RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Spatial reasoning via recurrent neural dynamics in mouse retrosplenial cortex
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.04.12.488024
DO 10.1101/2022.04.12.488024
A1 Jakob Voigts
A1 Ingmar Kanitscheider
A1 Nicholas J. Miller
A1 Enrique H.S. Toloza
A1 Jonathan P. Newman
A1 Ila R. Fiete
A1 Mark T. Harnett
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/04/13/2022.04.12.488024.abstract
AB From visual perception to language, sensory stimuli change their meaning depending on prior experience. Recurrent neural dynamics can interpret stimuli based on externally cued context, but it is unknown whether similar dynamics can compute and employ internal hypotheses to resolve ambiguities. Here, we show that mouse retrosplenial cortex (RSC) can form hypotheses over time and perform spatial reasoning through recurrent dynamics. In our task, mice navigated using ambiguous landmarks that are identified through their mutual spatial relationship, requiring sequential refinement of hypotheses. Neurons in RSC and in artificial neural networks encoded mixtures of hypotheses, location, and sensory information, and were constrained by robust low dimensional dynamics. RSC encoded hypotheses as locations in activity space with divergent trajectories for identical sensory inputs, enabling their correct interpretation. Our results indicate that interactions between internal hypotheses and external sensory data in recurrent circuits can provide a substrate for complex sequential cognitive reasoning.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.