The orbitofrontal cortex maps future navigational goals.

ABSTRACT: Accurate navigation to a desired goal requires consecutive estimates of spatial relationships between the current position and future destination throughout the journey. Although neurons in the hippocampal formation can represent the position of an animal as well as its nearby trajectories^1-7, their role in determining the destination of the animal has been questioned^8,9. It is, thus, unclear whether the brain can possess a precise estimate of target location during active environmental exploration. Here we describe neurons in the rat orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) that form spatial representations persistently pointing to the subsequent goal destination of an animal throughout navigation. This destination coding emerges before the onset of navigation, without direct sens

SUBMITTER: Basu R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8599015 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature