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Hippocampal place cell instability after lesions of the head direction cell networkThe occurrence of cells that encode spatial location (place cells) or head direction (HD cells) in the rat limbic system suggests that these cell types are important for spatial navigation. We sought to determine whether place fields of hippocampal CA1 place cells would be altered in animals receiving lesions of brain areas containing HD cells. Rats received bilateral lesions of anterodorsal thalamic nuclei (ADN), postsubiculum (PoS), or sham lesions, before place cell recording. Although place cells from lesioned animals did not differ from controls on many place-field characteristics, such as place-field size and infield firing rate, the signal was significantly degraded with respect to measures of outfield firing rate, spatial coherence, and information content. Surprisingly, place cells from lesioned animals were more likely modulated by the directional heading of the animal. Rotation of the landmark cue showed that place fields from PoS-lesioned animals were not controlled by the cue and shifted unpredictably between sessions. Although fields from ADN-lesioned animals tended to have less landmark control than fields from control animals, this impairment was mild compared with cells recorded from PoS-lesioned animals. Removal of the prominent visual cue also led to instability of place-field representations in PoS-lesioned, but not ADN-lesioned, animals. Together, these findings suggest that an intact HD system is not necessary for the maintenance of place fields, but lesions of brain areas that convey the HD signal can degrade this signal, and lesions of the PoS might lead to perceptual or mnemonic deficits, leading to place-field instability between sessions.
Document ID
20040087480
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Calton, Jeffrey L.
(Dartmouth College Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, United States)
Stackman, Robert W.
Goodridge, Jeremy P.
Archey, William B.
Dudchenko, Paul A.
Taube, Jeffrey S.
Oman, C. M.
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
October 29, 2003
Publication Information
Publication: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
Volume: 23
Issue: 30
ISSN: 0270-6474
Subject Category
Life Sciences (General)
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: DC00236
CONTRACT_GRANT: MH48924
CONTRACT_GRANT: MH01286
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
NASA Program Biomedical Research and Countermeasures
Non-NASA Center
NASA Discipline Neuroscience

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