in-between. Further investigations revealed that a subset of hippocampal neurons, instead of rapidly forming place fields in a novel environment, remained weakly tuned but gradually developed correlated activity with other neurons. These ‘weakly spatial’ neurons bond activity of neurons with stronger spatial tuning, linking discrete place fields into a map that supports flexible navigation.

scholarly journals Neuroprotective Effects of Grape Seed Procyanidins on Ethanol-Induced Injury and Oxidative Stress in Rat Hippocampal Neurons

2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-366
Author(s):  
Wenyang Jin ◽  
Mizhu Sun ◽  
Bingbing Yuan ◽  
Runzhi Wang ◽  
Hongtao Yan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oxidative Stress ◽  
Hippocampal Neurons ◽  
Primary Cultures ◽  
Neuronal Injury ◽  
Grape Seed ◽  
Neuroprotective Effects ◽  
Dendritic Length ◽  
New Type ◽  
The Brain ◽  
And Oxidative Stress

Abstract Aims Ethanol is a small molecule capable of interacting with numerous targets in the brain, the mechanisms of which are complex and still poorly understood. Studies have revealed that ethanol-induced hippocampal neuronal injury is associated with oxidative stress. Grape seed procyanidin (GSP) is a new type of antioxidant that is believed to scavenge free radicals and be anti-inflammatory. This study evaluated the ability and mechanism by which the GSP improves ethanol-induced hippocampal neuronal injury. Methods Primary cultures of hippocampal neurons were exposed to ethanol (11, 33 and 66 mM, 1, 4, 8, 12 and 24 h) and the neuroprotective effects of GSP were assessed by evaluating the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and cell morphology. Results Our results indicated that GSP prevented ethanol-induced neuronal injury by reducing the levels of MDA and LDH, while increasing the activity of SOD. In addition, GSP increased the number of primary dendrites and total dendritic length per cell. Conclusion Together with previous findings, these results lend further support to the significance of developing GSP as a therapeutic tool for use in the treatment of alcohol use disorders.

scholarly journals STDP Forms Associations between Memory Traces in Networks of Spiking Neurons

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 952-968
Author(s):  
Christoph Pokorny ◽  
Matias J Ison ◽  
Arjun Rao ◽  
Robert Legenstein ◽  
Christos Papadimitriou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Function ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Spike Timing ◽  
Spiking Neurons ◽  
Recurrent Networks ◽  
Neural Codes ◽  
Memory Traces ◽  
Conflicting Evidence ◽  
Excitability Of Neurons ◽  
The Brain

Abstract Memory traces and associations between them are fundamental for cognitive brain function. Neuron recordings suggest that distributed assemblies of neurons in the brain serve as memory traces for spatial information, real-world items, and concepts. However, there is conflicting evidence regarding neural codes for associated memory traces. Some studies suggest the emergence of overlaps between assemblies during an association, while others suggest that the assemblies themselves remain largely unchanged and new assemblies emerge as neural codes for associated memory items. Here we study the emergence of neural codes for associated memory items in a generic computational model of recurrent networks of spiking neurons with a data-constrained rule for spike-timing-dependent plasticity. The model depends critically on 2 parameters, which control the excitability of neurons and the scale of initial synaptic weights. By modifying these 2 parameters, the model can reproduce both experimental data from the human brain on the fast formation of associations through emergent overlaps between assemblies, and rodent data where new neurons are recruited to encode the associated memories. Hence, our findings suggest that the brain can use both of these 2 neural codes for associations, and dynamically switch between them during consolidation.

Device for use in analysis of place and spatial information coding by hippocampal neurons

1990 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. S59
Author(s):  
Taketoshi Ono ◽  
Kiyomi Nakamura ◽  
Ryoi Tamura ◽  
Masaji Fukuda
Keyword(s):  
Hippocampal Neurons ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Information Coding
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