Alterations of hippocampal place cells in foraging rats facing a "predatory" threat.

ABSTRACT: Fear is an adaptive mechanism evolved to influence the primal decisions of foragers in "approach resource-avoid predator" conflicts. To survive and reproduce, animals must attain the basic needs (food, water, shelter, and mate) while avoiding the ultimate cost of predation. Consistent with this view, ecological studies have found that predatory threats cause animals to limit foraging to fewer places in their habitat and/or to restricted times. However, the neurophysiological basis through which animals alter their foraging boundaries when confronted with danger remains largely unknown. Here, we investigated place cells in the hippocampus, implicated in processing spatial information and memory, in male Long-Evans rats foraging for food under risky situations that would be common in nature.

SUBMITTER: Kim EJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4439350 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature