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Geometric cues influence head direction cells only in conditions of disorientation

Knight, R; Hayman, R; Ginzberg, L; Jeffery, KJ; (2011) Geometric cues influence head direction cells only in conditions of disorientation. Journal of Neuroscience , 31 (44) pp. 15681-15692. 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2257-11.2011. Green open access

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Abstract

The influential hypothesis that environmental geometry is critical for spatial orientation has been extensively tested behaviorally, and yet findings have been conflicting. Head direction (HD) cells, the neural correlate of the “sense of direction”, offer a window into the processes underlying directional orientation, and may help clarify the issue. In the present study, HD cells were recorded as rats foraged in enclosures of varying geometry, with or without simultaneous manipulation of landmarks and self-motion cues (path integration). All geometric enclosures had single-order rotational symmetry and thus completely polarized the environment. They also had unique features, such as corners, which could, in principle, act like landmarks. Despite these strongly polarizing geometric cues, HD cells in non-disoriented rats never rotated with these shapes. By contrast, when a cue card (white or grey) was added to one wall, HD cells readily rotated with the enclosure. When path integration was disrupted by disorienting the rat, HD cells now did rotate with the enclosure even without the landmark. Collectively these findings indicate that geometry exerts little or no influence on heading computations in non-disoriented rats, but it can do so in disoriented rats. We suggest that geometric processing is only a weak influence, providing a backup system for heading calculations and being recruited only under conditions of disorientation.

Type: Article
Title: Geometric cues influence head direction cells only in conditions of disorientation
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2257-11.2011
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2257-11.2011
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2011 the authors. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. The license allows you to copy, distribute, and transmit the work, as well as adapting it. However, you must attribute the work to the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work), and cannot use the work for commercial purposes without prior permission of the author. If you alter or build upon this work, you can distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
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 Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1312539
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