Beyond Correlation: Optimal Transport Metrics For Characterizing Representational Stability and Remapping in Neurons Encoding Spatial Memory.

ABSTRACT: Spatial representations in the entorhinal cortex (EC) and hippocampus (HPC) are fundamental to cognitive functions like navigation and memory. These representations, embodied in spatial field maps, dynamically remap in response to environmental changes. However, current methods, such as Pearson's correlation coefficient, struggle to capture the complexity of these remapping events, especially when fields do not overlap, or transformations are non-linear. This limitation hinders our understanding and quantification of remapping, a key aspect of spatial memory function. To address this, we propose a family of metrics based on the Earth Mover's Distance (EMD) as a versatile framework for characterizing remapping. Applied to both normalized and unnormalized distributions, the EMD provides a gr

SUBMITTER: Aoun A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10369988 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature