PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - D. Mao
AU  - E. Avila
AU  - B. Caziot
AU  - J. Laurens
AU  - J.D. Dickman
AU  - D.E. Angelaki
TI  - Spatial modulation of hippocampal activity in freely moving macaques
AID  - 10.1101/2020.10.03.324848
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.10.03.324848
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/04/22/2020.10.03.324848.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/04/22/2020.10.03.324848.full
AB  - The hippocampal formation is linked to spatial navigation, but there is little corroboration from freely-moving primates with concurrent monitoring of three-dimensional head and gaze stances. We recorded neurons and local field potentials across hippocampal regions in rhesus macaques during free foraging in an open environment while tracking their head and eye. Theta band activity was intermittently present at movement onset and modulated by saccades. Many cells were phase-locked to theta, with few showing theta phase precession. Most hippocampal neurons encoded a mixture of spatial variables beyond place fields and a negligible number showed prominent grid tuning. Spatial representations were dominated by facing location and allocentric direction, mostly in head, rather than gaze, coordinates. Importantly, eye movements strongly modulated neural activity in all regions. These findings reveal that the macaque hippocampal formation represents three-dimensional space using a multiplexed code, with head orientation and eye movement properties dominating over simple place and grid coding during free exploration.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.