Attention-like modulation of hippocampus place cell discharge.
Hippocampus place cell discharge is an important model system for understanding cognition, but evidence is missing that the place code is under the kind of dynamic attentional control characterized in primates as selective activation of one neural representation and suppression of another, competing representation. We investigated the apparent noise ("overdispersion") in the CA1 place code, hypothesizing that overdispersion results from discharge fluctuations as spatial attention alternates between distal cues and local/self-motion cues. The hypothesis predicts that: (1) preferential use of distal cues will decrease overdispersion; (2) global, attention-like states can be decoded from ensemble discharge such that both the discharge rates and the spatial firing patterns of individual cells will be distinct in the two states; (3) identifying attention-like states improves reconstructions of the rat's path from ensemble discharge. These predictions were confirmed, implying that a covert, dynamic attention-like process modulates discharge on a approximately 1 s time scale. We conclude the hippocampus place code is a dynamic representation of the spatial information in the immediate focus of attention.
Fenton
André A
AA
Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology and Neurology and The Robert F. Furchgott Center for Neural and Behavioral Science, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, New York, New York 11203, USA. afenton@downstate.edu
Lytton
William W
WW
Barry
Jeremy M
JM
Lenck-Santini
Pierre-Pascal
PP
Zinyuk
Larissa E
LE
Kubík
Stepan
S
Bures
Jan
J
Poucet
Bruno
B
Muller
Robert U
RU
Olypher
Andrey V
AV
D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention; D056547:CA1 Region, Hippocampal / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012399:Rotation; D013028:Space Perception; D013037:Spatial Behavior