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Framing the grid: effect of boundaries on grid cells and navigation
Author(s) -
Krupic Julija,
Bauza Marius,
Burton Stephen,
O'Keefe John
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the journal of physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.802
H-Index - 240
eISSN - 1469-7793
pISSN - 0022-3751
DOI - 10.1113/jp270607
Subject(s) - grid , grid cell , hippocampal formation , framing (construction) , enclosure , encode , computer science , neuroscience , cognitive science , communication , cognitive psychology , psychology , biology , geography , mathematics , telecommunications , geometry , biochemistry , archaeology , gene
Cells in the mammalian hippocampal formation subserve neuronal representations of environmental location and support navigation in familiar environments. Grid cells constitute one of the main cell types in the hippocampal formation and are widely believed to represent a universal metric of space independent of external stimuli. Recent evidence showing that grid symmetry is distorted in non‐symmetrical environments suggests that a re‐examination of this hypothesis is warranted. In this review we will discuss behavioural and physiological evidence for how environmental shape and in particular enclosure boundaries influence grid cell firing properties. We propose that grid cells encode the geometric layout of enclosures.