Neuron firing map (top row) and spatial maps of grid cell firing in control (middle, bottom rows) with no neuronal inactivation (left column) inactivation with lidocaine (middle column), and recovery post-lidocaine (right column). SHAWN WINTER, BENJAMIN CLARK, DARTMOUTH COLLEGEForming a network that’s known as the brain’s “inner GPS,” neurons called grid cells help rodents and humans navigate. Now, by studying rats, researchers at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire have found that these neurons receive spatial information from head direction cells in the thalamus. Theirs are the first experimental results demonstrating that the flow of information from head direction cells to grid cells is important for grid cell functioning. The results, published today (February 5) in Science, confirm predictions previously generated using computational models.
While it was known that grid cells may need input from place cells in the hippocampus, it was not known whether head direction cells supported grid cell function. “These experiments now show a strong link between the head direction and the grid cells,” said Stefan Leutgeb, a neurobiologist at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved in the work.
“The findings are expected but still important in that they verify core ideas of current models of how grid cell patterns are generated and maintained,” Edvard Moser of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), who—along with his wife, May-Britt, also of NTNU, and John O’Keefe of University College London—won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on ...
