The orbitofrontal cortex maps future navigational goals
| Autor: | Hiroshi Ito, Robert Gebauer, Zahra Golipour, Tim Herfurth, Raunak Basu, Tatjana Tchumatchenko, Simon Kolb |
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| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Male
Computer science media_common.quotation_subject Action Potentials Prefrontal Cortex Hippocampus Sensory system Hippocampal formation Neural circuits Article 03 medical and health sciences Spatial memory 0302 clinical medicine Neural ensemble Perception Biological neural network Animals Rats Long-Evans 030304 developmental biology media_common Neurons 0303 health sciences Multidisciplinary Entorhinal cortex Rats Space Perception Orbitofrontal cortex Goals Neuroscience 030217 neurology & neurosurgery Spatial Navigation |
| Zdroj: | Nature |
| ISSN: | 0028-0836 |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41586-021-04042-9 |
| Popis: | Accurate navigation to a desired goal requires consecutive estimates of spatial relationships between the current position and future destination throughout the journey. Although neurons in the hippocampal formation can represent the position of an animal as well as its nearby trajectories1–7, their role in determining the destination of the animal has been questioned8,9. It is, thus, unclear whether the brain can possess a precise estimate of target location during active environmental exploration. Here we describe neurons in the rat orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) that form spatial representations persistently pointing to the subsequent goal destination of an animal throughout navigation. This destination coding emerges before the onset of navigation, without direct sensory access to a distal goal, and even predicts the incorrect destination of an animal at the beginning of an error trial. Goal representations in the OFC are maintained by destination-specific neural ensemble dynamics, and their brief perturbation at the onset of a journey led to a navigational error. These findings suggest that the OFC is part of the internal goal map of the brain, enabling animals to navigate precisely to a chosen destination that is beyond the range of sensory perception. Dedicated cells in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex map an animal s instantaneous position in space; by contrast, its future goal location is represented in the orbitofrontal cortex, a structure within the broader circuit. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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