TY - JOUR TI - Social observation enhances cross-environment activation of hippocampal place cell patterns AU - Mou, Xiang AU - Ji, Daoyun A2 - Eichenbaum, Howard VL - 5 PY - 2016 DA - 2016/10/03 SP - e18022 C1 - eLife 2016;5:e18022 DO - 10.7554/eLife.18022 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.18022 AB - Humans and animals frequently learn through observing or interacting with others. The local enhancement theory proposes that presence of social subjects in an environment facilitates other subjects' understanding of the environment. To explore the neural basis of this theory, we examined hippocampal place cells, which represent spatial information, in rats as they stayed in a small box while a demonstrator rat running on a separate, nearby linear track, and as they ran on the same track themselves. We found that place cell firing sequences during self-running on the track also appeared in the box. This cross-environment activation occurred even prior to any self-running experience on the track and was absent without a demonstrator. Our data thus suggest that social observation can facilitate the observer’s spatial representation of an environment without actual self-exploration. This finding may contribute to neural mechanisms of local enhancement. KW - hippocampus KW - place cells KW - social learning KW - spatiial memory KW - cross-activation JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -