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The Journal of Neuroscience, April 30, 2008, 28(18):4679-4689; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4597-07.2008

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Firing Rate Dynamics in the Hippocampus Induced by Trajectory Learning

Daoyun Ji and Matthew A. Wilson

Departments of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and Biology, The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, RIKEN-MIT Neuroscience Research Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Correspondence should be addressed to Daoyun Ji, The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Building 46, Room 5233, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139. Email: dji{at}mit.edu

The hippocampus is essential for spatial navigation, which may involve sequential learning. However, how the hippocampus encodes new sequences in familiar environments is unknown. To study the impact of novel spatial sequences on the activity of hippocampal neurons, we monitored hippocampal ensembles while rats learned to switch from two familiar trajectories to a new one in a familiar environment. Here, we show that this novel spatial experience induces two types of changes in firing rates, but not locations of hippocampal place cells. First, place-cell firing rates on the two familiar trajectories start to change before the actual behavioral switch to the new trajectory. Second, repeated exposure on the new trajectory is associated with an increased dependence of place-cell firing rates on immediate past locations. The result suggests that sequence encoding in the hippocampus may involve integration of information about the recent past into current state.

Key words: learning; memory; hippocampus; dynamics; episodic memory; rat; tetrode

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Received Sept. 13, 2007; revised March 26, 2008; accepted March 26, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Daoyun Ji, The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Building 46, Room 5233, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139. Email: dji{at}mit.edu

Related articles in J. Neurosci.:

Dissociating the Effects of Past and Future on Neural Encoding of Sequences in The Hippocampus

Michael M. Yartsev
J. Neurosci. 2008 28: 8383-8384. [Full Text]  

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				M. M. Yartsev Dissociating the Effects of Past and Future on Neural Encoding of Sequences in The Hippocampus J. Neurosci., August 20, 2008; 28(34): 8383 - 8384. [Full Text] [PDF]

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