Spatial Cognition: Hippocampus

Question 1

What kind of memory is the hippocampus heavily associated with?

Answer 1

episodic

Question 2

What two other parts of the brain work with the basal ganglia?

Answer 2

hippocampus and cerebellum

Question 3

What are the three ways that the basal ganglia, hippocampus, and cerebellum spread information?

Answer 3

convergence, divergence, and segregation

Question 4

Name the three nuclei that form the hippocampus

Answer 4

1. DG
2. CA1
3. CA3

Question 5

What is the concept of reentry?

Answer 5

projecting back into the source from which its module gets its info

Question 6

What is frame of reference?

Answer 6

understanding what relationship is the spatial area considered

Question 7

What role does the cortex have in relation to the hippocampus, basal ganglia, and cerebellum?

Answer 7

-takes the information, throws it at these structures and sees how they interpret it (separately)

Question 8

CA1 cells are far ______ (less/more) likely to synapse upon other CA1 neurons

Answer 8

less

Question 9

What are the ways in which the brain understands depth perception?

Answer 9

1. motion parallax
2. texture gradient
3. occlusion
4. retinal disparity (stereopsis)

Question 10

What does the entorhinal cortex do?

Answer 10

maps out space in a particular way

Question 11

What are the 3 ways mammalian brains accomplish mapping?

Answer 11

1. head direction cells
2. grid cells
3. place cells

Question 12

What is an egocentric frame of reference?

Answer 12

• has to do more with the self

- not focused on the environment, mainly on the organism

Question 13

What is an arbitrary frame of reference?

Answer 13

frames of reference that have to do with the environment

Question 14

Indicate whether the following frame of references are an example of egocentric or arbitrary frame of reference:

object centered:
eye position:
route-centered:

Answer 14

object centered: arbitrary

eye position: egocentric

route-centered: arbitrary

Question 15

Which structure of the brain contain all three cells that play a role in spatial cognition, namely head-direction cells, grid cells, and place cells?

Answer 15

Entorhinal cortex

Question 16

_______ are cells whose firing is tuned to the orientation of the animal’s head relative to the boundaries of the environment.

Answer 16

Head direction cells

Question 17

The direction in which a specific-head direction neuron fires most relative to other directions is known as its __________.

Answer 17

preferred firing direction

Question 18

All head direction cells have the same preferred direction. (True/False)

Answer 18

False

Question 19

Which cells play role in mapping position in environment by path integration?

Answer 19

Grid cells

Question 20

Grid cells in the entorhinal cortex exhibit multiple firing fields in any given environment. These fields are arranged in a particular structure, known as _________.

Answer 20

tesselated triangles

Question 21

_______ are cells whose firing is tuned to the position of the animal in the environment.

Answer 21

Place cells

Question 22

Which structure(s) are place cells found?

Answer 22

hippocampus

entorhinal cortex

Question 23

For a set of neurons in the hippocampus, firing rates across the full set describe the pattern of activity across the full population. What is this called?

Answer 23

population firing rate vector

Question 24

What are the steps of the trisynaptic circuit?

Answer 24

1. medial and lateral entorhinal cortex sends axons ot the same neurons of the dentate gyrus The information is mixed at the level of the DG
2. The GD projects to the CA3
3. CA3 neurons project to CA1

Question 25

What information does CA3 combine?

Answer 25

information from entorhinal input and DG output (Which has processed entorhinal input)

Question 26

What are conjuctive cells?

Answer 26

cells that respond to the grid direction and the head direction (respond only when going a particular direction through grid space)

Question 27

Where are conjuctive cells found?

Answer 27

entorhinal cortex

Question 28

What pathway does the EC medial receive inputs and sends outputs to and from?

Answer 28

neocortex “where pathway”

Question 29

What pathway does the EC lateral receive inputs and sends outputs to and from?

Answer 29

neocortex “what pathway”