Non-rhythmic head-direction cells in the parahippocampal region are not constrained by attractor network dynamics
Abstract
Computational models postulate that head-direction (HD) cells are part of an attractor network integrating head turns. This network requires inputs from visual landmarks to anchor the HD signal to the external world. We investigated whether information about HD and visual landmarks is integrated in the medial entorhinal cortex and parasubiculum, resulting in neurons expressing a conjunctive code for HD and visual landmarks. We found that parahippocampal HD cells could be divided into two classes based on their theta-rhythmic activity: non-rhythmic and theta-rhythmic HD cells. Manipulations of the visual landmarks caused tuning curve alterations in most HD cells, with the largest visually driven changes observed in non-rhythmic HD cells. Importantly, the tuning modifications of non-rhythmic HD cells were often non-coherent across cells, refuting the notion that attractor-like dynamics control non-rhythmic HD cells. These findings reveal a new population of non-rhythmic HD cells whose malleable organization is controlled by visual landmarks.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are available.
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Data from: Non-rhythmic head-direction cells in the parahippocampal region are not constrained by attractor network dynamicsAvailable at Dryad Digital Repository under a CC0 Public Domain Dedication.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (AL 1730/1-1)
- Kevin Allen
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB1134)
- Kevin Allen
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Neil Burgess, University College London, United Kingdom
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All experiments were carried out in accordance with the European Committees Directive (86/609/EEC) and were approved by the Governmental Supervisory Panel on Animal Experiments of Baden Wurttemberg in Karlsruhe (35-9185.81/G-50/14).
Version history
- Received: February 14, 2018
- Accepted: August 24, 2018
- Accepted Manuscript published: September 17, 2018 (version 1)
- Accepted Manuscript updated: September 19, 2018 (version 2)
- Version of Record published: September 26, 2018 (version 3)
- Version of Record updated: October 2, 2018 (version 4)
Copyright
© 2018, Kornienko 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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