A new direction for grid cells.
Krupic, Bauza, Burton, Barry, & O'Keefe (Grid cell symmetry is shaped by environmental geometry. Nature, 518, 232-235, 2015) found that the grids of grid cells in the entorhinal cortex of rats become sparser at the sharp end of a trapezoidal space. This makes grids, and grid cells, unsuitable for measuring distance traveled (odometry) and suggests that grid cells may have more to do with sorting out directions.
Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia. ken.cheng@mq.edu.au.
Ken
K
Cheng
D000818:Animals; D018728:Entorhinal Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D000071038:Grid Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D065854:Spatial Navigation / Q000502:physiology*