Geometric Cues Influence Head Direction Cells Only Weakly in Nondisoriented Rats
Open accessAbstract
The influential hypothesis that environmental geometry is critical for spatial orientation has been extensively tested behaviorally, and yet findings have been conflicting. Head direction (HD) cells, the neural correlate of the sense of direction, offer a window into the processes underlying directional orientation and may help clarify the issue. In the present study, HD cells were recorded as rats foraged in enclosures of varying geometry, with or without simultaneous manipulation of landmarks and self-motion cues (path integration). All geometric enclosures had single-order rotational symmetry and thus completely polarized the environment. They also had unique features, such as corners, which could, in principle, act as landmarks. Despite these strongly polarizing geometric cues, HD cells in nondisoriented rats never rotated with these shapes. In contrast, when a cue card (white or gray) was added to one wall, HD cells readily rotated with the enclosure. When path integration was disrupted by disorienting the rat, HD cells rotated with the enclosure even without the landmark. Collectively, these findings indicate that geometry exerts little or no influence on heading computations in nondisoriented rats, but it can do so in disoriented rats. We suggest that geometric processing is only a weak influence, providing a backup system for heading calculations and recruited only under conditions of disorientation.
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Geometry is a strong controller of HD cells when animals cannot rely on a pre-existing sense of direction.
“and geometry is a strong controller of HD cells when animals cannot rely on a pre-existing sense of direction32.”
From Anchoring the neural compass: coding of local spatial reference frames in human medial parietal lobe (2014) · cites this paper as [32]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Knight, R., Hayman, R., Lin Ginzberg, L., & Jeffery, K.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Jeffery, Kathryn
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 2011-11-02
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 44
- Pages
- 15681-15692
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC3242014
- OpenAlex
- W2080289632
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2024: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 7.85
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University of Hertfordshire Research Archive (University of Hertfordshire) (submittedVersion)
- ENLIGHTEN (Jurnal Bimbingan dan Konseling Islam) (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (EU-FP7-, 083540)
- Directorate for Biological Sciences
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Spatial Cognition and Navigation
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Vestibular and auditory disorders
- Keywords
- head direction cells, environmental geometry, spatial orientation, path integration, landmark cues, self-motion cues, disorientation, rotational symmetry, rats, cue cards
- MeSH terms
- Action Potentials, Animals, Brain, Brain Mapping, Confusion, Cues, Male, Motion Perception, Neurons, Orientation, Rotation, Space Perception, Spatial Behavior, Head Movements, Rats
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