Three-dimensional tuning of head direction cells in rats.

ABSTRACT: Head direction (HD) cells fire when the animal faces that cell's preferred firing direction (PFD) in the horizontal plane. The PFD response when the animal is oriented outside the earth-horizontal plane could result from cells representing direction in the plane of locomotion or as a three-dimensional (3D), global-referenced direction anchored to gravity. To investigate these possibilities, anterodorsal thalamic HD cells were recorded from restrained rats while they were passively positioned in various 3D orientations. Cell responses were unaffected by pitch or roll up to ~90° from the horizontal plane. Firing was disrupted once the animal was oriented >90° away from the horizontal plane and during inversion. When rolling the animal around the earth-vertical axis, cells were active when th

SUBMITTER: Shinder ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6383655 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature