title: Gaze-informed, task-situated representation of space in primate hippocampus during virtual navigation.
abstract: To elucidate how gaze informs the construction of mental space during wayfinding in visual species like primates, we jointly examined navigation behavior, visual exploration, and hippocampal activity as macaque monkeys searched a virtual reality maze for a reward. Cells sensitive to place also responded to one or more variables like head direction, point of gaze, or task context. Many cells fired at the sight (and in anticipation) of a single landmark in a viewpoint- or task-dependent manner, simultaneously encoding the animal's logical situation within a set of actions leading to the goal. Overall, hippocampal activity was best fit by a fine-grained state space comprising current position, view, and action contexts. Our findings indicate that counterparts of rodent place cells in primates embody multidimensional, task-situated knowledge pertaining to the target of gaze, therein supporting self-awareness in the construction of space.
authors.affiliation: Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive, UMR 5229, CNRS and University of Lyon, Bron, France.
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wirth
authors.affiliation: Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive, UMR 5229, CNRS and University of Lyon, Bron, France.|GIPSA-lab, UMR 5216, CNRS and University of Grenoble-Alpes, Saint Martin d'Hères, France.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Baraduc
authors.affiliation: Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive, UMR 5229, CNRS and University of Lyon, Bron, France.
authors.forename: Aurélie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Planté
authors.affiliation: Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive, UMR 5229, CNRS and University of Lyon, Bron, France.
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pinède
authors.affiliation: Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive, UMR 5229, CNRS and University of Lyon, Bron, France.
authors.forename: Jean-René
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Duhamel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D065854:Spatial Navigation / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014795:Visual Pathways