title: Three-dimensional head-direction coding in the bat brain.
abstract: Navigation requires a sense of direction ('compass'), which in mammals is thought to be provided by head-direction cells, neurons that discharge when the animal's head points to a specific azimuth. However, it remains unclear whether a three-dimensional (3D) compass exists in the brain. Here we conducted neural recordings in bats, mammals well-adapted to 3D spatial behaviours, and found head-direction cells tuned to azimuth, pitch or roll, or to conjunctive combinations of 3D angles, in both crawling and flying bats. Head-direction cells were organized along a functional-anatomical gradient in the presubiculum, transitioning from 2D to 3D representations. In inverted bats, the azimuth-tuning of neurons shifted by 180°, suggesting that 3D head direction is represented in azimuth × pitch toroidal coordinates. Consistent with our toroidal model, pitch-cell tuning was unimodal, circular, and continuous within the available 360° of pitch. Taken together, these results demonstrate a 3D head-direction mechanism in mammals, which could support navigation in 3D space.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Arseny
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Finkelstein
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel [2] Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Research Institute, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 31096, Israel.
authors.forename: Dori
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Derdikman
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Alon
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rubin
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Jakob N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Foerster
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Liora
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Las
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Nachum
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ulanovsky
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D005426:Flight, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D006257:Head / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology; D012399:Rotation; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D065852:Spatial Memory / Q000502:physiology