scholarly journals Prefrontal Cortex Focally Modulates Hippocampal Place Cell Firing Patterns

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 3443-3451 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Hok ◽  
E. Chah ◽  
E. Save ◽  
B. Poucet
2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (21) ◽  
pp. 6840-6850 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. T. R. Isaac ◽  
K. A. Buchanan ◽  
R. U. Muller ◽  
J. R. Mellor

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan E. Harvey ◽  
Laura E. Berkowitz ◽  
Daniel D. Savage ◽  
Derek A. Hamilton ◽  
Benjamin J. Clark

SummaryPrenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) leads to profound deficits in spatial memory and synaptic and cellular alterations to the hippocampus that last into adulthood. Neurons in the hippocampus, called place cells, discharge as an animal enters specific places in an environment, establish distinct ensemble codes for familiar and novel places, and are modulated by local theta rhythms. Spatial memory is thought to critically depend on the integrity of hippocampal place cell firing. We therefore tested the hypothesis that hippocampal place cell firing is impaired after PAE by performing in-vivo recordings from the hippocampi (CA1 and CA3) of moderate PAE and control adult rats. Our results show that hippocampal CA3 neurons from PAE rats have reduced spatial tuning. Secondly, CA1 and CA3 neurons from PAE rats are less likely to orthogonalize their firing between directions of travel on a linear track and between contexts in an open arena compared to control neurons. Lastly, reductions in the number of hippocampal place cells exhibiting significant theta rhythmicity and phase precession were observed which may suggest changes to hippocampal microcircuit function. Together, the reduced spatial tuning and sensitivity to context provides a neural systems-level mechanism to explain spatial memory impairment after moderate PAE.


2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Β. Poucet ◽  
P.P. Lenck-Santini ◽  
V. Hok ◽  
E. Save ◽  
J.P. Banquet ◽  
...  

2000 ◽  
Vol 116 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
André A. Fenton ◽  
Gyorgy Csizmadia ◽  
Robert U. Muller

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° on the wall of a cylindrical recording chamber. Rotating the two stimuli by 45° 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.


2002 ◽  
Vol 143 (4) ◽  
pp. 470-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnaud Cressant ◽  
Robert U. Muller ◽  
Bruno Poucet

Hippocampus ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Bostock ◽  
Robert U. Muller ◽  
John L. Kubie

eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiang Mou ◽  
Daoyun Ji

Humans and animals frequently learn through observing or interacting with others. The local enhancement theory proposes that presence of social subjects in an environment facilitates other subjects' understanding of the environment. To explore the neural basis of this theory, we examined hippocampal place cells, which represent spatial information, in rats as they stayed in a small box while a demonstrator rat running on a separate, nearby linear track, and as they ran on the same track themselves. We found that place cell firing sequences during self-running on the track also appeared in the box. This cross-environment activation occurred even prior to any self-running experience on the track and was absent without a demonstrator. Our data thus suggest that social observation can facilitate the observer’s spatial representation of an environment without actual self-exploration. This finding may contribute to neural mechanisms of local enhancement.


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