Probable nature of higher-dimensional symmetries underlying mammalian grid-cell activity patterns
Abstract
Lattices abound in nature - from the crystal structure of minerals to the honey-comb organization of ommatidia in the compound eye of insects. These arrangements provide solutions for optimal packings, efficient resource distribution and cryptographic protocols. Do lattices also play a role in how the brain represents information? We focus on higher-dimensional stimulus domains, with particular emphasis on neural representations of physical space, and derive which neuronal lattice codes maximize spatial resolution. For mammals navigating on a surface, we show that the hexagonal activity patterns of grid cells are optimal. For species that move freely in a 3D a face-centered cubic lattice is best. This prediction could be tested experimentally in flying bats, arboreal monkeys, or marine mammals. More generally, our theory suggests that the brain encodes higher-dimensional sensory or cognitive variables with populations of grid-cell-like neurons whose activity patterns exhibit lattice structures at multiple, nested scales.
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© 2015, Mathis et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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