QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

HOME  |   SEARCH  |   ARCHIVE  |   SUBSCRIBE  |   CONTACT  |   HELP

The Journal of Neuroscience, September 5, 2007, 27(36):9769-9779; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2011-07.2007

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Data A correction has been published Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (11) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Ainge, J. A. Articles by Dudchenko, P. A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Ainge, J. A. Articles by Dudchenko, P. A.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Hippocampal CA1 Place Cells Encode Intended Destination on a Maze with Multiple Choice Points

James A. Ainge,¹ Minija Tamosiunaite,¹ Florentin Woergoetter,^1,2 and Paul A. Dudchenko¹

¹Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, United Kingdom, and ²Computational Neuroscience, University of Goettingen, D-37073 Goettingen, Germany

Correspondence should be addressed to Paul A. Dudchenko, Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK. Email: p.a.dudchenko{at}stir.ac.uk

The hippocampus encodes both spatial and nonspatial aspects of a rat's ongoing behavior at the single-cell level. In this study, we examined the encoding of intended destination by hippocampal (CA1) place cells during performance of a serial reversal task on a double Y-maze. On the maze, rats had to make two choices to access one of four possible goal locations, two of which contained reward. Reward locations were kept constant within blocks of 10 trials but changed between blocks, and the session of each day comprised three or more trial blocks. A disproportionate number of place fields were observed in the start box and beginning stem of the maze, relative to other locations on the maze. Forty-six percent of these place fields had different firing rates on journeys to different goal boxes. Another group of cells had place fields before the second choice point, and, of these, 44% differentiated between journeys to specific goal boxes. In a second experiment, we observed that rats with hippocampal damage made significantly more errors than control rats on the Y-maze when reward locations were reversed. Together, these results suggest that, at the start of the maze, the hippocampus encodes both current location and the intended destination of the rat, and this encoding is necessary for the flexible response to changes in reinforcement contingencies.

Key words: hippocampus; place cell; spatial cognition; goals; memory; reversal learning

---

Received May 3, 2007; revised July 12, 2007; accepted July 24, 2007.

Correspondence should be addressed to Paul A. Dudchenko, Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK. Email: p.a.dudchenko{at}stir.ac.uk

This article has been cited by other articles:

				N. A. Suthana, A. D. Ekstrom, S. Moshirvaziri, B. Knowlton, and S. Y. Bookheimer Human Hippocampal CA1 Involvement during Allocentric Encoding of Spatial Information J. Neurosci., August 26, 2009; 29(34): 10512 - 10519. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Takahashi, J. Lauwereyns, Y. Sakurai, and M. Tsukada A Code for Spatial Alternation During Fixation in Rat Hippocampal CA1 Neurons J Neurophysiol, July 1, 2009; 102(1): 556 - 567. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. D. Berke, J. T. Breck, and H. Eichenbaum Striatal Versus Hippocampal Representations During Win-Stay Maze Performance J Neurophysiol, March 1, 2009; 101(3): 1575 - 1587. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Alvernhe, T. Van Cauter, E. Save, and B. Poucet Different CA1 and CA3 Representations of Novel Routes in a Shortcut Situation J. Neurosci., July 16, 2008; 28(29): 7324 - 7333. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. Ji and M. A. Wilson Firing Rate Dynamics in the Hippocampus Induced by Trajectory Learning J. Neurosci., April 30, 2008; 28(18): 4679 - 4689. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Johnson and A. D. Redish Neural Ensembles in CA3 Transiently Encode Paths Forward of the Animal at a Decision Point J. Neurosci., November 7, 2007; 27(45): 12176 - 12189. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home  |   Search  |   Archive  |   Subscribe  |   Contact  |   Help