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Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 13, 4015-4028, Copyright © 1993 by Society for Neuroscience
Directionally selective mnemonic properties of neurons in the lateral dorsal nucleus of the thalamus of rats
SJ Mizumori and JD Williams
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 84112.
The hippocampal formation has been extensively studied for its special role
in visual spatial learning and navigation. To ascertain the nature of the
associations made, or computations performed, by hippocampus, it is
important to delineate the functional contributions of its afferents.
Therefore, single units were recorded in the lateral dorsal nucleus of the
thalamus (LDN) as rats performed multiple trials on a radial maze. Many LDN
neurons selectively discharged when an animal's head was aligned along
particular directions in space, irrespective of its location in the test
room. These direction-sensitive cells were localized to the dorsal aspect
of the caudal two-thirds of the LDN, the site of innervation by retinal
recipient pretectal and intermediate/deep-layer superior colliculus cells
(Thompson and Robertson, 1987b). The directional specificity and preference
of LDN cells were disrupted if rats were placed on the maze in darkness. If
the room light was then turned on, the original preference was restored. If
the light was again turned off, directional firing was maintained briefly.
Normal directional firing lasted about 2-3 min. After this time, the
directional preference (but not specificity) appeared to "rotate"
systematically in either the clockwise or counterclockwise direction. The
duration of normal directional discharge patterns in darkness could be
extended to 30 min by varying the behavior of the animal. LDN cells
required visual input to initialize reliable directional firing. After the
rat viewed the environment, directional specificity was maintained in the
absence of visual cues. Maximal directional firing was achieved only when
the rat viewed the entire test room, and not just the scene associated with
the directional preference of the cell. Thus, contextual information seems
important. Also, a significant correlation was found between directional
specificity and errors made on the maze during acquisition of the task. It
was concluded that the LDN may pass on to the hippocampal formation
directional information that is not merely a reflection of current sensory
input. As such, the LDN may serve an important integrative function for
limbic spatial learning systems.
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