title: Widespread vestibular activation of the rodent cortex.
abstract: Much of our understanding of the neuronal mechanisms of spatial navigation is derived from chronic recordings in rodents in which head-direction, place, and grid cells have all been described. However, despite the proposed importance of self-reference information to these internal representations of space, their congruence with vestibular signaling remains unclear. Here we have undertaken brain-wide functional mapping using both fMRI and electrophysiological methods to directly determine the spatial extent, strength, and time course of vestibular signaling across the rat forebrain. We find distributed activity throughout thalamic, limbic, and particularly primary sensory cortical areas in addition to known head-direction pathways. We also observe activation of frontal regions, including infralimbic and cingulate cortices, indicating integration of vestibular information throughout functionally diverse cortical regions. These whole-brain activity maps therefore suggest a widespread contribution of vestibular signaling to a self-centered framework for multimodal sensorimotor integration in support of movement planning, execution, spatial navigation, and autonomic responses to gravito-inertial changes.
authors: Division of Neurophysiology, National Institute for Medical Research, London NW7 1AA, United Kingdom, ede.rancz@crick.ac.uk t.margrie@ucl.ac.uk scanals@umh.es.
authors: Ede A
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7951-1385
authors: EA
authors: Rancz
authors: Instituto de Neurociencias (CSIC-UMH), 03550 San Juan de Alicante, Spain.
authors: Javier
authors: J
authors: Moya
authors: Division of Neurophysiology, National Institute for Medical Research, London NW7 1AA, United Kingdom.
authors: Florian
authors: F
authors: Drawitsch
authors: School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, Faculty of Health and Hunter Medical Research Institute, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales 2308, Australia, and.
authors: Alan M
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6903-2313
authors: AM
authors: Brichta
authors: Instituto de Neurociencias (CSIC-UMH), 03550 San Juan de Alicante, Spain, ede.rancz@crick.ac.uk t.margrie@ucl.ac.uk scanals@umh.es.
authors: Santiago
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2175-8139
authors: S
authors: Canals
authors: Division of Neurophysiology, National Institute for Medical Research, London NW7 1AA, United Kingdom, Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, University College London, London W1T 4JG, United Kingdom ede.rancz@crick.ac.uk t.margrie@ucl.ac.uk scanals@umh.es.
authors: Troy W
authors: TW
authors: Margrie
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000344:Afferent Pathways / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010812:Physical Stimulation; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D014722:Vestibule, Labyrinth / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: evoked potential; fMRI; rat; self movement; spatial navigation; vestibular cortex