Open AccessGoal discrimination in hippocampal nonplace cells when place information is ambiguous
Author(s) -
Lu Zhang,
Stephanie M. Prince,
Abigail L. Paulson,
Annabelle C. Singer
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.2107337119
Subject(s) - place cell , hippocampal formation , neuroscience , coding (social sciences) , computer science , modulation (music) , biology , psychology , physics , mathematics , statistics , acoustics
Significance Goal-directed spatial navigation has been found to rely on hippocampal neurons that are spatially modulated. We show that “nonplace” cells without significant spatial modulation play a role in discriminating goals when environmental cues for goals are ambiguous. This nonplace cell activity is performance-dependent and is modulated by gamma oscillations. Finally, nonplace cell goal discrimination coding fails in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Together, these results show that nonplace cell firing can signal unique task-relevant information when spatial information is ambiguous; these signals depend on performance and are absent in a mouse model of AD.