TY - JOUR
T1 - Spatial response properties of homing pigeon hippocampal neurons
T2 - Correlations with goal locations, movement between goals, and environmental context in a radial-arm arena
AU - Hough, Gerald E.
AU - Bingman, Verner P.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements The authors thank Meghan Kahn for assistance in all aspects of this study, Doug Nitz for data analysis assistance and contributions to the Matlab programming, and Jennifer J. Siegel for methodological discussions. This study was supported by NSF grant IBN0075891 to V.P.B. All procedures were performed under an approved protocol by BGSU’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and complied with the Principles of animal care publication no. 86-23, revised 1985 of the National Institutes of Health and also with current US law on the use of vertebrate animals.
PY - 2004/12
Y1 - 2004/12
N2 - The amniote hippocampal formation plays an evolutionarily-conserved role in the neural representation of environmental space. However, species differences in spatial ecology nurture the expectation of species differences in how hippocampal neurons represent space. To determine the spatial response properties of homing pigeon (Columba livid) HFneurons, we recorded from isolated units in birds freely navigating a radial arena in search of food present at four goal locations. Fifty of 76 neurons displayed firing rate variations that could be placed into three response categories. Location cells (N = 25) displayed higher firing rates at restricted locations in the arena space, often in proximity to goal locations. Path cells (N = 13) displayed higher firing rates as a pigeon moved between a subset of goal locations. Arena-off cells (N = 12) were more active when a pigeon was in a baseline holding space compared to inside the arena. Overall, reliability and coherence scores of the recorded neurons were lower compared to rat place cells. The differences in the spatial response profiles of pigeon hippocampal formation neurons, when compared to rats, provide a departure point for better understanding the relationship between spatial behavior and how hippocampal formation neurons participate in the representation of space.
AB - The amniote hippocampal formation plays an evolutionarily-conserved role in the neural representation of environmental space. However, species differences in spatial ecology nurture the expectation of species differences in how hippocampal neurons represent space. To determine the spatial response properties of homing pigeon (Columba livid) HFneurons, we recorded from isolated units in birds freely navigating a radial arena in search of food present at four goal locations. Fifty of 76 neurons displayed firing rate variations that could be placed into three response categories. Location cells (N = 25) displayed higher firing rates at restricted locations in the arena space, often in proximity to goal locations. Path cells (N = 13) displayed higher firing rates as a pigeon moved between a subset of goal locations. Arena-off cells (N = 12) were more active when a pigeon was in a baseline holding space compared to inside the arena. Overall, reliability and coherence scores of the recorded neurons were lower compared to rat place cells. The differences in the spatial response profiles of pigeon hippocampal formation neurons, when compared to rats, provide a departure point for better understanding the relationship between spatial behavior and how hippocampal formation neurons participate in the representation of space.
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U2 - 10.1007/s00359-004-0562-z
DO - 10.1007/s00359-004-0562-z
M3 - Article
C2 - 15449093
AN - SCOPUS:11844295465
SN - 0340-7594
VL - 190
SP - 1047
EP - 1062
JO - Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology
JF - Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology
IS - 12
ER -