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The Journal of Neuroscience, July 2, 2008, 28(27):6858-6871; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5684-07.2008

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
What Grid Cells Convey about Rat Location

Ila R. Fiete,1,3 Yoram Burak,1,4 and Ted Brookings2,5

1Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics and 2Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, 3Broad Fellows Program, Computation and Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, 4Swartz Fellows Program, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, and 5Volen Center, Department of Biology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454

Correspondence should be addressed to Ila R. Fiete, Division of Biology, 216-76, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125. Email: ilafiete{at}caltech.edu

We characterize the relationship between the simultaneously recorded quantities of rodent grid cell firing and the position of the rat. The formalization reveals various properties of grid cell activity when considered as a neural code for representing and updating estimates of the rat's location. We show that, although the spatially periodic response of grid cells appears wasteful, the code is fully combinatorial in capacity. The resulting range for unambiguous position representation is vastly greater than the {approx}1–10 m periods of individual lattices, allowing for unique high-resolution position specification over the behavioral foraging ranges of rats, with excess capacity that could be used for error correction. Next, we show that the merits of the grid cell code for position representation extend well beyond capacity and include arithmetic properties that facilitate position updating. We conclude by considering the numerous implications, for downstream readouts and experimental tests, of the properties of the grid cell code.

Key words: navigation; dMEC; entorhinal; hippocampus; spatial perception; information; path integration; theory

Received Jan. 4, 2008; revised April 7, 2008; accepted April 28, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Ila R. Fiete, Division of Biology, 216-76, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125. Email: ilafiete{at}caltech.edu






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