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Conjunctive effects of reward and behavioral episodes on hippocampal place‐differential neurons of rats on a mobile treadmill
Author(s) -
Dayawansa S.,
Kobayashi T.,
Hori E.,
Umeno K.,
Tazumi T.,
Ono T.,
Nishijo H.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
hippocampus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.767
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1098-1063
pISSN - 1050-9631
DOI - 10.1002/hipo.20186
Subject(s) - hippocampal formation , neuroscience , context (archaeology) , hippocampus , episodic memory , psychology , sensory system , sensory cue , spatial memory , reinforcement , path integration , cognition , working memory , biology , social psychology , paleontology
Abstract Previous studies reported context (or behavior)‐dependent activities of hippocampal place cells, which are suggested to be the neural basis of episodic memory. However, it remains unclear what distinctive items these context‐dependent activities encode. We investigated separately the effects of space, locomotion, and episodes with positive/negative reinforcements on activity of place‐differential neurons in the hippocampal CA1 area. Rats were placed on a treadmill affixed to a motion stage translocated along a figure 8‐shaped track. The track could be navigated by two different routes that shared a common central stem. The stage was paused at the start and end of the routes, where conditioned response tasks with different reinforcements were imposed. As the rats passed the common central stem, some neurons fired differently depending on the route. Comparison of hippocampal spatial firing patterns across different conditions with and without treadmill operation and/or the tasks indicated that these route‐dependent spatial firing patterns were sensitive to locomotion, the tasks, and vestibular sensation or visual cues such as optic flow. The results suggest that external sensory inputs, path integration, and reinforcement context are all integrated in the hippocampus, which might provide the neural basis of episodic memory. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.