Hippocampal cellular and network activity in freely moving echolocating bats
Abstract
The hippocampus is crucial for episodic and spatial memory. In freely moving rodents, hippocampal pyramidal neurons show spatially selective firing when the animal passes through a neuron's 'place-field', and theta-band oscillation is continuously present during locomotion. Here we report the first hippocampal recordings from echolocating bats, mammals phylogenetically distant from rodents, which showed place cells very similar to those of rodents. High-frequency 'ripple' oscillations were also rodent-like. Theta oscillation, however, differed from rodents in two important ways: (i) theta occurred when bats explored the environment without locomoting, using distal sensing through echolocation, and (ii) theta was not continuous, but occurred in short intermittent bouts. The intermittence of theta suggests that models of hippocampal function that rely on continuous theta may not apply to bats. Our data support the hypothesis that theta oscillation in the mammalian hippocampus is involved in sequence learning and hence, theta power should increase with sensory-input rate-which explains why theta power correlates with running speed in rodents and with echolocation call rate in bats.
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- Authors
- Ulanovsky, N., & Moss, C. F.
- Affiliations
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- Corresponding author
- Ulanovsky, Nachum
- Venue
- Nature Neuroscience
- Published
- 2007-01-07
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 224-233
- ISSN
- 1097-6256 (ISSN-L)
- 1546-1726
- OpenAlex
- W2078139702
- Cited by
- 283
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 6.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH056366, R01-MH56366)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Bat Biology and Ecology Studies
- Keywords
- hippocampus, echolocating bats, place cells, theta oscillations, ripple oscillations, hippocampal network activity, spatial memory, sequence learning, echolocation, running speed
- MeSH terms
- Action Potentials, Animals, Biological Clocks, Chiroptera, Echolocation, Hippocampus, Learning, Motor Activity, Movement, Nerve Net, Orientation, Rodentia, Space Perception, Species Specificity, Theta Rhythm
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