Hippocampus and Space

Question 1

What are the components of the hippocampus?

Answer 1

Dentate gyrus
Hippocampus proper (CA1, CA2, CA3)
Subiculum

Question 2

What are the areas of the perforant pathway?

Answer 2

Dentate gyrus - CA3 - CA1 - subiculum

Question 3

Where does the hippocampus receive cholinergic input from and what is the role of this input?

Answer 3

Medial septum-

Hippocampal subcomponent firing in unison - theta waves - coordinates activity

Question 4

Which brain area is key for allocentric spatial memory?

Answer 4

Hippocampus

Question 5

Which brain area is key for egocentric spatial memory?

Answer 5

Parietal cortex

Question 6

In which areas of the hippocampus are place cells found?

Answer 6

CA1

CA3

Question 7

What is allothetic navigation and which type of cues does it require?

Answer 7

Navigation supported by external cues

Landmark cues - external to body - e.g. visual, tactile, olfactory

Question 8

What is idiothetic navigation (path integration) and which type of cues does it require?

Answer 8

Navigation without external cues

Self-motion cues - internal to body - e.g. vestibular, proprioceptive

Question 9

What is the boundary vector cell (BVC) model of place cell firing?

Answer 9

BVCs fire at specific direction and distance from boundary - allocentric
Place cells sum inputs from multiple BVCs
Different BVCs have different boundary direction preference - creates place fields

Question 10

Where are boundary vector cells found?

Answer 10

Entorhinal cortex

Subiculum

Question 11

What do place cells use to identify body location?

Answer 11

Sensory input - visual,  olfactory, tactile
Distance
Self-motion stimuli
Environment geometry
Cue configuration

Question 12

When does place cell firing correspond to peak of theta wave?

Answer 12

When animal outside place field

Question 13

When does place cell firing correspond to trough of theta wave?

Answer 13

When animal in place field

Question 14

Which type of location-related cells are found in the primate (including human) hippocampus?

Answer 14

Place cells

Spatial view cells

Question 15

When do head direction cells fire?

Answer 15

When animal points head in specific direction

Question 16

Which type of cell updates head direction cell network activity?

Answer 16

Angular head velocity cell

Question 17

What is the effect of increasing angular speed of angular head velocity cells?

Answer 17

Increases firing rate

Question 18

Where are grid cells located?

Answer 18

Entorhinal cortex

Question 19

What do grid cells encode?

Answer 19

Distance travelled

Question 20

Do grid cells use idiothetic or allothetic information?

Answer 20

Both

Question 21

What is the oscillatory interference model of grid cell generation?

Answer 21

Grid cell field due to superimposition of 2 oscillations - fixed theta frequency - and other intrinsic to cell (slightly faster)
Creates interference pattern
Summation of oscillations
Grid cell firing at peaks of total oscillation

Question 22

What is the hierarchy of spatial cells from foundational to most-dependent on other spatial cells?

Answer 22

HDCs
PCs
GCs