Experimental Psychology Seminar - Goal Remapping in Grid Cells

Speaker: Charlotte Boccara

Originally thought as a universal invariant metrics for navigation, the rigid structure of grid cells was recently shown to be influenced by geometrical features. Yet it is not clear whether these changes are the result of a distorted perception of space, or whether they carry further behavioural role. Here, we trained rats to daily learn three new reward locations on the cheeseboard maze, while simultaneously recording from the medial entorhinal cortex and the CA1 region of the hippocampus. We showed that some grid fields are locally distorted toward goal location, leading to the degradation of the regular grid pattern. Thus grid cells, like CA1 place cells, may contribute to goal representation during learning. This demonstrates that the grid code goes beyond simple metrics.

Time: 25 July 2016, 2pm

Venue:Room 305,  26 Bedford Way, WC1H 0AP