Retrosplenial and postsubicular head direction cells compared during visual landmark discrimination.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Visual landmarks are used by head direction (HD) cells to establish and help update the animal's representation of head direction, for use in orientation and navigation. Two cortical regions that are connected to primary visual areas, postsubiculum (PoS) and retrosplenial cortex (RSC), possess HD cells: we investigated whether they differ in how they process visual landmarks.

Methods

We compared PoS and RSC HD cell activity from tetrode-implanted rats exploring an arena in which correct HD orientation required discrimination of two opposing landmarks having high, moderate or low discriminability.

Results

RSC HD cells had higher firing rates than PoS HD cells and slightly lower modulation by angular head velocity, and anticipated actual head direction by ~48

SUBMITTER: Lozano YR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6124005 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature