Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Mao, Dun
• Molina, Leonardo A.
• Bonin, Vincent
• McNaughton, Bruce L.

Titel

Vision and Locomotion Combine to Drive Path Integration Sequences in Mouse Retrosplenial Cortex

Ist Teil von

• Current biology, 2020-05, Vol.30 (9), p.1680-1688.e4

Ort / Verlag

England: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is involved in a broad range of cognitive functions, integrating rich sensory, motor, and spatial signals from multiple brain areas, including the hippocampal system. RSC neurons show hippocampus-dependent activity reminiscent of place cell sequences. Using cellular calcium imaging in a virtual reality (VR)-based locomotion task, we investigate how the integration of visual and locomotor inputs may give rise to such activity in RSC. A substantial population shows neural sequences that track position in the VR environment. This activity is driven by the conjunction of visual stimuli sequences and active movement, which is suggestive of path integration. The activity is anchored to a reference point and predominantly follows the VR upon manipulations of optic flow against locomotion. Thus, locomotion-gated optic flow, combined with the presence of contextual cues at the start of each trial, is sufficient to drive the sequential activity. A subpopulation shows landmark-related visual responses that are modulated by animal’s position in the VR. Thus, rather than fragmenting the spatial representation into equivalent locomotion-based ensemble versus optic-flow-based ensemble, in RSC, optic flow appears to override locomotion signals coherently in the population, when the gain between the two signals is altered. •Locomotion-gated optic flow drives spatial activity sequences in RSC•Decoupling vision and locomotion disrupts RSC spatial activity sequences•Landmark-related visual responses are gated by spatial position•Spatial activity sequences are anchored to contextual cues Mao et al. demonstrate that neurons in the retrosplenial cortex integrate visual inputs, locomotion, and contextual cues to generate spatial activity sequences. This contextual cue-anchored sequential activity could be driven by locomotion-gated optic flow, suggesting a role of the RSC in fusing visual and motor inputs into internal representations.