Related papers: Geometry of Spatial Memory Replay
Spatial awareness in mammals is based on an internalized representation of the environment, encoded by large networks of spiking neurons. While such representations can last for a long time, the underlying neuronal network is transient:…
It is now widely accepted that one of the roles of the hippocampus is to maintain episodic spatial representations, while parallel striatal pathways contribute to both declarative and procedural value computations by encoding different…
The hippocampal formation is thought to learn spatial maps of environments, and in many models this learning process consists of forming a sensory association for each location in the environment. This is inefficient, akin to learning a…
Various neurophysiological and cognitive functions are based on transferring information between spiking neurons via a complex system of synaptic connections. In particular, the capacity of presynaptic inputs to influence the postsynaptic…
The hippocampus is often attributed to episodic memory formation and storage in the mammalian brain; in particular, Alme et al. showed that hippocampal area CA3 forms statistically independent representations across a large number of…
The hippocampus appears to implement two core but highly distinct functions in the brain: long term memory retrieval and planning and spatial navigation. Naively, these functions appear very different algorithmically. In this short note, we…
In the mammalian brain newly acquired memories depend on the hippocampus for maintenance and recall, but over time these functions are taken over by the neocortex through a process called systems consolidation. However, reactivation of a…
We present a hidden Markov model that describes variation in an animal's position associated with varying levels of activity in action potential spike trains of individual place cell neurons. The model incorporates a coarse-graining of…
Self-localization during navigation with noisy sensors in an ambiguous world is computationally challenging, yet animals and humans excel at it. In robotics, Simultaneous Location and Mapping (SLAM) algorithms solve this problem though…
Place cells in the hippocampus are active when an animal visits a certain location (referred to as a place field) within an environment. Grid cells in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) respond at multiple locations, with firing fields that…
An important open question in computational neuroscience is how various spatially tuned neurons, such as place cells, are used to support the learning of reward-seeking behavior of an animal. Existing computational models either lack…
Hippocampal neurons track positions of self, others, and gaze direction. However, it is unclear how their respective neural codes differ enough to avoid confusion while allowing for abstraction. We recorded from populations of hippocampal…
Spatial navigation in mammals is based on building a mental representation of their environment---a cognitive map. However, both the nature of this cognitive map and its underpinning in neural structures and activity remains vague. A key…
During sleep and awake rest, the hippocampus replays sequences of place cells that have been activated during prior experiences. These have been interpreted as a memory consolidation process, but recent results suggest a possible…
Grid cells play a principal role in enabling mammalian cognitive representations of ambient environments. The key property of these cells -- the regular arrangement of their firing fields -- is commonly viewed as means for establishing…
Self-sustained, elevated neuronal activity persisting on time scales of ten seconds or longer is thought to be vital for aspects of working memory, including brain representations of real space. Continuous-attractor neural networks, one of…
To navigate a space, the brain makes an internal representation of the environment using different cells such as place cells, grid cells, head direction cells, border cells, and speed cells. All these cells, along with sensory inputs,…
Grid cells in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) and place cells in the hippocampus (HC) both form spatial representations. Grid cells fire in triangular grid patterns, while place cells fire at specific locations and respond to contextual…
Spatial learning across many species is impaired by lesions in the hippocampus, a subcortical brain structure whose cellular composition changes substantially over its 5 to 6 week lifetime from mainly excitatory neurons during development…
Grid cells in the medial entorhinal cortex and place cells in the hippocampus together support spatial navigation. The two regions are reciprocally connected, and there is a chicken-and-egg problem for how both arise and reinforce each…