Spatial cell firing during virtual navigation of open arenas by head-restrained mice

Abstract
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Abstract

We present a mouse virtual reality (VR) system which restrains head-movements to horizontal rotations, compatible with multi-photon imaging. This system allows expression of the spatial navigation and neuronal firing patterns characteristic of real open arenas (R). Comparing VR to R: place and grid, but not head-direction, cell firing had broader spatial tuning; place, but not grid, cell firing was more directional; theta frequency increased less with running speed; whereas increases in firing rates with running speed and place and grid cells' theta phase precession were similar. These results suggest that the omni-directional place cell firing in R may require local-cues unavailable in VR, and that the scale of grid and place cell firing patterns, and theta frequency, reflect translational motion inferred from both virtual (visual and proprioceptive) and real (vestibular translation and extra-maze) cues. By contrast, firing rates and theta phase precession appear to reflect visual and proprioceptive cues alone.

Data availability

Data have been made available via the Open Science Framework platform (https://osf.io/yvmf4/)

The following data sets were generated

1. Burgess N et al
(2018) Data from Spatial cell firing during virtual navigation of open arenas by head-restrained mice
Available via the Open Science Framework.

https://osf.io/yvmf4/

Article and author information

Author details

Guifen Chen

UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
John Andrew King

Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
Yi Lu

UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
Francesca Cacucci

Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, London, United Kingdom

For correspondence
f.cacucci@ucl.ac.uk

Competing interests
No competing interests declared.
Neil Burgess

UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom

For correspondence
n.burgess@ucl.ac.uk

Competing interests
Neil Burgess, Reviewing editor, eLife.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-0646-6584

Funding

Wellcome (202805/Z/16/Z)

Neil Burgess

Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (Research and Innovation program 720270)

Guifen Chen
Francesca Cacucci
Neil Burgess

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/I021221/1)

Francesca Cacucci

H2020 European Research Council (DEVSPACE Starting grant)

Francesca Cacucci

China Scholarship Council (201509110138)

Yi Lu

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All work was carried out under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and according to Home Office and institutional guidelines.

Copyright

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.