Construction of a hippocampal cognitive map depends upon spatial context

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wan-Chen Jiang ◽  
Shengjin Xu ◽  
Joshua Dudman
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Map ◽  
Artificial Agent ◽  
Retrospective Evaluation ◽  
Behavioral Context ◽  
Common Structure ◽  
Spatial Features ◽  
Virtual Target ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Spatial Trajectories ◽  
Ensemble Activity

Abstract The hippocampus encodes both spatial and non-spatial features of an environment thought to be critical to guide navigational trajectories and associative learning, respectively. These seemingly dichotomous roles have been reconciled in a proposed cognitive map - a representation of environment structure abstracted away from specific behavioral demands. However, the extent to which a cognitive map is independent of behavioral demands remains unclear because direct comparisons across environments with common structure but different spatial/behavioral context is lacking. Here we compare behaviors in mice trained to navigate to a hidden target in a physical arena and manipulate a joystick to a virtual target to collect a delayed reward. Comparison of behaviors with an artificial agent revealed a common algorithmic basis for learned foraging trajectories in both contexts. Imaging CA1 neural activity revealed a similar map-like encoding of active foraging; however, detailed analysis of ensemble activity, optogenetic inactivation, and modeling revealed a context-specific functional dissociation. In a navigational context, CA1 was critical for retrospective evaluation of spatial trajectories, but dispensable for initiation. In a non-navigational context, CA1 activity was critical for initiation and planning foraging trajectories. This work highlights how construction of a cognitive map to facilitate idiosyncratic behavioral demands7 is critical for foraging in diverse spatial contexts.

scholarly journals Spontaneous social communication in laboratory mice - placing ultrasonic vocalizations in their behavioral context

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elodie Ey ◽  
Fabrice de Chaumont ◽  
Thomas Bourgeron
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Ultrasonic Vocalizations ◽  
Laboratory Mice ◽  
Behavioral Context ◽  
Phenotypic Marker ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
High Level

SummaryIn their natural habitat, mice interact and communicate to regulate major functions, such as reproduction, group coordination, and protection. Nevertheless, little is currently known about their spontaneous emission of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), despite their broad use as a phenotypic marker in mouse models of neuropsychiatric disorders. Here, we investigated mouse spontaneous communication by coupling automatic recording, segmentation, and analysis of USVs to the tracking of complex behaviors. We continuously recorded undisturbed same-sex pairs of C57BL/6J males and females at 5 weeks and 3 and 7 months of age over three days. Males emitted only a few short USVs, mainly when isolated from their conspecific, whereas females emitted a high number of USVs, especially when engaged in intense dynamic social interactions. The context-specific use of call types and acoustic variations emerged with increasing age. The emission of USVs also reflected a high level of excitement in social interactions. Finally, mice lacking Shank3, a synaptic protein associated with autism, displayed atypical USV usage and acoustic structure, which did not appear in classical protocols, highlighting the importance of studying spontaneous communication. The methods are freely available for the research community (https://usv.pasteur.cloud).

scholarly journals Rat orbitofrontal ensemble activity contains a multiplexed but value-invariant representation of task structure in an odor sequence task

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingfeng Zhou ◽  
Matthew P.H. Gardner ◽  
Thomas A. Stalnaker ◽  
Seth J. Ramus ◽  
Andrew M. Wikenheiser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Information ◽  
Cognitive Map ◽  
External Information ◽  
Task Structure ◽  
Invariant Representation ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
A Value ◽  
Flexible Behavior ◽  
Ensemble Activity ◽  
And Task

SUMMARYThe orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) has long been implicated in signaling information about expected outcomes to facilitate adaptive or flexible behavior. Current proposals focus on signaling of expected reward values versus the representation of a value-agnostic cognitive map of the task. While often suggested as mutually exclusive, these alternatives may represent two extreme ends of a continuum determined by the complexity of the environment and the subjects’ experience in it. As learning proceeds, an initial, detailed cognitive map might be acquired, based largely on external information. With more experience, this hypothesized map can then be tailored to include relevant abstract hidden cognitive constructs. This might default to expected values in situations where other attributes are minimized or largely irrelevant, whereas in richer tasks, a more detailed structure might continue to be represented, at least where relevant to behavior, and possibly alongside value. Here we sought to arbitrate between these options by recording single unit activity from the OFC in rats navigating an odor sequence task analogous to a spatial maze. The odor sequences provided a clearly mappable state space, with 24 unique “positions” defined by sensory information, likelihood of reward, or both. Consistent with the hypothesis that the OFC represents a cognitive map tailored to the subjects’ intentions or plans, we found a close correspondence between how subjects’ behavior suggested they were using the sequences, and the neural representations of the sequences in OFC ensembles. Multiplexed with this value-invariant representation of the task, we also found a representation of the expected value at each location. Thus value and task structure are co-existing and potentially dissociable components of the neural code in OFC.

scholarly journals Cerebellar-recipient motor thalamus drives behavioral context-specific movement initiation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Dacre ◽  
Matt Colligan ◽  
Julian Ammer ◽  
Julia Schiemann ◽  
Thomas Clarke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Behavioral Context ◽  
Movement Initiation ◽  
Directed Movement ◽  
Movement Timing ◽  
Motor Commands ◽  
Sensorimotor Transformations ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Motor Thalamus ◽  
Thalamocortical Pathway

SummaryTo initiate goal-directed behavior, animals must transform sensory cues into motor commands that generate appropriately timed actions. Sensorimotor transformations along the cerebellar-thalamocortical pathway are thought to shape motor cortical output and movement timing, but whether this pathway initiates goal-directed movement remains poorly understood. Here, we recorded and perturbed activity in cerebellar-recipient regions of motor thalamus (dentate / interpositus nucleus-recipient regions, MThDN/IPN) and primary motor cortex (M1) in mice trained to execute a cued forelimb lever push task for reward. MThDN/IPN population responses were dominated by a time-locked increase in activity immediately prior to movement that was temporally uncoupled from cue presentation, providing a fixed latency feedforward motor timing signal to M1FL. Blocking MThDN/IPN output suppressed cued movement initiation. Stimulating the MThDN/IPN thalamocortical pathway in the absence of the cue recapitulated cue-evoked M1 membrane potential dynamics and forelimb behavior in the learned behavioral context, but generated semi-random movements in an altered behavioral context. Thus, cerebellar-recipient motor thalamocortical input to M1 is indispensable for the generation of motor commands that initiate goal-directed movement, refining our understanding of how the cerebellar-thalamocortical pathway contributes to movement timing.

scholarly journals Cerebellar-Recipient Motor Thalamus Drives Behavioral Context-Specific Movement Initiation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Dacre ◽  
Matt Colligan ◽  
Julian Ammer ◽  
Julia Schiemann ◽  
Thomas Clarke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Context ◽  
Movement Initiation ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Motor Thalamus

Validation of the Procrastination at Work Scale

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 767-776
Author(s):  
U. Baran Metin ◽  
Toon W. Taris ◽  
Maria C. W. Peeters ◽  
Max Korpinen ◽  
Urška Smrke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Work Engagement ◽  
Discriminant Validity ◽  
Psychometric Characteristics ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Confirmatory Factor ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Negative Links ◽  
Office Employees

Abstract. Procrastination at work has been examined relatively scarcely, partly due to the lack of a globally validated and context-specific workplace procrastination scale. This study investigates the psychometric characteristics of the Procrastination at Work Scale (PAWS) among 1,028 office employees from seven countries, namely, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. Specifically, it was aimed to test the measurement invariance of the PAWS and explore its discriminant validity by examining its relationships with work engagement and performance. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis shows that the basic factor structure and item loadings of the PAWS are invariant across countries. Furthermore, the two subdimensions of procrastination at work exhibited different patterns of relationships with work engagement and performance. Whereas soldiering was negatively related to work engagement and task performance, cyberslacking was unrelated to engagement and performance. These results indicate further validity evidence for the PAWS and the psychometric characteristics show invariance across various countries/languages. Moreover, workplace procrastination, especially soldiering, is a problematic behavior that shows negative links with work engagement and performance.

Ambulatory Assessment

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich W. Ebner-Priemer ◽  
Timothy J. Trull
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Clinical Psychology ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Ambulatory Assessment ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Affective Valence ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Questionnaire Studies

Convergent experimental data, autobiographical studies, and investigations on daily life have all demonstrated that gathering information retrospectively is a highly dubious methodology. Retrospection is subject to multiple systematic distortions (i.e., affective valence effect, mood congruent memory effect, duration neglect; peak end rule) as it is based on (often biased) storage and recollection of memories of the original experience or the behavior that are of interest. The method of choice to circumvent these biases is the use of electronic diaries to collect self-reported symptoms, behaviors, or physiological processes in real time. Different terms have been used for this kind of methodology: ambulatory assessment, ecological momentary assessment, experience sampling method, and real-time data capture. Even though the terms differ, they have in common the use of computer-assisted methodology to assess self-reported symptoms, behaviors, or physiological processes, while the participant undergoes normal daily activities. In this review we discuss the main features and advantages of ambulatory assessment regarding clinical psychology and psychiatry: (a) the use of realtime assessment to circumvent biased recollection, (b) assessment in real life to enhance generalizability, (c) repeated assessment to investigate within person processes, (d) multimodal assessment, including psychological, physiological and behavioral data, (e) the opportunity to assess and investigate context-specific relationships, and (f) the possibility of giving feedback in real time. Using prototypic examples from the literature of clinical psychology and psychiatry, we demonstrate that ambulatory assessment can answer specific research questions better than laboratory or questionnaire studies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document