RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Mental navigation and telekinesis with a hippocampal map-based brain-machine interface
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2023.04.07.536077
DO 10.1101/2023.04.07.536077
A1 Chongxi Lai
A1 Shinsuke Tanaka
A1 Timothy D. Harris
A1 Albert K. Lee
YR 2023
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/04/10/2023.04.07.536077.abstract
AB The hippocampus is critical for recollecting and imagining experiences. This is believed to involve voluntarily drawing from hippocampal memory representations of people, events, and places, including the hippocampus’ map-like representations of familiar environments. However, whether the representations in such “cognitive maps” can be volitionally and selectively accessed is unknown. We developed a brain-machine interface to test if rats could control their hippocampal activity in a flexible, goal-directed, model-based manner. We show that rats can efficiently navigate or direct objects to arbitrary goal locations within a virtual reality arena solely by activating and sustaining appropriate hippocampal representations of remote places. This should provide insight into the mechanisms underlying episodic memory recall, mental simulation/planning, and imagination, and open up possibilities for high-level neural prosthetics utilizing hippocampal representations.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.