scholarly journals The Human Retrosplenial Cortex and Thalamus Code Head Direction in a Global Reference Frame

2016 ◽  
Vol 36 (24) ◽  
pp. 6371-6381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan P. Shine ◽  
José P. Valdés-Herrera ◽  
Mary Hegarty ◽  
Thomas Wolbers
Keyword(s):  
Reference Frame ◽  
Retrosplenial Cortex ◽  
Head Direction ◽  
Global Reference Frame

Orientation and lateralized cue use in pigeons navigating a large indoor environment

2002 ◽  
Vol 205 (12) ◽  
pp. 1795-1805 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helmut Prior ◽  
Frank Lingenauber ◽  
Jörg Nitschke ◽  
Onur Güntürkün
Keyword(s):  
Reference Frame ◽  
Brain Lateralization ◽  
Spatial Cues ◽  
Brain Hemisphere ◽  
Brain Hemispheres ◽  
Left Brain ◽  
Right Brain ◽  
Starting Location ◽  
The Right ◽  
Global Reference Frame

SUMMARY The pigeon's use of different visuo-spatial cues was studied under controlled laboratory conditions that simulated analogous aspects of a homing situation. The birds first learned the route to a goal that was not visible from the starting location, but became visible as it was approached. Birds could orientate within a mainly geometric global reference frame, using prominent landmarks within their range, or by `piloting' along local cues. After learning the route, the birds were tested from familiar and unfamiliar release points, and several aspects of the available cues were varied systematically. The study explored the contribution of the left and right brain hemispheres by performing tests with the right or left eye occluded. The results show that pigeons can establish accurate bearings towards a non-visible goal by using a global reference frame only. Furthermore, there was a peak of searching activity at the location predicted by the global reference frame. Search at this location and directedness of the bearings were equally high with both right and left eye, suggesting that both brain hemispheres have the same competence level for these components of the task. A lateralization effect occurred when prominent landmarks were removed or translated. While the right brain hemisphere completely ignored such changes,the left brain hemisphere was distracted by removal of landmarks. After translation of landmarks, the left but not the right brain hemisphere allocated part of the searching activity to the site predicted by the new landmark position. The results show that a mainly geometric global visual reference frame is sufficient to determine exact bearings from familiar and unfamiliar release points. Overall, the results suggest a model of brain lateralization with a well-developed global spatial reference system in either hemisphere and an extra capacity for the processing of object features in the left brain.

scholarly journals Geodetic Observations and Global Reference Frame Contributions to Understanding Sea-Level Rise and Variability

2010 ◽  
pp. 256-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoff Blewitt ◽  
Zuheir Altamimi ◽  
James Davis ◽  
Richard Gross ◽  
Chung-Yen Kuo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Reference Frame ◽  
Global Reference Frame

scholarly journals Impaired Head Direction Cell Representation in the Anterodorsal Thalamus after Lesions of the Retrosplenial Cortex

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (15) ◽  
pp. 5289-5302 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. J. Clark ◽  
J. P. Bassett ◽  
S. S. Wang ◽  
J. S. Taube
Keyword(s):  
Retrosplenial Cortex ◽  
Head Direction ◽  
Head Direction Cell

scholarly journals Uniquely excitable neurons enable precise and persistent information transmission through the retrosplenial cortex

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen K.W. Brennan ◽  
Shyam Kumar Sudhakar ◽  
Izabela Jedrasiak-Cape ◽  
Omar J. Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Input Resistance ◽  
Retrosplenial Cortex ◽  
Inhibitory Neurons ◽  
Head Direction ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Intrinsic Properties ◽  
High Input ◽  
Biophysical Models ◽  
High Input Resistance ◽  
Fast Spiking

ABSTRACTThe retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is essential for both memory and navigation, but the neural codes underlying these functions remain largely unknown. Here, we show that the most prominent cell type in layers 2/3 (L2/3) of the granular RSC is a uniquely excitable, small pyramidal cell. These cells have a low rheobase (LR), high input resistance, lack of spike-frequency adaptation, and spike widths intermediate to those of neighboring fast-spiking (FS) inhibitory neurons and regular-spiking (RS) excitatory neurons. LR cells are excitatory but rarely synapse onto neighboring neurons. Instead, L2/3 of RSC is an inhibition-dominated network with dense connectivity between FS cells and from FS to LR neurons. Biophysical models of LR but not RS cells precisely and continuously encode sustained input from afferent postsubicular head-direction cells. Thus, the unique intrinsic properties of LR neurons can support both the precision and persistence necessary to encode information over multiple timescales in the RSC.

scholarly journals A proposed rule for updating of the head direction cell reference frame following rotations in three dimensions

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Wilson ◽  
Hector Page ◽  
Kate Jeffery
Keyword(s):  
Reference Frame ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Vestibular Nuclei ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Mammalian Brain ◽  
Head Direction ◽  
Heading Direction ◽  
Vertical Walls ◽  
Sloping Surface ◽  
Axis Rotation

In the mammalian brain, allocentric (Earth-referenced) heading direction, called azimuth, is encoded by head direction (HD) cells, which fire according to the facing direction of the rat's head. If the animal is on a horizontal surface then egocentric (self-referenced) rotations of the head around the dorso-ventral axis, called yaw, correspond to changes in azimuth, and elicit appropriate updating of the HD signal. However, if the surface is sloping steeply then yaw rotations no longer map linearly to changes in azimuth. The brain could solve this problem simply by always firing according to direction on the local (sloping) surface instead; however, if the animal moves between surfaces having different compass orientations then errors would accumulate in the subsequent azimuth signal. These errors could be avoided if the HD system instead combines two updating rules: yaw rotations around the D-V axis and rotations of the D-V axis around the gravity-defined vertical axis. We show here that when rats move between vertical walls of different orientations then HD cells indeed rotate their activity by an amount corresponding to the amount of vertical-axis rotation. With modelling, we then show how this reference-frame rotation, which may be driven by inputs from the vestibular nuclei or vestibulocerebellum, allows animals to maintain a simple yaw-based updating rule while on a given plane, but also to avoid accumulation of heading errors when moving between planes.

scholarly journals A thalamic reticular circuit for head direction cell tuning and spatial navigation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gil Vantomme ◽  
Zita Rovó ◽  
Romain Cardis ◽  
Elidie Béard ◽  
Georgia Katsioudi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Navigation ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Search Strategies ◽  
Retrosplenial Cortex ◽  
Thalamic Reticular Nucleus ◽  
Reticular Nucleus ◽  
Head Direction ◽  
Thalamic Nuclei

SummaryTo navigate in space, an animal must refer to sensory cues to orient and move. Circuit and synaptic mechanisms that integrate cues with internal head-direction (HD) signals remain, however, unclear. We identify an excitatory synaptic projection from the presubiculum (PreS) and the multisensory-associative retrosplenial cortex (RSC) to the anterodorsal thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), so far classically implied in gating sensory information flow. In vitro, projections to TRN involved AMPA/NMDA-type glutamate receptors that initiated TRN cell burst discharge and feedforward inhibition of anterior thalamic nuclei. In vivo, chemogenetic anterodorsal TRN inhibition modulated PreS/RSC-induced anterior thalamic firing dynamics, broadened the tuning of thalamic HD cells, and led to preferential use of allo-over egocentric search strategies in the Morris water maze. TRN-dependent thalamic inhibition is thus an integral part of limbic navigational circuits wherein it coordinates external sensory and internal HD signals to regulate the choice of search strategies during spatial navigation.

scholarly journals Neurophysiological coding of space and time in the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and retrosplenial cortex

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 239821282097287
Author(s):  
Andrew S. Alexander ◽  
Jennifer C. Robinson ◽  
Holger Dannenberg ◽  
Nathaniel R. Kinsky ◽  
Samuel J. Levy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Entorhinal Cortex ◽  
Neuronal Response ◽  
Retrosplenial Cortex ◽  
Movement Direction ◽  
Head Direction ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Running Speed ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Spatiotemporal Trajectories

Neurophysiological recordings in behaving rodents demonstrate neuronal response properties that may code space and time for episodic memory and goal-directed behaviour. Here, we review recordings from hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and retrosplenial cortex to address the problem of how neurons encode multiple overlapping spatiotemporal trajectories and disambiguate these for accurate memory-guided behaviour. The solution could involve neurons in the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus that show mixed selectivity, coding both time and location. Some grid cells and place cells that code space also respond selectively as time cells, allowing differentiation of time intervals when a rat runs in the same location during a delay period. Cells in these regions also develop new representations that differentially code the context of prior or future behaviour allowing disambiguation of overlapping trajectories. Spiking activity is also modulated by running speed and head direction, supporting the coding of episodic memory not as a series of snapshots but as a trajectory that can also be distinguished on the basis of speed and direction. Recent data also address the mechanisms by which sensory input could distinguish different spatial locations. Changes in firing rate reflect running speed on long but not short time intervals, and few cells code movement direction, arguing against path integration for coding location. Instead, new evidence for neural coding of environmental boundaries in egocentric coordinates fits with a modelling framework in which egocentric coding of barriers combined with head direction generates distinct allocentric coding of location. The egocentric input can be used both for coding the location of spatiotemporal trajectories and for retrieving specific viewpoints of the environment. Overall, these different patterns of neural activity can be used for encoding and disambiguation of prior episodic spatiotemporal trajectories or for planning of future goal-directed spatiotemporal trajectories.

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