scholarly journals Can grid cell ensembles represent multiple spaces?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Spalla ◽  
Alexis Dubreuil ◽  
Sophie Rosay ◽  
Remi Monasson ◽  
Alessandro Treves

The way grid cells represent space in the rodent brain has been a striking discovery, with theoret-ical implications still unclear. Differently from hippocampal place cells, which are known to encode multiple, environment-dependent spatial maps, grid cells have been widely believed to encode space through a single low dimensional manifold, in which coactivity relations between different neurons are preserved when the environment is changed. Does it have to be so? Here, we compute - using two alternative mathematical models - the storage capacity of a population of grid-like units, em-bedded in a continuous attractor neural network, for multiple spatial maps. We show that distinct representations of multiple environments can coexist, as existing models for grid cells have the po-tential to express several sets of hexagonal grid patterns, challenging the view of a universal grid map. This suggests that a population of grid cells can encode multiple non-congruent metric rela-tionships, a feature that could in principle allow a grid-like code to represent environments with a variety of different geometries and possibly conceptual and cognitive spaces, which may be expected to entail such context-dependent metric relationships.

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. 2324-2347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Spalla ◽  
Alexis Dubreuil ◽  
Sophie Rosay ◽  
Remi Monasson ◽  
Alessandro Treves

The way grid cells represent space in the rodent brain has been a striking discovery, with theoretical implications still unclear. Unlike hippocampal place cells, which are known to encode multiple, environment-dependent spatial maps, grid cells have been widely believed to encode space through a single low-dimensional manifold, in which coactivity relations between different neurons are preserved when the environment is changed. Does it have to be so? Here, we compute, using two alternative mathematical models, the storage capacity of a population of grid-like units, embedded in a continuous attractor neural network, for multiple spatial maps. We show that distinct representations of multiple environments can coexist, as existing models for grid cells have the potential to express several sets of hexagonal grid patterns, challenging the view of a universal grid map. This suggests that a population of grid cells can encode multiple noncongruent metric relationships, a feature that could in principle allow a grid-like code to represent environments with a variety of different geometries and possibly conceptual and cognitive spaces, which may be expected to entail such context-dependent metric relationships.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haggai Agmon ◽  
Yoram Burak

ABSTRACTThe representation of position in the brain is distributed across multiple neural populations. Grid cell modules in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) express activity patterns that span a low-dimensional manifold which remains stable across different environments. In contrast, the activity patterns of hippocampal place cells span distinct low-dimensional manifolds in different environments. It is unknown how these multiple representations of position are coordinated. Here we develop a theory of joint attractor dynamics in the hippocampus and the MEC. We show that the system exhibits a coordinated, joint representation of position across multiple environments, consistent with global remapping in place cells and grid cells. We then show that our model accounts for recent experimental observations that lack a mechanistic explanation: variability in the firing rate of single grid cells across firing fields, and artificial remapping of place cells under depolarization, but not under hyperpolarization, of layer II stellate cells of the MEC.


eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haggai Agmon ◽  
Yoram Burak

The representation of position in the mammalian brain is distributed across multiple neural populations. Grid cell modules in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) express activity patterns that span a low-dimensional manifold which remains stable across different environments. In contrast, the activity patterns of hippocampal place cells span distinct low-dimensional manifolds in different environments. It is unknown how these multiple representations of position are coordinated. Here, we develop a theory of joint attractor dynamics in the hippocampus and the MEC. We show that the system exhibits a coordinated, joint representation of position across multiple environments, consistent with global remapping in place cells and grid cells. In addition, our model accounts for recent experimental observations that lack a mechanistic explanation: variability in the firing rate of single grid cells across firing fields, and artificial remapping of place cells under depolarization, but not under hyperpolarization, of layer II stellate cells of the MEC.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 125012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Floyd ◽  
Christopher Jarzynski ◽  
Garegin Papoian

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Guo ◽  
Jie J. Zhang ◽  
Jonathan P. Newman ◽  
Matthew A. Wilson

AbstractLatent learning allows the brain the transform experiences into cognitive maps, a form of implicit memory, without reinforced training. Its mechanism is unclear. We tracked the internal states of the hippocampal neural ensembles and discovered that during latent learning of a spatial map, the state space evolved into a low-dimensional manifold that topologically resembled the physical environment. This process requires repeated experiences and sleep in-between. Further investigations revealed that a subset of hippocampal neurons, instead of rapidly forming place fields in a novel environment, remained weakly tuned but gradually developed correlated activity with other neurons. These ‘weakly spatial’ neurons bond activity of neurons with stronger spatial tuning, linking discrete place fields into a map that supports flexible navigation.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
William de Cothi ◽  
Caswell Barry

AbstractThe hippocampus has long been observed to encode a representation of an animal’s position in space. Recent evidence suggests that the nature of this representation is somewhat predictive and can be modelled by learning a successor representation (SR) between distinct positions in an environment. However, this discretisation of space is subjective making it difficult to formulate predictions about how some environmental manipulations should impact the hippocampal representation. Here we present a model of place and grid cell firing as a consequence of learning a SR from a basis set of known neurobiological features – boundary vector cells (BVCs). The model describes place cell firing as the successor features of the SR, with grid cells forming a low-dimensional representation of these successor features. We show that the place and grid cells generated using the BVC-SR model provide a good account of biological data for a variety of environmental manipulations, including dimensional stretches, barrier insertions, and the influence of environmental geometry on the hippocampal representation of space.


2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 824-837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Huang ◽  
Gordon McTaggart-Cowan ◽  
Sandeep Munshi

This article describes the application of a modified first-order conditional moment closure model used in conjunction with the trajectory-generated low-dimensional manifold method in large-eddy simulation of pilot ignited high-pressure direct injection natural gas combustion in a heavy-duty diesel engine. The article starts with a review of the intrinsic low-dimensional manifold method for reducing detailed chemistry and various formulations for the construction of such manifolds. It is followed by a brief review of the conditional moment closure method for modelling the interaction between turbulence and combustion chemistry. The high computational cost associated with the direct implementation of the basic conditional moment closure model was discussed. The article then describes the formulation of a modified approach to solve the conditional moment closure equation, whose reaction source terms for the conditional mass fractions for species were obtained by projecting the turbulent perturbation onto the reaction manifold. The main model assumptions were explained and the resulting limitations were discussed. A numerical experiment was conducted to examine the validity the model assumptions. The model was then implemented in a combustion computational fluid dynamics solver developed on an open-source computational fluid dynamics platform. Non-reactive jet simulations were first conducted and the results were compared to the experimental measurement from a high-pressure visualization chamber to verify that the jet penetration under engine relevant conditions was correctly predicted. The model was then used to simulate natural gas combustion in a heavy-duty diesel engine equipped with a high-pressure direct injection system. The simulation results were compared with the experimental measurement from a research engine to verify the accuracy of the model for both the combustion rate and engine-out emissions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (7) ◽  
pp. E1637-E1646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tale L. Bjerknes ◽  
Nenitha C. Dagslott ◽  
Edvard I. Moser ◽  
May-Britt Moser

Place cells in the hippocampus and grid cells in the medial entorhinal cortex rely on self-motion information and path integration for spatially confined firing. Place cells can be observed in young rats as soon as they leave their nest at around 2.5 wk of postnatal life. In contrast, the regularly spaced firing of grid cells develops only after weaning, during the fourth week. In the present study, we sought to determine whether place cells are able to integrate self-motion information before maturation of the grid-cell system. Place cells were recorded on a 200-cm linear track while preweaning, postweaning, and adult rats ran on successive trials from a start wall to a box at the end of a linear track. The position of the start wall was altered in the middle of the trial sequence. When recordings were made in complete darkness, place cells maintained fields at a fixed distance from the start wall regardless of the age of the animal. When lights were on, place fields were determined primarily by external landmarks, except at the very beginning of the track. This shift was observed in both young and adult animals. The results suggest that preweaning rats are able to calculate distances based on information from self-motion before the grid-cell system has matured to its full extent.


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