Synchronous activity patterns in the dentate gyrus during immobility

Abstract
Data availability
Article and author information

Abstract

The hippocampal dentate gyrus is an important relay conveying sensory information from the entorhinal cortex to the hippocampus proper. During exploration, the dentate gyrus has been proposed to act as a pattern separator. However, the dentate gyrus also shows structured activity during immobility and sleep. The properties of these activity patterns at cellular resolution, and their role in hippocampal-dependent memory processes have remained unclear. Using dual-color in-vivo two-photon Ca²⁺ imaging, we show that in immobile mice dentate granule cells generate sparse, synchronized activity patterns associated with entorhinal cortex activation. These population events are structured and modified by changes in the environment; and they incorporate place- and speed cells. Importantly, they are more similar than expected by chance to population patterns evoked during self-motion. Using optogenetic inhibition, we show that granule cell activity is not only required during exploration, but also during immobility in order to form dentate gyrus-dependent spatial memories.

Data availability

Binarized imaging traces of all cells from all experiment sessions are available on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mkkwh70z6.

The following data sets were generated

1. Martin Pofahl
(2020) Synchronous activity patterns in the dentate gyrus during immobility
Dryad Digital Repository, doi:10.5061/dryad.mkkwh70z6.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mkkwh70z6

Article and author information

Author details

Martin Pofahl

Institute of Experimental Epileptology and Cognition Research, University of Bonn Medical Center, University of Bonn Medical Center, Bonn, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9473-6195
Negar Nikbakht

Institute of Experimental Epileptology and Cognition Research, University of Bonn Medical Center, University of Bonn Medical Center, Bonn, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
André N Haubrich

Institute of Experimental Epileptology and Cognition Research, University of Bonn Medical Center, University of Bonn Medical Center, Bonn, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-7895-6203
Theresa M Nguyen

Institute of Experimental Epileptology and Cognition Research, University of Bonn Medical Center, Bonn, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Nicola Masala

Institute of Experimental Epileptology and Cognition Research, University of Bonn Medical Center, University of Bonn Medical Center, Bonn, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Fabian J Distler

Institute of Experimental Epileptology and Cognition Research, University of Bonn Medical Center, University of Bonn Medical Center, Bonn, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Oliver Braganza

Institute of Experimental Epileptology and Cognition Research, University of Bonn Medical Center, University of Bonn Medical Center, Bonn, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-8508-1070
Jakob H Macke

Excellence Cluster Machine Learning, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5154-8912
Laura A Ewell

Institute of Experimental Epileptology and Cognition Research, University of Bonn Medical Center, Bonn, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Kurtulus Golcuk

Institute of Experimental Epileptology and Cognition Research, University of Bonn Medical Center, University of Bonn Medical Center, Bonn, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Heinz Beck

IEECR, University of Bonn Medical Center, Bonn, Germany

For correspondence
heinz.beck@ukbonn.de

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8961-998X

Funding

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 1089,Project C04)

Heinz Beck

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (EXC 2064/1 PN 390727645)

Jakob H Macke
Heinz Beck

Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung (PSI)

Kurtulus Golcuk

Volkswagen Foundation

Oliver Braganza
Laura A Ewell

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 animal experiments were conducted in accordance with European (2010/63/EU) and federal law (TierSchG, TierSchVersV) on animal care and use and approved by the county of North-Rhine Westphalia (LANUV AZ 84-02.04.2015.A524, AZ 81-02.04.2019.A216).

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.