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Irregular distribution of grid cell firing fields in rats exploring a 3D volumetric space

Grieves, RM; Jedidi-Ayoub, S; Mishchanchuk, K; Liu, A; Renaudineau, S; Duvelle, É; Jeffery, KJ; (2021) Irregular distribution of grid cell firing fields in rats exploring a 3D volumetric space. Nature Neuroscience 10.1038/s41593-021-00907-4. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

We investigated how entorhinal grid cells encode volumetric space. On a horizontal surface, grid cells usually produce multiple, spatially focal, approximately circular firing fields that are evenly sized and spaced to form a regular, close-packed, hexagonal array. This spatial regularity has been suggested to underlie navigational computations. In three dimensions, theoretically the equivalent firing pattern would be a regular, hexagonal close packing of evenly sized spherical fields. In the present study, we report that, in rats foraging in a cubic lattice, grid cells maintained normal temporal firing characteristics and produced spatially stable firing fields. However, although most grid fields were ellipsoid, they were sparser, larger, more variably sized and irregularly arranged, even when only fields abutting the lower surface (equivalent to the floor) were considered. Thus, grid self-organization is shaped by the environment’s structure and/or movement affordances, and grids may not need to be regular to support spatial computations.

Type: Article
Title: Irregular distribution of grid cell firing fields in rats exploring a 3D volumetric space
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1038/s41593-021-00907-4
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-021-00907-4
Language: English
Additional information: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Experimental Psychology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10133062
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