Path integration and the neural basis of the 'cognitive map'.
The hippocampal formation can encode relative spatial location, without reference to external cues, by the integration of linear and angular self-motion (path integration). Theoretical studies, in conjunction with recent empirical discoveries, suggest that the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) might perform some of the essential underlying computations by means of a unique, periodic synaptic matrix that could be self-organized in early development through a simple, symmetry-breaking operation. The scale at which space is represented increases systematically along the dorsoventral axis in both the hippocampus and the MEC, apparently because of systematic variation in the gain of a movement-speed signal. Convergence of spatially periodic input at multiple scales, from so-called grid cells in the entorhinal cortex, might result in non-periodic spatial firing patterns (place fields) in the hippocampus.
McNaughton
Bruce L
BL
Arizona Research Laboratories Division of Neural Systems, Memory & Aging, and Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson 85724, USA. bruce@nsma.arizona.edu
Battaglia
Francesco P
FP
Jensen
Ole
O
Moser
Edvard I
EI
Moser
May-Britt
MB
D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology