RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Grid cells encode local head direction
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 681312
DO 10.1101/681312
A1 Klara Gerlei
A1 Jessica Passlack
A1 Ian Hawes
A1 Brianna Vandrey
A1 Holly Stevens
A1 Ioannis Papastathopoulos
A1 Matthew F. Nolan
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/02/27/681312.abstract
AB Grid and head direction codes represent cognitive spaces for navigation and memory. Pure grid cells generate grid codes that have been assumed to be independent of head direction, whereas conjunctive cells generate grid representations that are tuned to a single head direction. Here, we demonstrate that pure grid cells also encode head direction, but through distinct mechanisms. We show that individual firing fields of pure grid cells are tuned to multiple head directions, with the preferred sets of directions differing between fields. This local directionality is not predicted by previous continuous attractor or oscillatory interference models of grid firing but is accounted for by models in which pure grid cells integrate inputs from co-aligned conjunctive cells with firing rates that differ between their fields. Local directional signals from grid cells may contribute to downstream computations by decorrelating different points of view from the same location.