title: Hippocampal place cells construct reward related sequences through unexplored space.
abstract: Dominant theories of hippocampal function propose that place cell representations are formed during an animal's first encounter with a novel environment and are subsequently replayed during off-line states to support consolidation and future behaviour. Here we report that viewing the delivery of food to an unvisited portion of an environment leads to off-line pre-activation of place cells sequences corresponding to that space. Such 'preplay' was not observed for an unrewarded but otherwise similar portion of the environment. These results suggest that a hippocampal representation of a visible, yet unexplored environment can be formed if the environment is of motivational relevance to the animal. We hypothesise such goal-biased preplay may support preparation for future experiences in novel environments.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: H Freyja
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Ólafsdóttir
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Caswell
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barry
authors.affiliation: UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Aman B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Saleem
authors.affiliation: Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Demis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hassabis
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Hugo J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Spiers
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D012201:Reward; D013028:Space Perception
keywords: consolidation; hippocampus; neuroscience; place cells; preplay; rat; replay; spatial memory